A review by dembury
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

3.0

While I loved the creepy, atmospheric vibe of this one, it definitely has a few pacing issues that makes it more difficult to enjoy. I felt like way too much time was spent at the beginning delineating all the differences between Jack and Jill; the tone got quite preachy at times, especially about raising children and subjecting them to certain roles. It's not that I disagree with it, but the message (?) just got far too repetitive for my liking. Also, because so much time was spent on that at the start, I think it took away from moments we could have had later on that would have made the book hit harder. More Jack/Alexis would have been great, or even just seeing more interactions between the girls and each of their mentors!
Other than that, I still enjoyed this: Jack and Jill are incredibly interesting characters and I liked spending time in their heads and world. And again, the atmosphere of this book is very immersive, like a dark fairytale version of Frankenstein/Dracula (it would make an excellent Halloween read!)
I'm definitely going to be continuing the series still, and hope we get to see more of these two.