Review: Come Tumbling Down - Seanan McGuire

The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire's award-winning, bestselling 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:
Every Heart a Doorway
Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Beneath the Sugar Sky
In an Absent Dream
Come Tumbling Down

Visit Seanan McGuire's website for more information

Review:
I've loved the Wayward Children series ever since I read Every Heart a Doorway so I always look forward to the latest instalment. Seanan McGuire is constantly surprising me with her creativity and she manages it again in Come Tumbling Down. I thought that we'd seen the last of Jack and Jill in Down Among the Sticks and Bones but we quickly discover that their story is not over when this book opens with Jack returning to Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children in desperate need of help from her friends. Things have gone badly wrong in the Moors and Jack had nowhere else to turn to for help so it looks like the students are going to have to break the rules once more to go on another quest.

I don't really want to give any details about the problem Jack needs help with because it's far more fun for you to discover that yourself when reading the story. What I will say is that I enjoyed this second trip into the world she calls home. We get to catch up with some familiar faces but also explore the world far more than we did in our first visit and I found it interesting seeing what both Jack and Jill have been up to since we left them last.

It was great to see Kade, Christopher, Sumi and Cora come together to help Jack, they're totally out of their comfort zone in the Moors but that doesn't stop them doing what needs to be done to keep Jack safe. I can't wait to read all of their stories though, there are so many different worlds we're going to get to explore in this series. These books always leave me wanting more and I can't wait for my next visit with the Wayward Children.

Source: Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: In An Absent Dream - Seanan McGuire

A stand-alone fantasy tale from Seanan McGuire's Alex award-winning Wayward Children series, which began in the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List Every Heart a Doorway

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

The Wayward Children Series:
Every Heart a Doorway
Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Beneath the Sugar Sky
In an Absent Dream
Come Tumbling Down

Visit Seanan McGuire's website for more information

Review:
In An Absent Dream is the fourth story in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series and although each book can be read as a standalone I think you're best to at least start with Every Heart a Doorway as all the other books feature characters we first met there. This is Lundy's story and if you read the first book you'll probably remember her as the old woman stuck in a body that has been ageing backwards since something went wrong with a deal she made at the Goblin Market. Seriously she's in her 80's but she only looks about 7 so you can imagine how weird her life is!

Anyway, this is Lundy's story from when she actually was a child - in age not just physically. Like all of the children in Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children Lundy never quite fitted into the world she was born into, she was always a little too bookish and too prone to daydreams to have any interest in the people around her and when she stumbled upon a strange door in a tree she'd never seen before she suddenly finds herself in a place that feels much more like home. The Goblin Market isn't like any of the other worlds we've seen in this series, it's magical and full of weird and wonderful creatures but at the same time it can be incredibly dangerous.

In the Goblin Market there are rules that have to be followed:
Rule 1: Ask for nothing
Rule 2: Names have power
Rule 3: Always give fair value
Rule 4: Take what is offered and be grateful
Rule 5: Remember the Curfew

If you treat people fairly and are willing to contribute an equal share of the work you'll be fine as long as you're careful but anyone who cheats, steals or doesn't pull their weight will pay a high price.

Lundy is very young in this story, she's intelligent and well read for her age but sometimes she thinks she knows more than she actually does so she doesn't always comprehend the consequences of her actions. She tries hard to deal with the Goblin Market fairly but she doesn't always get things right and that has a huge impact on her. If you've already read Every Heart a Doorway then you'll know the direction Lundy's story takes but I found it really interesting to see how she ended up in that situation in the first place. I found the whole Market fascinating and enjoyed the characters we meet along the way.

This series is so much fun to read, I love how each book is completely different to the last and that there are still so many worlds we've not had a chance to explore yet. I'm happily going to continue to devour these stories as fast as Seanan McGuire can write them & hope we have a lot more to come.

Source: Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Beneath the Sugar Sky - Seanan McGuire

A stand-alone fantasy tale from Seanan McGuire's Alex-award winning Wayward Children series, which began in the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List Every Heart a Doorway

Beneath the Sugar Sky, the third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series, returns to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children in a standalone contemporary fantasy for fans of all ages. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.)

If she can't find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests...

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do.

Warning: May contain nuts.

The Wayward Children Series:
Every Heart a Doorway
Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Beneath the Sugar Sky
In an Absent Dream
Come Tumbling Down

Visit Seanan McGuire's website for more information

Review:
I think one of the things I love most about this series is how different each of the stories are. Every Heart a Doorway was set mainly in Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children and although lots of other worlds are mentioned we don't really get to visit them. Down Among the Sticks and Bones is Jack & Jill's prequel story and we get to explore the dark and creepy world of the Moors based on the Dracula and Frankenstein books. Now, in Beneath the Sugar Sky, we get to explore the illogical but bright and fun candy filled world of Confection that Sumi was supposed to find her way back to before she was murdered in the first book.

It had been prophesied that Sumi would return to Confection and save it from an evil queen but her death has ruined everything. When a girl called Rini literally falls out of the sky and lands in the pond at the Home for Wayward Children looking for her mother people are shocked to realise she's looking for Sumi who died long before she could have had children. Rini is slowly ceasing to exist and unless they can find a way to bring Sumi back from the dead the whole of Confection is in trouble.

I had so much fun exploring the nonsense world of Confection, just imagine a place where the sea is made of strawberry soda, the ground beneath your feet is made from chocolate brownies and castles are build from bricks of gingerbread, sweets literally grow on trees and you can even pluck the stars out of the sky because they're really made of candy. Pretty much everything you look at is edible so it's a dream world for anyone with a sweet tooth!

I loved getting the chance to catch up with previous characters but it was also great to meet some new additions like Rini and especially Cora. Seanan McGuire is constantly giving us diverse characters and breaking stereotypes which is something I really appreciate and can't wait to see more of as the series continues. I honestly hope that we get a story for each of these kids, I want to see them all find their way back to the worlds that felt like home.

Source: Purchased

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Review: Down Among the Sticks and Bones - Seanan McGuire

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.

The Wayward Children Series:
Every Heart a Doorway
Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Beneath the Sugar Sky
In an Absent Dream
Come Tumbling Down

Visit Seanan McGuire's website for more information

Review:
We already met Jack and Jill in Every Heart a Doorway but this is the story of their lives growing up and their journey through a doorway and into the Moors. Technically that makes it a prequel to the first book but trust me you're far better off following the official reading order because you'll enjoy this so much more knowing how Jack and Jill's story ends.

The twins really have the worst parents, cold and totally standoffish they only had children because they thought it was expected of them but they never really understood or cared for the twins as anything other than mini accessories to be paraded around when it was convenient and left behind when they weren't needed. So it's no wonder that the two girls were a little messed up by their childhood but it was sad to see that they had been pitted against each other so often that they didn't have a very strong bond between them. In fact most of their relationship was build on rivalry and jealousy directly caused by their parents and neither of them quite seemed to know how to bridge the gap between them.

When they arrive on the Moors they both totally rebel against everything they've been brought up to do, Jack goes from being her mother's little princess to someone who loves to learn and is happy to get her hands dirty while Jill does the opposite and wants the fun of wearing pretty dresses after years of being treated like a son by her father. I actually loved the way Seanan McGuire subtly shows the ridiculousness of gender stereotypes and how damaging they can be, how girls are often raised to be pretty and quiet ornaments while boys are supposed to be messy and loud. That attitude is damaging all round but it's not something that is challenged enough in my opinion. There are also nods to both the stories of Dracula and Frankenstein in the dark and kind of creepy world of the Moors.

I loved Jack in the first book and I think I ended up liking her even more in this book, we really get to see exactly how much she sacrificed for her sister and it's sad to think how Jill repaid that in the first book. I was really pleased with the ending but I had one major question that I was desperate to get an answer to. What happened to the innkeeper's daughter? I'm going to choose to believe that she got the HEA she deserves since it wasn't spelled out one way or the other.

I really hope we get to explore all of the different worlds visited by the children in Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, there is just so much potential for all the different places this series could take us and I can't wait to visit them all!

Source: Purchased

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Review: Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire

Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy's arrival marks a change at the Home. There's a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it's up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things.

No matter the cost.

The Wayward Children Series:
Every Heart a Doorway
Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Beneath the Sugar Sky
In an Absent Dream
Come Tumbling Down

Visit Seanan McGuire's website for more information

Review:
Imagine being a teenager who never quite fit in, who never really felt at home in this world and who was always looking for a place they belonged. Now imagine one day opening a doorway into another world, a world that fitted you perfectly, where you found your people and finally felt happy. The children in this story all found one of those worlds and spent months or years happily living there only to, one terrible day, end up somehow back in our world, lost and desperately missing the place they had come to think of as home.

Families might be thrilled to have their missing loved one home but those children are less than happy with the latest change in their circumstance and are desperately looking for a way back to the place they really belong. But children who start talking about magical worlds and who are struggling to adjust don't exactly come across as sane to the adults around them. The unlucky ones might end up in an asylum, the lucky ones get sent to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. At least there they'll find people who will believe their tales of strange new worlds, others who have had similar experiences and who understand the desperate need to find those doorways once more. Eleanor herself travelled to another world as a child so she is best placed to help these teenagers adjust to their new circumstances.

Every Heart a Doorway is another fantastic story from Seanan McGuire, I was already a huge fan of her October Daye and Incryptid series but the Wayward Children world is something completely new and I loved every minute of it. I love the idea of all these different worlds out there and finding that place that just fits you in every possible way but the idea of then being forced to leave and return to somewhere that isn't home is pretty horrifying. There are so many worlds out there that nobody ever seems to end up in the same one but no matter how different their experiences were while they were away the experience of coming back to our world is just as awful so they all understand each other and what they are going through.

This book has such a wonderful cast of diverse characters and they're all unique and quirky in their own ways. You can really see how their personalities fit the places they visited and how it affects the way they interact with each other in the present too. The story is creepy and dark, there are several murders after all, but it also has enough humour to stop it being too heavy going. I'm absolutely in awe of Seanan McGuire's imagination, all of her series are so different but she manages to make them all feel like real places that you could actually visit. Every Heart a Doorway has less than 200 pages but she packs in so much story that you're not left feeling like you missed out. I don't think there are many authors out there that could achieve what she has here with such a low word count! I absolutely can't wait to continue this series & I'm looking forward to spending more time with the Wayward Children.

Source: Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

Hardback / Kindle: