Title
Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children Book #2)
Author
Hi! I’m Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I’m also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.
Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).
Connect with Seanan on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram.
Book Details
Publication Date: June 13, 2017
Publisher: Tour.com
ISBN: 9780765392039
Book Description
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.
My Thoughts & Takeaways
There are worlds built on rainbows and worlds built on rain. There are worlds of pure mathematics, where every number chimes like crystal as it rolls into reality. There are worlds of light and worlds of darkness, worlds of rhyme and worlds of reason, and worlds where the only thing that matters is the goodness in a hero’s heart. The Moors are none of those things.
In the first Wayward Children book, Every Heart a Doorway, we were introduced to Miss West’s Home for Wayward Children, where children are given a safe place to recover from their otherworldly experiences. All of these children have somehow visited different lands – of all different varieties. The common denominator? They’ve all been forced to return “home.”
In the second book, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, we get to explore the origin story of Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill are twin sisters who were introduced in book one. In this book, we learn how the two grew up, how they found their door, and what their world is like.
Jacqueline and Jillian (as they were named at birth) are born to people who are good parents in terms of providing them a home, but terrible parents in terms of how they force their own wants and desires on them. Each of the parents molds one of the daughters into what they want with no care or regard for who they really are.
The Moors allow them to be who they really are deep inside.
I loved this second book! It’s darker and grungier than in the first book. And, while, The Moors, sound frightening, they also sound exciting. Think Frankenstein, Dracula, and the like. Good ole gothic fiction.
Read my review for the third book in the series now, Beneath the Sugar Sky.
Favorite Quotes
“She had tried to make sure they knew that there were a hundred, a thousand, a million different ways to be a girl, and that all of them were valid, and that neither of them was doing anything wrong.“
“Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world.“
“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.“
“The trouble with denying children the freedom to be themselves—with forcing them into an idea of what they should be, not allowing them to choose their own paths—is that all too often, the one drawing the design knows nothing of the desires of their model.“
“Children have preferences. The danger comes when they, as with any human, are denied those preferences for too long.“
