Seanan McGuire

The book was short, making for a quick read, and I'm very thankful for that. The writing was very surreal and intuitive, making it quite pretty in places.

Unfortunately, that was all that was good with this one. There are underlying themes of relativism, the tone is rather dark, the profanity and sexual references were unnecessary, and I figured out the ending very early on.

This actually reminded me a lot of [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians #1)|Lev Grossman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977], another book I gave only 1 star.… (mere)

Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a prequel to Every Heart a Doorway, but it can stand by itself. It tells the earlier story of the twins Jack (Jacqueline) and Jill (Jillian), who are important characters in the previous novel. I like the way it plays with style, but it helps to understand from the start that it uses fairy-tale conventions. The girls' parents are cardboard figures, following the tradition of parents and stepparents in many old stories. Their part is only to introduce the real story, which begins when the girls discover a secret staircase where there shouldn't be one, bringing them into another world. But this world definitely isn't Narnia!

As in fairy tales, the two girls are opposites in many ways, increasingly so as they go on separate paths. In this book, though, we see how they became the kind of people they are in Every Heart a Doorway. They aren't static.

The story is full of what seem like allusions. There's a throwaway reference to a "kitchen junk drawer," which sounds to me like a nod to a Michael Longcor song. One of the girls is apprenticed to the Doctor and the other to the Master; does that remind you of anything? :)

I might have given the book another star if it were more to my liking. Seanan is an excellent writer, but not always to my taste.… (mere)