Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5/5 cats
this woman….
according to miranda, between her two author-personas; Seanan McGuire and Mira Grant, this woman has SIX books coming out in 2017. which is crazy. and some of them, like this one, are on the short side, but they are in no way flimsy, tossed-off sketches. the amount of thick detail and lingering emotional resonance here’ll make your head spin.
‘cuz while this one may be short, it sure ain’t sweet.
i mean, it’s sweet in the “OH MY GOD, MY HEART IS BREAKING” way that appeals to me as a reader, but it isn’t a sugar and spice fairytale – this one’s got teeth for miles.
it takes place before the events of Every Heart a Doorway, and tells of the circumstances that brought jack and jill to eleanor west’s home for wayward children. fans of that book already know the basic outline of their journey, but here we get the entire story in all its blood-soaked majesty.
like most of her work, this is both an excellently-built story that entertains, but it also delivers a serious message it its focus on issues of identity – from the familial and personal to identities based in gender or sexuality; what is imposed, what is chosen, what is inherent. there’s maybe a smidgen too much of a preachifying tone to this exploration here, and it’s drilled in a bit too hard and often for such a short piece, but it’s interesting and important enough to bear repeating for people who don’t get it the first time, and repetition is a genre standard of the fairytale, so it’s not wholly off-putting, even if it does obstruct the narrative flow a bit.
apart from that, it’s truly masterful – the way character is shaped by the tyranny of parental expectations and how either submission to or rebellion against these expectations informs future choices and values, the bone-deep loyalty of sisters despite diverging paths, first love, loss, jealousy; everything that makes a person tick, where each of those ticks signifies the bomb’s inevitable explosion.
it’s a perfect follow-up to Every Heart a Doorway, and it’s maybe a vegetable-peeling’s width less awesome, but it’s a welcome explanation of these characters’ backstory and could absolutely work as a standalone story. however, if you haven’t read every heart, you’re really missing out on something special.
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OH MY GOD COVER REVEAL IS SPECTACULAR!!!
