I love a good gothic setting, and the characters who dwell in The Moors were far more interesting than the often irritating teenagers living at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book more than Every Heart a Doorway. And they discover that there are consequences for their choices. Here, in this fearful land watched over by a blood red moon, the girls begin to make choices for themselves. The stairs took them to The Moors, a gothic fantasy land peopled by vampires, werewolves, eldritch gods in the sea, and mad scientists. They lived restricted lives until one day, when they were twelve years old, they found a staircase in the bottom of a trunk in the attic. Jacqueline, the tomboy, served as the son her father did not get, and Jillian was the pretty princess who was never, ever allowed to get dirty. Born to parents who were very aware of their social situation and who wanted children to get the same social points and adulation their peers received, Jacqueline and Jillian were not allowed to choose anything about their lives. This is the story of Jack and Jill, characters we meet in the first book, and how they ended up at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue reading, but I’d heard good things about the second book, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, with its gothic setting and figured I would give it a try. I liked the first one, Every Heart a Doorway, well enough but the abrupt ending left me wanting. Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children is a popular series of novellas featuring stories of teenagers sent to a boarding school by parents who don’t know what to do with their children who went missing and came back different.

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. They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you’ve got. Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter-adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy.

If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline. Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter-polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. This is the story of what happened first… Down Among the Sticks and Bones ( Wayward Children #2)īy Seanan McGuire, audiobook narrated by the authorįirst published in June 2017 by MacMillan Audioįrom Goodreads: 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.

Among the sticks and bones