Down Among the Sticks and Bones - (Wayward Children) by Seanan McGuire (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series
Winner: 2018 Alex Award
Winner: 2018 ALA RUSA Fantasy Award

Seanan McGuire returns to her popular Wayward Children series with Down Among the Sticks and Bones--a truly standalone story suitable for adult and young adult readers of urban fantasy, and the follow-up to the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List book Every Heart a Doorway

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
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

Review Quotes

"McGuire has a miraculous talent for examining adolescent discontent, wedding the strange with the poignant, the fearsome with the fascinating." --RT Book Reviews Top Pick, 4 1/2 stars

"Beautifully crafted and smartly written, this fairy-tale novella is everything that speculative fiction readers look for: fantastical worlds, diverse characters, and prose that hits home with its emotional truths." --Library Journal starred review

"Exquisitely crafted, this is the rare companion novel that can stand alone." --Booklist starred review.

"Down Among the Sticks and Bones has the voice and rhythm of a fairy tale... It is vividly characterised, as so much of Seanan McGuire's work is, and has the kind of prose that carries you along to find out what happens next." --Locus

"McGuire's exquisitely written fairy tale is about the choices that can alter the course of a life forever, lost innocence, and what it is to love and be loved." --Publishers Weekly starred review

PRAISE FOR EVERY HEART A DOORWAY:

"A mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll's and C. S. Lewis' classics." --NPR

"Seanan McGuire has long been one of the smartest writers around, and with this novella we can easily see that her heart is as big as her brain. We know this story isn't true, but it is truth." --Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series (TV's True Blood)

"This is a gorgeous story: sometimes mean, sometimes angry, and always exciting." --Cory Doctorow for BoingBoing

"McGuire's lyrical prose makes this novella a rich experience." --Library Journal, starred review

"So mindblowingly good, it hurts." --io9

"This gothic charmer is a love letter to anyone who's ever felt out of place." -- Publishers Weekly

"This gothic novel is ideal for fantasy fans who have longed for a world of their own, as well as readers looking for books with diverse casts." --Bookish

"Girl Interrupted meets Grimm's Fairy Tales. Let it in and it will touch your heart and open your mind." --Geek Syndicate

About the Author

SEANAN McGUIRE is the author of the October Daye urban fantasy series, the InCryptid series, the Wayward Children series, and other works. She also writes darker fiction as Mira Grant.

Seanan lives in Seattle with her cats, a vast collection of creepy dolls, and horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard.

She was the winner of the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2013 she became the first person ever to appear five times on the same Hugo ballot.