Skeleton Song
The Wayward Children series, Story 7.7
Seanan McGuire
Tor
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the world of Mariposa, days belong to the butterflies and bees and bright flowers, while the nights are the realm of the skeleton people, revived and maintained by the song of the world until dawn, when they rest again in their catacomb beds underground. The human boy Christopher came to Mariposa through a door from the hospital where he lay dying of bone cancer, but the Princess used her magic to save him. They fell in love. But she's a skeleton girl and he's a boy of living, hideous flesh, from another world no less... can they ever be together, or will the doors tear them apart again?
This short story is part of the Wayward Children series.
REVIEW: Like all children and teens at Eleanor West's boarding school for former world-travelers, Christopher's backstory has been teased and hinted at, as he speaks of his beloved Skeleton Girl and plays silent tunes on his bone flute that make bones dance. This short story delves into his time in Mariposa, and like all stories of the lost worlds beyond the doors, it's a tale of wonder and sorrow and deep, inevitable loss. Mariposa is a world of golden light and brilliant butterflies and endless song, where death is a celebration and life a bad memory quickly forgotten. Despite the prejudices of the skeletons and his status as an outsider, Christopher truly does love the world and the Princess, and she loves him. They wish to marry, but first they must speak to the King and Queen deep in the catacombs, where they will learn if their union is even possible; even if he were to die naturally, none of the skeleton people remember their living selves, so Christopher's reborn skeleton may be an entirely different person. Always, though, there's the threat of another door that might whisk him back to Earth.
It's interesting and beautiful and sad by turns, though it's ultimately just a little vignette, a glimpse at another world lost and soul torn by the seemingly fickle doors, and doesn't tell the reader anything they hadn't already been told (or could infer).
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The Divide (Elizabeth Kay) - My Review
Under the Whispering Door (TJ Klune) - My Review
Every Heart a Doorway (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
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