Book Review: Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2) by Seanan McGuire

Book: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Series: Wayward Children book 2
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: YA Fantasy, Horror

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.

My Rating: 4/5 STARS

My Review:

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is about Jack and Jill and shows their journey of how they became lost in their world and what happened to them while they were there.

I liked this book just as much as the first.  I really enjoyed seeing how Jack and Jill became the way they were.  I felt more connected to Jack and Jill than Nancy (the mc of the first book) and I think the reason for that was mainly because we got to see Jack and Jill in their world and got to see it from their eyes, from the moment they entered it until the moment they left.  We really got to experience just how creepy the world was.

While I was reading I kept picturing the Halloween town from The Nightmare Before Christmas movie because that was the atmospheric vibe it gave off.  I liked a lot of the new characters introduced and I really wanted to read more about them especially Dr Bleak.

It was interesting to read about the different lives each girl lived, both in the real world and in the world they stumbled upon.  The way their parents treated them throughout their childhood was sad to read.  The writing was still as captivating and I loved it, you just can't help but get sucked into a story with this kind of writing.  

Overall I really liked Down Among the Sticks and Bones.  Even though the first book was dark, I really felt the storyline of this book had an even more dark and creepier edge to it than the first.