Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Seanan McGuire)

Down Among the Sticks and Bones
(The Wayward Children series, Book 2)
Seanan McGuire
Tor
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: Once upon a time, twin daughters Jacqueline and Jillian were born to a man and woman who perhaps never should have been parents. They created boxes to place the girls in - Jill designated the tomboy to appease a man who wanted a son, Jack placed in ribbons and lace for a mother who saw a daughter as a vanity doll - and did not care how much it hurt them to be squeezed into shape... or how it might threaten what little bond there was between them.
One day, when they were twelve and already growing into the shapes prescribed for them, they found a strange staircase in the bottom of a trunk in the attic. Had they been raised in a family where fairy tales were told and books read, they might have known to be more cautious about exploring strange passageways - but no fairy tale could've prepared them for the Moors. Here, in a bleak land under a ruby-red moon, where monsters walk and swim and prey upon the humans who manage to survive (as often as not under the fickle protection of a predator), the girls may finally learn who they really are, and what it means to choose their own path: Jack becomes apprentice to a mad scientist, Jill the protege to the vampire overlord of the local town, and the passing years see them grow further apart. But they are still twins, of the same blood and bone, which means their fates will always be bound - if not as friends, then as enemies.

REVIEW: The second book of the Wayward Children series follows the backstory of Jack and Jill, two girls from Eleanor West's boarding school for children who had been to magical worlds and returned to Earth. Like the first book, an almost lyrical narrative creates the feel of a fable or fairy tale, if a rather dark one. From before their conception, the twins were destined to lead harsh lives, largely bereft of love and understanding, even between each other. That twisted upbringing comes to morbid life in the world of the Moors. Without knowing the events in the first book of the series (Every Heart a Doorway), the ending would be extra-bleak... and even then, it's a bitter story of the harm ultimately wrought by parents who see their children as mere extensions of their own ambitions, not people who may need guidance, but ultimately have their own lives to live and lessons to learn. There's a certain bleak, compelling beauty to this story, which can be read as a stand-alone but has extra weight if you've read the first book in the series.

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