Down Among the Sticks and Bones

by Seanan McGuire

187 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2017 by Tom Doherty Associates.

ISBN:: 978-0-7653-9203-9
OCLC Number:: 957021154

(72 reviews)

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 ... 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.

3 editions

patchworkbunny reviewed Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, #2)

Review of 'Down Among the Sticks and Bones' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I enjoyed Every Heart a Doorway for the way it explored portal fantasy tropes but it only went so far, what with a whole host of characters packed into a novella. This is why Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the better book, because is takes just one of those stories and tells it fully. It is the backstory of Jack and Jill (or Jacqueline and Jillian) and is standalone (although I think if you're going to read both books, start with the first).

At its heart is a cautionary tale for parents. One, children are not accessories or status symbols, and two, you shouldn't force a child to be something they are not. Their high-achieving parents wanted a boy but they got twin girls. Their father encourages Jillian to do boy things and their mother dresses Jacqueline up like a princess. They force more and more gender based restrictions on the girls as they grow, both becoming miserable in their shaped identities.

So yes, let your kids do what they want to do and be who they want to be. When the twins discover a door into another world, they get a chance to be new people despite having to apprentice to a vampire and a mad scientist.

As it's a prequel of sorts, you know that they are cast out of the world where they feel like they belong, so the book has a bittersweet tone throughout. It's no wonder Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children needs to exist, it's so sad.

I love how this series of novellas is structured, a tempting glimpse of other worlds in the first book and then the characters get individual books to explain what happened when they stepped through their portals. The third book is about Rini and Sumi and a confectionery based nonsense world, which I'm looking forward to. I hope there are more books planned in this series too.

mageofmip@books.solarpunk.moe reviewed Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, #2)

Review of 'Down among the sticks and bones' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

4.5/5

I wasn't expecting to like this one more than Every Heart a Doorway, but I did! Jack and Jill weren't my favorite characters from the firs book, so I didn't think I'd be as super sucked into this book as was with EHaD, but I was pleasantly surprised! This leaves me with high hopes for Beneath the Sugar Sky, because Sumi is my favorite character.

unicorndeburgh reviewed Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, #2)

Review of 'Down Among the Sticks and Bones' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I loved this book. I read it after reading "Every Heart a Doorway", which I also loved. This book tells a story from before the events of EHaD. I don't think this book would have resonated as much for me if I hadn't read the first book, first. This is definitely a case of "read the books in the order the author published them, not in internal chronological order."

I'm not a writer, but I think McGuire does some things in how she's written this book that writers are commonly told not to do, yet it works beautifully.

Yashima reviewed Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, #2)

Review of 'Down Among the Sticks and Bones' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I really enjoyed this second installment of the series which tells the story of the twins Jack and Jill that appear in [b: Every Heart a Doorway|25526296|Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)|Seanan McGuire|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1431438555s/25526296.jpg|45313140]. The only thing that I didn't like is that it's been a while since I read the first book and I feel that I now have to re-read it with the new understanding about the twins.

Other than that it is a poignant analysis of what some parents do to their children. And what it does to the children and how childhood shapes forever what they become even if they end up falling into the opposite of what their parents wanted for them.