2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
hide

2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
hide

Book Review: Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

“Every choice feeds every choice that comes after, whether we want those choices or no.”

I do NOT know how Seanan McGuire does it – she writes numerous series (as well as individual stand-alone books), each with numerous books/novellas/short stories (that come out with extraordinary frequency), under her own name AND a pseudonym, and each of them feels like it was written by someone different… On top of that, each of them is uniquely strong in its distinct category. She must never sleep!

This series intrigued me SO much: I loved the concept and couldn’t wait to read the first book (Every Heart a Doorway). I was a little disappointed – it felt like there were a lot of loose ends and half-explanations, which is somewhat unusual for the start of a series, particularly by a talented series writer. Then I read this second installment. So much is starting to come together already, and this is only book two. I sort of wish I’d read this one first; I have requested the EHaD from my local library so I can reread it, but from what I remember, this one might have been a better start to the series in a logical sense, even if EHaD was an infinitely better choice in a “pull you in by setting out the premise” one… Regardless, reading both together fleshes things out a lot and really pulled me into the series such that I cannot wait for the next book to come out, because there are so many directions that she can go and also because now I know that I should trust her choices because the stories will, eventually, come full circle.

The story of Jack and Jill – AND that of Jacqueline and Jillian – is dark, twisty, tragic, and full of dark, don’t-look-back magic that flows over and through the pages like the mist over the book’s Moors… These are Grimm-type childhoods; you should expect no less from McGuire. Knowing that doesn’t in any way lessen the shock of reading the tales though; rather, it allows you to savor the darkness, rolling it on your tongue like summer wine. This series is full of decadence and consequences, and both are often completely – and disconcertingly – disproportional. The reading, however, is always a thoroughly proportional delight.

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>