Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2) by Seanan Mcguire #Bookreview

Title: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Series: Wayward Children #2
Author: Seanan Mcguire
Publisher: Tor.com
Published Date: June 13, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Page Count:176
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ .5

Goodreads Summary: 
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. 

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 My Review:

"The dress-up clothes and accessories were gone, all of them, replaced by a winding wooden staircase that descended down, down, down into the darkness."

May Contain Spoilers

Knowing that this was a prequel to Every Heart A Doorway, made me even more interested to see one of my favorite characters again and how she became who she was in in the first book.

In a very short amount of time not only do we grow to love Jack and Jill, but we also get to see how their parents treated them and made the door appear to them.
We see Jack finally has some freedom and can explore things she wants to after she has done her chores, along with still facing, obsessiveness, because of how her mother made her act.

"As you cannot dissect, resurrect, or otherwise scientifically trouble the sea, leave it alone, apprentice."

We see Jill turns from being a tomboy, into a "princess" who has some major anger/jealousy problems.

"The idea of telling the truth was simply untenable. It would be tantamount to admitting failure. "

Both girls are in the same scary world but living very different lives. Lives that no one their thought they would choose. The side characters and the men (Dr.Bleak and Master) who are guiding the girls were so interesting to learn more about, after having heard about them in the first book.

"Time is the alchemy that turns compassion into love, Jill and Dr. Bleak had never had any time."

While this can be read as a standalone, already knowing who the characters were and who they had become, really made me love this book even more. I have no idea how McGuire does is, but she manages to pack such a big world into a small book and it is just truly amazing to me.
  I can't believe that we have to wait until at least January 2018 to read the next book!