Come Tumbling Down - by Seanan McGuire

Title: Come Tumbling Down

Author: Seanan McGuire

Published: 7 Jan 2020

Series: Wayward Children #5

Rating: 2 stars

Synopsis:

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.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

While I still love how short and sweet the books in this series are and how slightly twisted they are too, I felt like this one didn't really need to be written -- or at least not added into the series, maybe?

It's good seeing the Moors in a bit of a new light and seeing how they need opposites to keep everything balanced in the world. But did we really need to come back to the Moors? How many other characters in the School for Wayward Children are there that we could have read about? I'd love to see a book about Kade or Cora and what they got up to in their own world's and if they ever get back to them.

This book was still pretty good, don't get me wrong, but I just don't feel like it had the same sort of zing that sucks you right in like some of the others in the series did.

I still don't quite see why Jack and Alexis went back to get some of the other children from the school to help Jack do what she needed to in the Moors as she seemed to do nearly all of the work by herself. The big battle at the end almost didn't need to happen as we didn't hear about it start and then suddenly it's over when we hear about what happened to Jill.

Hopefully in the next book it will be about a new character we haven't heard about before or at least not really seen to add some freshness back into the series.

One moment I did love was when Tsumi said this:

"The world doesn't stop spinning because you're sad, and that's good; if it did, people would go around breaking hearts like they were sheets of maple sugar, just to keep the world exactly where it is. They'd make it out like it was a good thing, a few crying children in exchange for a peace that never falters or fades. We can be sad and we can be hurt and we can even be killed, but the world keeps turning, and the things we're supposed to do keep needing to be done."

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All books in this series:

    1 | Every Heart a Doorway
    2 | Down Among the Sticks and Bones
    3 | Beneath the Sugar Sky
    4 | In an Absent Dream

4.5 | Juice Like Wounds
    5 | Come Tumbling Down

    6 | Across the Green Grass Fields

    7 | Where the Drowned Girls Go

Beneath the Sugar Sky - by Seanan McGuire

Title: Beneath the sugar Sky

Author: Seanan McGuire

Published: 9 Jan 2018

Series: Wayward Children #3

Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis:

Beneath the Sugar Sky returns to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. At this magical boarding school, children who have experienced fantasy adventures are reintroduced to the "real" world.
Sumi died years before her prophesied daughter Rini could be born. Rini was born anyway, and now she’s trying to bring her mother back from a world without magic.

Sometimes that's all you can do. Just keep getting through until you don't have to do it anymore, however much time it takes, however difficult it is.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

In this book, we learn that in an alternate universe Sumi did have a child - but that child is slowly disappearing. In this book, if feels as if Rumi is definitely is Sumi's daughter and it's amusing - just how they're both so innocent and the way everyone reacts to the things they say (like when Rumi is in the duck pond!).

At the start, it is confusing to figure out what character the book is talking about as quite a few are mentioned, unlike the past books in the series. I think I finally decided that it's from the perspective of a girl named Cora, but about Sumi's daughter Rumi.

I kind of love Cora though. Like when she runs into Christopher on the porch and she stammers and blurts and seems nervous etc. It's a natural human reaction. I also loved that Kade simply looked up direction on Google Maps.

Cora: Why are you so happy? Everything here is dead people.
Christopher: That's why I'm so happy. Everything here is dead people.

My favourite thing about this book is probably that the kids at the school learned to be a little kinder to one another, or at least more careful about what they judge people on. I also like that it shows that fatter people can like to exercise and may just have health problems causing it, and that not every thin, lean person likes to exercise. Lots of learning in this book!

I still don't like Kade's parents from the previous books though. Simply because he wanted to change pronouns because he has gender dysmorphia (he was born a girl but he felt as if he was a boy) and his parents stopped wanting him because of that.

Worlds too and from info was vague, interesting but also confusing. However, I did like that the doors open for the utter need inter bones trying to get out. It's interesting that the only thing that they can bring back from their door world is something that has come out of their bodies like tears or bone or blood if you wanted some magic in the real world.

I did notice something though that I'm guessing was on purpose. The words that were on Jack and Jill's door from the previous book appears in this book too.

All she had to do was be sure.

Spoilers!

I was shocked when we found out that Sumi supposedly had a daughter. Especially after the previous book where she died!

I have questions about Kade driving though: How and why can he drive? When did he learn? Why is this the first time that we're hearing about the bus?

One downside of this book was that I basically forgot that Nadia only had one hand as it was only mentioned at the start of the book and at the very end.

End Spoilers!

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All books in this series:

    1 | Every Heart a Doorway
    2 | Down Among the Sticks and Bones
    3 | Beneath the Sugar Sky
    4 | In an Absent Dream

4.5 | Juice Like Wounds
    5 | Come Tumbling Down

    6 | Across the Green Grass Fields

    7 | Where the Drowned Girls Go

Down Among the Sticks and Bones - by Seanan McGuire

Title: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Author: Seanan McGuire
Series: Wayward Children #2
Published: 13 June 2017
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis:
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.

I listened to this as an audiobook. It was read by the author which I found a nice little touch. I'm loving these covers though!

This book is a prequel and follows Jack and Jill from the previous book, showing that their home life wasn't all rainbows and daisies. Their parents essentially wanted the "perfect family".

These two sisters manage to stick together throughout their childhood and their slight sibling rivalry. The book also shows why children should be able to choose who they are for themselves and what they do and don't like. This book shows you that there's a million ways to be a girl, but none of them are wrong.

Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world.

Having to earn a vampire's name is an idea I hadn't thought about before too.

I like that Dr Bleak lets Jack try and work out the bath for herself. She's never had to do that before but she wants to learn new things. He gives her all the tools to do what's needed, but lets her work out how - better than her real parents were.

Finding out about Mary was definitely a bit of a shock.

Time keeps moving through the door too which is interesting. I would have thought that if you go through the door at twelve years old, then you'd go back to your original world still being twelve. But that's not how it works. Jack and Jill managed to go from twelve to seventeen - having to go through periods, hormones, friendships or lack of them, and relationships, all while in The Moors.

A single revelation does not change a life. It is a start.

Spoilers!

I don't think Jack's sexuality is stated for sure, but Jack having a relationship with another girl didn't feel like it was forced on the character or like it was an afterthought to the story as it flowed well.

End Spoilers!

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All books in this series:

    1 | Every Heart a Doorway
    2 | Down Among the Sticks and Bones
    3 | Beneath the Sugar Sky
    4 | In an Absent Dream

4.5 | Juice Like Wounds
    5 | Come Tumbling Down

    6 | Across the Green Grass Fields

    7 | Where the Drowned Girls Go

Every Heart A Doorway - by Seanan McGuire

Title: Every Heart A Doorway
Author: Seanan McGuire
Published: 5 April 2016
Series: Wayward Children #1
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis: 
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 the matter.
No matter the cost. 

This world is unforgiving and cruel tho those it judges as even the slightest bit outside the norm.

I listened to this as an audiobook.

My favourite character in Every Heart A Doorway is definitely Sumi. I love how bubbly her personality and the alliteration is an interesting quality for her to have. Kade would probably be my second favourite character.

I absolutely love that asexuality and being transgender are present in the book - both with main characters. Another good thing is that the main character explains that being asexual and aromantic are two different things - which I think that some people in the real world should be told about.

I was a little confused at the start of the book as we don't see Nancy come back to her original world from her door, only that she turns up at Eleanor's home and the story is told from there.

Hope means you keep holding on to things that won't ever be so again, and so you bleed an inch at a time until there's nothing left.

No spoilers, but the characters that were killed did surprise me. One of the three did sort of  deserve it though - until it was explained where their door was. Then I felt bad for thinking that way.

Plus I loved that Jack and Jill were twin girls - their full names being Jacqueline and Jillian. Normally when we hear or think about the nursery rhyme, we think that it's one boy and one girl so it was nice to see that twist put in there.

I figured out who the killer was before it was revealed and I'm a little proud of that.

I'm a genius of infinite potential and highly limited patience. People shouldn't try me so.

Christopher's talent was quite cool, kind of like the pied piper from fairy tales. I also thought that Nancy and Christopher would be a cute couple together.

In the end, Nancy eventually goes back through her door, so we get to see pretty much her entire story.

Magic doorways to other worlds, murder, a little mystery, and belonging. I would definitely recommend this fun but dark little novella to everyone.

You're nobody's rainbow. You're nobody's princess. You're nobody's doorway but your own and the only one who gets to tell you how your story ends is you.

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All books in this series:

    1 | Every Heart a Doorway
    2 | Down Among the Sticks and Bones
    3 | Beneath the Sugar Sky
    4 | In an Absent Dream

4.5 | Juice Like Wounds
    5 | Come Tumbling Down

    6 | Across the Green Grass Fields

    7 | Where the Drowned Girls Go