Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Down Among the Sticks and Bones

The first part of this novella really focuses on parents who became parents for the wrong reasons and their children suffering the consequences of that decision. Hits way too close to home and I assume this would have further implications based off of their interactions within the Moors. Didn’t want to stick around to find out.

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theeladyking's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I went into this book only knowing what the very beginning and the very end would be, with some vague ideas about the directions the characters would go in. Basically I knew what you would know if you've read the first book in this series (which I HIGHLY recommend doing before reading this one). I think that's the best way to experience it, so all I'm going to say here is that this book hurt me deeply and I'm a bit disturbed now by the fact I relate so well to Jack.

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ellanarose's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lauralintunen's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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queenpebbles's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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proudtobeabookaholic's review

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

"Some adventures begin easily. It is not HARD, after all, to be sucked up by a tornado or pushed through a particularly porous mirror; there is no skill involved in being swept away by a great wave or pulled down a rabbit hole. Some adventures require nothing more than a willing heart and the ability to trip over the cracks in the world."

Twin sisters Jack and Jill ended up at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children when they were 17 years old, but what happened before that? Their parents shaped them after their own ideals and never saw them as actual people. Jacqueline became her mother's perfect daughter: polite and quiet, always in beautiful dresses she's not allowed to get dirty. Jillian became her father’s perfect daughter: adventurous and brave, always playing with boys. Identical in appearance, total opposites in personality. When the girls were twelve they found a staircase at the bottom of a trunk...

We got to know Jack and Jill in the first book, "Every Heart a Doorway", and here we get their whole story, both their (rather tragic) childhood and their adventure in another world. I now understand them better, but I would have liked to read their parts in the first book again! It also gave me a better understanding about what’s behind those doors everybody seems to want to find again. The girl's upbringing almost made me shiver - and see that there are different forms of child abuse.

"Like bonsai being trained into shape by an assidious gardener, they were growing into the geometry of the parents' desires, and it was pushing them further and further away from each other. One day, perhaps, one of them would reach across the gulf and find that there was no one there."

It's really sad that the sisters' animosity towards each other follow them through the door to The Moors, even though in a slightly different way than expected. Now I'm curious to see what the next book has to offer!

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nicolescottwv's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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