Down Among the Sticks and Bones

This was so imaginative and I kinda loved it for that but there were several points about it that ground against my gears.

Firstly, I really didn't like that these two sisters were just pitted against each other, even though they were moved to do so by external circumstances, throughout the whole book. I don't know how they even somehow reconciled and “clung to each other” right at the end of it, considering what both had literally just gone through. I really wish that we had a bit more of a genuine reconciliation between the two sisters.

Secondly, the ending felt really abrupt. As is the case for the first book, I felt like these premises are enough to fill much longer novels instead of the novella-length story that we got here. But even then, we had so much more substance to how the sisters made their choices between the Master and Dr Bleak, but their dive back to their original home world was all done in a 7-page chapter. We had no idea how they were going to assimilate back into their world after nearly 6 formative years away, and we don't even know how they were going to reconcile with each other given that to each of them, the other had ripped away and stolen what had come to matter most to them in the years they spent in the Moors. It felt like there's so much unexplored business here that is yet to be concluded. I'm not sure if Jack and Jill's story continues in the later books but as far as I know, the instalments in this series are barely connected to each other so we may not see Jack and Jill again, which is really a shame. It was such a great set-up but I felt like we barely got to the climax before everything ended.

Thirdly, I kinda hated that Jill had no redemption arc. I was incredibly annoyed with her for the whole book but also incredibly sympathetic. She was so mired in her obsession with the Master because, in my opinion, she had grown up so bereft of attention compared to Jacqueline. It almost felt like watching a child who gets into some kind of toxic dependent relationship because of the way they had grown up till then, and then becoming susceptible to more toxicity in these relationships when they eventually grow up into adults. It was annoying but also really sad and I had really really wanted to see a redemption arc somewhere, but - there was none of that.

But overall, Seanan McGuire's worlds are always so compelling and interesting. The premise is refreshing and unique, the writing is so easy and smooth. While I particularly detested Jack and Jill's parents and the way they treated the children in the first few chapters, I could really get behind the message that she was trying to convey: treat children like very young people but still people in their own rights, and not dolls to be molded into an image that you want them to be.

Despite my gripes about it, this was still at least a 4 star read for me and I'd be continuing on the series (I really hope to see more of Jack and Jill in future books!)