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Fantasy. Fiction. Mythology. HTML: The fifth installment in New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire's award-winning Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister�??whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice�??back to their home on the Moors. But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome. Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken. Again. The Wayward Children Series Book 1: Every Heart a Doorway Book 2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones Book 3: Beneath the Sugar Sky Book 4: In an Absent Dream Book 5: Come Tumbling Down… (more)
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I can’t really pinpoint why this book didn’t reach whatever diaphanous expectations I had. But I didn’t really get the atmosphere of the Moors again because the story was mostly about Jack’s thoughts and feelings on the situation she found herself in. I wanted more of the world and the creatures and people who inhabit it. I felt like overall, this book took place more in the kid’s heads and it wasn’t wholly successful for me. I also think the ending was anti-climactic.
In all, I’m still glad this story exists and I’m still eager to see what other adventures McGuire brings us on. I’m hoping she continues to let her characters explore more worlds and I’d really love to take a trip through Eleanor West’s doorway! If you like the series, chances are you’ll enjoy this book.
This was a pretty dark story. But that's true of this entire series, so if you've come this far (even if you only read the prequels to this book), you should have some idea of what to expect. Come Tumbling Down engages more directly with what it means to be a monster and about becoming monstrous. As the blurb suggests, there is also a quest, which a band of heroes sets out on. Although Jack's story is the most central in this book, I enjoyed the way in which the narrative jumped around to follow different characters as they stepped into or out of the action. It was Jack's book, but Christopher and Kade and Cora and Sumi were important parts of it, and they all had a little bit of character development.
It seems that this marks the end of Jack's story (for now, anyway), which seems fitting after playing a central role in three books. I have enjoyed the story of Jack and Jill, and I have also enjoyed the ensemble cast nature of this book (and also Beneath the Sugar Sky). Honestly, I will be happy to read either type of story (ensemble or single character focussed) set in the world of the Wayward Children.
If you haven't read any Wayward Children books, I highly recommend them. In particular, I suggest starting with Every Heart A Doorway, both because it's the first book written and also because it's where we first meet Jack and Jill. It's not that Come Tumbling Down doesn't work standing alone... but I don't think it would be as enjoyable without at least some background on the characters and world building.
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
The continuing beauty of McGuire's Wayward Children, apart from her always fantastic narrative, is her inclusiveness with her characters. She makes such an important part of what makes these characters themselves, yet it doesn't feel forced. Sometimes I feel like authors have a checklist that they use to make sure they tick off all the important or proper points to show representation, and while this is needed in so many ways, it still comes off clumsy. McGuire writes her characters with such ease and understanding, it simply feels natural.
There is so much under the surface of Come Tumbling Down: what makes a person uniquely that person, and how devastating it can be when something happens to make that person not feel like themselves, however insignificant it may appear to others; how important it is to have people understand that every single person is unique, and surrounding yourself with people that understand you for who you are can make you so much stronger. It's OK to need help and to ask for it.
These characters are so near and dear to my heart. Sumi is becoming a favorite; her no bullshit view on life hides such a powerful caring for those around her, I think she's become one of the strongest characters in the series. And of course, Jack and Jill... I adore these girls and their crazy duality. I want to always see more of Kade, he's just so interesting to me.
As with all the books in this series, there is an overwhelming sense of hope throughout, but there is always a sense of sadness and loss that underlines this hope. We lose people in our lives, things are taken from us, life takes unexpected turns, but we can still find our way out of that loss.
This will always be the series that I push on my friends. I have reread the entire series before the release of each book next year, so some of the earlier are like dear friends I'm catching up with after a while. Another part of the magic of McGuire's writing: even after multiple readings, these books have not lost any of their magic.
I dearly hope that McGuire can continue writing these stories for years to come. There is so much potential, so many stories, so many characters that I want to learn more about: Kade & Christopher, Sumi's continuing story, more worlds to explore, Eleanor's finally going home. It will be a sad day when these stories come to their close, but it will also have been one hell of an adventure getting there.
When a Door appears in the basement room that used to be Jack's and is now Christopher's he recognizes it as being from the Moors. He doesn't recognize the young woman who steps through, carrying what is either Jack or Jill, either unconscious or dead.
The truth turns out to be more complicated, of course. The body is Jill's body, unconscious. The person inside that body is Jack. The young woman carrying her is Alexis, Jack's lover. Jill, still determined to become a vampire, can't do so in a body that has already died once, so she stole Jack's. Jack's OCD won't let her live indefinitely in Jill's body, especially knowing what Jill has done with it.
Alexis has brought Jack back to the school to get help recovering Jack's own body.
Eleanor West has a Rule: No Quests. Awkward, but rules are meant to be broken, right? Christopher, Cora, Kade, and Sumi let Eleanor know where they're going and head off to the Moors with Alexis and Jack. What follows is an adventure that makes sense in the Moor, and more broadly in the universe of the Wayward Children and the Doors that take them to the worlds that suit them. The Moors, like the other worlds we've seen in this universe, is complex, detailed, and very much lived-in. Jack and her friends need to make hard choices in a complicated situation, and there's little to no chance of them all coming out the other end alive. Yet there's real warmth and friendship and loyalty, and also humor.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
The last time we saw them, Jack was carrying back to the Moors the body of her sister Jill, that she herself had killed (not that death is exactly final there…); now the novella opens on Eleanor West’s Home and the arrival, after a lightning storm, of Alexis (one of the Moors’ dwellers) with an unconscious Jill in her arms - only it’s not exactly Jill, since there has been an exchange of bodies between the two sisters. Jack-as-Jill asks her former schoolmates to follow her to her world and help her regain her body, one of the compelling reasons for it being that otherwise the carefully maintained balance in the Moors will be thoroughly upset.
That’s as much as I feel entitled to share, since both the group’s journey and the quest’s final outcome must be explored without spoilers, so I prefer to concentrate on the story’s main components - and to get it all off my chest right away, I’m sorry to report that Come Tumbling Down ended being something of a disappointment. Don’t misunderstand me, I enjoyed reading it and I still look forward to the next novellas in the series, but in this case - not unlike what happened with Beneath the Sugar Sky - the overall result fell a little short of the mark.
The writing was as good as ever, as was the world-building, but the characterization seemed to lack the in-depth look I’ve come to expect from Seanan McGuire: as was the case with the third novella of the series, this is a choral story and this choice seems to have diluted the strength in characterization that’s typical of this author when she concentrates on one or two individuals only.
The writing style is as mesmerizing as expected, moving from weirdness to gallows humor to drama with seamless transitions, and it’s the true glue that keeps the various elements together. The further look into the world of the Moors is both fascinating and scary: we shift from the dual perspective of the main players - the vampire lord and the mad scientist - to see other parts of the realm, and learn that other kinds of monsters dwell here. The peek into the domain of the Drowned Gods and its human-inhabited village is truly horrifying and it carries some delightfully fearsome Lovecraftian vibes (Innsmouth, anyone? :-) ), that together with the march of resurrected skeletons at the height of the story makes for the highest point of the tale.
The core concept of identity at the root of the series is still strong: the young people at Eleanor West’s academy share a feeling of alienation with our primary world and can find fulfillment and a sense of belonging only by crossing the magical doors leading them to the various alternate worlds they inhabit for a while. Here that quest for identity gains a new layer of meaning: the body exchange perpetrated by Jill and suffered by Jack might not look like such a tragedy from the outside, since they are identical twins, but through Jack’s own words we learn that what we do with out bodies, and how much our minds form connections with them, creates unique bonds that go way beyond simple muscle memory, and whose severing causes intense trauma.
Where all of the above created a strong foundation for the story, the characters felt a little unsubstantial this time: I could not connect emotionally with any of them, not even when some truly horrifying things happened, and what’s worse I’m still puzzling over the need for the whole group to travel to the Moors, since their contribution to Jack’s “mission” was quite minimal, if any, especially during the final showdown - something that happened far too quickly and with the kind of ease that belied Jack’s passionate request for help.
The other major point of contention comes from the concept that in the Moors death is not a permanent state: we go from Frankenstein-like electrically induced revivals, to the unexpected resurrection of people who seemed to tragically lose their lives, and what it all comes down to - at least for me - is the fundamental irrelevance of any dramatic turn of events. Granted, there is always a price to be paid for a return to life (or something approaching it), but in the end it removes personal stakes or any emotional impact attached to the loss of a given character.
While somewhat frustrated by the way this much-looked-for installment turned out, I still hope that the next one will be more in keeping with the series’ overall tone and mood.
You push it
Over
A
Cliff
I devoured it as soon as possible and let me tell you - it did NOT disappoint. Although it didn't beat the 4th book in terms of my favorite in
This story is much darker than the rest, yet in the end I felt so peaceful. Jack and Jill's story ended tragically, of course, but in the best way possible.
As always, Seanan wrote with such beautiful imagery, making this trip back to the Moors one I won't soon forget!
In an attempt to avoid spoilers, I'll leave it at that. 5 stars! Not a bad way to start 2020.
The world is fun as well, this book shows more of that world, and adds in a Lovecraftian vibe with
Jill has managed to swap bodies with the fastidious Jack and so being in a body that hasn't died, can be imortalised by her Master the vampire lord of her part of the Moors world she finds comfortable. Jack fighting revulsion at every moment returns to the School for Wayward children to gather some allies and reclaim her body and humanity before it's too late.
I just didn't care. Not even the Drowned Gods and Cora held my attention and she's my least worsat of the bunch.
I must preface my review saying that it's hard to review the Wayward Children novella series, in particular, because two of the previous volumes were SO GOOD. As in, top-favorite-stories-of-any-length-of-all-time kind of good. Those
Fortunately, I liked this much more that the first part of the story, perhaps in part because it also follows other students from the school as they help Jack save the Moors. The Moors are in a pretty dire condition, too--Jill, fully devoted to her vampire master, has stolen mad-scientist-Jack's body and prepares to become a vampire herself. As a person with OCD, I truly loved and appreciated how McGuire wrote about Jack's situation. Not only is Jack upset at being stuffed in her sister's body (twin or not, it's not hers), but she endures severe OCD; she knows she will lose all functionality if she is not returned to her own body soon.
The novella feels slow to start, due to the amount of back story that must be addressed, but the characters are charming and the action soon picks up as the motley adventurers arrive in the horror realm of the Moors. For me, this didn't deliver the emotional resonance of the two previous volumes that I loved, but it's still a fun, enjoyable read, and a satisfying conclusion for Jack and Jill's story.
(Wayward Children #5)
by Seanan McGuire
I loved this book! Jack is back and in Jill's body! The vampire is going to use Jack's body to turn Jill into a vampire. This is such an awesome story! Jack and her girlfriend show up at the Wayward Home through a doorway and seek help. The
Read these books in order!
Once upon a time a practical monster killed her pretty monster sister to save everyone.
At the end of EVERY HEART A DOORWAY Jack stabbed her
Three times Jack protected and saved her sister, and three times that LOVE proved fatal for others.
Along for this Quest that is not a Quest (just as before with Rini in BENEATH THE SUGAR SKY) are Christopher, Cora, Sumi and Kade.
However our intrepid Wayward Children have all, in some way or another, found themselves at crossroads they didn't wish to be at. Christopher who misses Mariposa more and more with every breath he takes, finds Jack's return disquieting for the new array of traits she kept buried before. Kade is afraid of the future, as his Aunt fades a little more each day and the responsibilities of helping other children with misplaced Doors falls on his uncertain shoulders. Cora finds everyone's easy acceptance of the horrors Jack brings to them unfathomable and longs for the Trenches she understands.
And Sumi is...Sumi. Practical in her own way and just as much a Monster as Jack, just in a cotton candy package wrapping.
We meet Alexis once more and she's as perfectly matched for Jack as she was before her second death in DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES. She's exactly what Jack needs, and shows her own fierceness when Kade asks one too many pointed questions he had no business asking.
Gideon is a new child who found his Door before Jack found her way to the Moors and who finds himself the object of Sumi's interest.
This is filled with romance and adventure and heart break and happy ends. Everyone finds themselves changed when they go to the Moors and only the Monsters are really able to survive.
Rating: 2.5
Read for the Hugo's. I'm glad I skipped the books between 3 and reading 5 for the Hugos. Even just listening through these four hours was such a boring, arduous task. Everything about this series (portal worlds, fairytales, classic novels, retellings, children in a
But every single books feels so 'blah' to me. An amazing concept simply done drolly. Which is the reason I ranked a a book I'd usually rank at 3 (not badly written in the classic linguistic sense, but also not enthralling at all), and rounded it down to a 2.5. Because to do this so consistently, without getting any better is just a hellish disappointment every Hugo Nomination Read round.
the narrator for this one is just a tad shrill sometimes, but I've enjoyed this series (in print) and I enjoyed this one too.
This one went some dark places.
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Debossed TOR rocketship logo on the boards under the dustjacket.