Down Among the Sticks and Bones

- Seanan McGuire

Albany, WA

November 28, 2022

GOODREADS BOOK BLURB:

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you’ve got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

SERIES / GENRES:

FIRST WORDS:

People who knew Chester and Serena Wolcott socially would have placed money on the idea that the couple would never choose to have children.

MY REVIEW:

almost perfect:

☆☆☆☆☆ 4.5/5

I love Seanan McGuire. This series (so far) is so beautifully written. The books are the perfect length to get a feel for the world and the characters and leave you wanting more. Even knowing what happens after the end of Down Among the Sticks and Stones, since it’s mostly recounted in Every Heart a Doorway, I almost want to go back and reread it already.

The moon is the friendliest of the celestial bodies, after all, glowing warm and white and welcoming, like a friend who wants only to know that all of us are safe in our narrow worlds, our narrow yards, our narrow, well-considered lives. The moon worries. We may not know how we know that, but we know it all the same: that the moon watches, and the moon worries, and the moon will always love us, no matter what.

I love that this series is not chronological. I love that I have no idea what will happen in the next book or even who it will be about. I love the language and the atmosphere and the narration. Will I love a book set in a Nonsense world? It seems unlikely, but if anyone could do it, it would be McGuire.

They had two daughters: they had two girls to mold into whatever they desired. The thought that they might be harming them by forcing them into narrow ideas of what a girl—of what a person—should be had never crossed their minds.

I am fascinated by how detailed this story felt while covering an incredible amount of time. I feel like I witnessed every moment of those five years, even though the book was under 200 pages long. I love that the story hints at the direction it could have taken if different choices had been made. It makes the entire book feel very active and fluid and like an adventure.

I’m very excited to read the next book in this series and find out what happens next! Or before? Honestly, it could go either way, and I will be totally on board.

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