Book Review of Down Among the Sticks and Bones 4/5

Another intriguing adventure from one of my favorite authors.

Welcome!

First: I’m a huge fan of Seanan McGuire. I was swept away by her ‘October Daye’ series years ago and that was that.. I was a goner.
I’ve read many of her books since then, including a couple under the pseudonym ‘Mira Grant’, and she’s easily one of my top three favorite authors.

I’m happy to say that this book was many things.. but it did not disappoint.
So if you’re looking for incredible writing, fascinating characters, and a story that will grip you from start to finish?
Look no further.

Forewarning: This book contains some really crappy parenting, questionable life choices, girls who love girls, murder, and an angry mob.

Enjoy!

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Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Publication date: June 13, 2017
Pages: 190
Genre: Gothic Fiction, LGBTQ, Fairy Tale Fantasy
Book 2 of 8: Wayward Children

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

Neither Chester, nor Serena, found themselves interested in the idea of having a child.
Chester, who prefers silence and a strict routine, knew children would only destroy that peacefulness. And Serena, who loved her gardening and cleanliness, saw no reason to have such messy little people crushing her flowers and dirtying her home.
But both soon become envious of their peers and the attention their well behaved boys and sweet little girls garner such undeserved attention. Imagine the jealousy a child of their own would cause..
Chester would have a son to impress his bosses, Serena, a beautiful daughter the ladies in her social circle would fawn over.

That is how the Wolcott’s come to find themselves less than thrilled with, and woefully unprepared for, the birth of twin girls, Jacqueline (never Jack) and Jillian.

Four Stars!

Characters: Believable. Intriguing.
Pace: Quick.
Storyline: Choppy. Unique. Intriguing.
Writing: Wonderful. Compelling. Descriptive.
Cover: 4/5

POVs
Four: Chester and Serena. Jack and Jill.

First things first: These poor kids have terrible, self-absorbed a**holes for parents.
Seriously.

Serena and Chester Wolcott had fallen prey to the dangerous allure of other people’s children. They would learn the error of their ways soon enough. People like them always did.

After the twins are born and their almost constant crying destroys any chance Chester and Serena have for peace, Chester finally gives in and calls his mother. Louise, deemed ‘impractical’ for being an openly emotional woman, is exactly what those children need in such a cold and strict environment.

For the next five years, Louise raises the girls with love and stories. the only gentle comfort against Chester and Serena’s expectations.

It can be easy, in the end, to forget that children are people, and that people will do what people will do, the consequences be damned.

The twins are raised in the image their parents have chosen, each girl shaped into a child that would bring pride to the family, and jealousy from other parents. One is taught that young girls should be pretty little dolls that stay clean and say little.
The other is raised to replace the boy her father didn’t get.
By the time they turn twelve the girls have grown to resent each other.. both wanting more than the small, suffocating lives they lead.

It was an uncomfortable thing, feeling like their parents weren’t doing what was best for them; like this house, this vast, perfectly organized house, with its clean, artfully decorated rooms, was pressing the life out of them one inch at a time.

On a bleak and rainy day, Jillian’s boredom sees them sneaking into the attic, their grandmother’s old room before she quit loving them and went away, or so they’d been told. On this day, however, the trunk she left behind for them full of dress up clothes and props for play is empty but for a dark staircase descending down, down, down..

Had their grandmother been allowed to stay, they might known from fairy tales how very dangerous it is to step through strange doorways.. But the sister’s did not know of fairy tales and the dark warnings they contain, and so they step through the trunk and into the beginning of a story all their own.

Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world.

My Thoughts:

This book was nothing like I expected and that’s my own fault.
After reading the first book in this series, Every Heart a Doorway, I assumed we would be moving forward with that storyline when, instead, we take a slight step to the left and are thrust into the beginning of two of the more interesting “side characters” (Jacqueline and Jillian’s) story.

Unlike in the first book where we’re introduced to the children after they’ve returned “home” and have been sent to the School for Wayward Children.. Here we get to observe them as they make the first steps through their door and into a dark, strange new world.

There was a door. It was small, and plain, and made of rough, untreated pine. A sign hung at adult eye level. BE SURE, it said, in letters that looked like they had been branded into the wood.
“Be sure of what?” asked Jillian.
“Be sure that we want to see what’s on the other side, I guess,” said Jacqueline.

Separated by an agreement between two strangers almost right away, Jill stays with a dangerous, powerful man.. who may just be a monster.
And Jack? Jack follows the stern scientist who’s questionable experiments bring the dead back to life. (And as much as I would love to discuss these two intriguing characters more.. I wouldn’t want to muddle anything in the story by revealing too much.)

Essentially though, each girl chooses a path opposite of what their parents had designed for them.

There are moments that change everything, and once things have been changed, they do not change back. The butterfly may never again become a caterpillar. The vampire’s daughter, the mad scientist’s apprentice, they will never again be the innocent, untouched children who wandered down a stairway, who went through a door.
They have been changed.
The story changes with them.

The way these two accepted their new lives so easily was odd to me.. and it wasn’t. They had been raised by their parents to follow without question, and that’s made obvious very early on in the book but, I think it was the general lack of fear that really confused me. Shouldn’t two little girls have been more afraid? But I guess it was an easy thing for me to overlook, as that is the way of fairy tales, isn’t it?

This book was a quick read, a bit grey, and overall entertaining.. I did leave a lot out of this review (no really.. there’s an awful lot of story here for such a short book) in an attempt to prevent too many spoilers so there’s plenty more to explore without my opinions fudging things up.

The writing was (as always) wonderful and is easily Seanan McGuire’s greatest strength.. Not that the characters and worlds she creates aren’t deeply interesting and highly unique, I mean, anyone who can think up and create a world where Jack and Jill become the adopted children of a reimagined Dracula and Frankenstein is fcking brilliant in my book. Curiosity alone had me invested.. but it’s the writing for me. Every time.

Would I recommend checking this one out? Definitely.
(You could, technically, read it as a standalone but I would suggest starting with the first book, Every Heart a Doorway, first.)

I, myself, am very excited to see what McGuire comes up with next in this series.

Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you enjoyed this review or found it helpful in some way..
If it comes off as a bit messy, forgive me, I’ve a bit of a head cold and it has me more scatter-brained than I like.

Stay safe, Be well, and Happy reading!

Have you read this series? What did you think?