Scan barcode
A review by proudtobeabookaholic
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
"Some adventures begin easily. It is not HARD, after all, to be sucked up by a tornado or pushed through a particularly porous mirror; there is no skill involved in being swept away by a great wave or pulled down a rabbit hole. Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world."
Twin sisters Jack and Jill ended up at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children when they were 17 years old, but what happened before that? Their parents shaped them after their own ideals and never saw them as actual people. Jacqueline became her mother's perfect daughter: polite and quiet, always in beautiful dresses she's not allowed to get dirty. Jillian became her father’s perfect daughter: adventurous and brave, always playing with boys. Identical in appearance, total opposites in personality. When the girls were twelve they found a staircase at the bottom of a trunk...
We got to know Jack and Jill in the first book, "Every Heart a Doorway", and here we get their whole story, both their (rather tragic) childhood and their adventure in another world. I now understand them better, but I would have liked to read their parts in the first book again! It also gave me a better understanding about what’s behind those doors everybody seems to want to find again. The girl's upbringing almost made me shiver - and see that there are different forms of child abuse.
"Like bonsai being trained into shape by an assidious gardener, they were growing into the geometry of the parents' desires, and it was pushing them further and further away from each other. One day, perhaps, one of them would reach across the gulf and find that there was no one there."
It's really sad that the sisters' animosity towards each other follow them through the door to The Moors, even though in a slightly different way than expected. Now I'm curious to see what the next book has to offer!
Twin sisters Jack and Jill ended up at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children when they were 17 years old, but what happened before that? Their parents shaped them after their own ideals and never saw them as actual people. Jacqueline became her mother's perfect daughter: polite and quiet, always in beautiful dresses she's not allowed to get dirty. Jillian became her father’s perfect daughter: adventurous and brave, always playing with boys. Identical in appearance, total opposites in personality. When the girls were twelve they found a staircase at the bottom of a trunk...
We got to know Jack and Jill in the first book, "Every Heart a Doorway", and here we get their whole story, both their (rather tragic) childhood and their adventure in another world. I now understand them better, but I would have liked to read their parts in the first book again! It also gave me a better understanding about what’s behind those doors everybody seems to want to find again. The girl's upbringing almost made me shiver - and see that there are different forms of child abuse.
"Like bonsai being trained into shape by an assidious gardener, they were growing into the geometry of the parents' desires, and it was pushing them further and further away from each other. One day, perhaps, one of them would reach across the gulf and find that there was no one there."
It's really sad that the sisters' animosity towards each other follow them through the door to The Moors, even though in a slightly different way than expected. Now I'm curious to see what the next book has to offer!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse