As I learned quickly, McGuire doesn’t pull punches. Sticks and Bones cuts deep and hits hard. The Jack and Jill from Every Heart a Doorway have already experienced the events of Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and reading this preamble makes the continuation of their story even more intriguing. The summary above covers a vast swathe of McGuire’s prequel, but context here is crucial. Bleak, who resurrects the dead and stretches the limits of science with every experiment he performs. Each twin grows up in the Moors under the careful watch of her chosen master–Jill’s, a ruthless vampire known only as “the Master,” who has a stranglehold on the village and Jack’s, a mad scientist named Dr. The Moors burst with possibility and dread. Science is a tool to be wielded with none of the inconvenient limits so prevalent in our world. Vampires and werewolves roam villages at night. The recently dead don’t always stay that way. The secret doorway closes behind them, and they begin their adventure in the Moors. Jack and Jill discover a hidden staircase to another world in what was once their grandmother’s trunk. It is only when they turn twelve that everything changes. The years that follow breeze by within a single chapter as Jack and Jill struggle against the strict barriers their parents have erected.
When Chester and Serena abruptly eject Gemma Lou from the twins’ lives, Jack and Jill must look out for one another. Until they’re five years old, Gemma Lou teaches Jack and Jill to think for themselves, at least as well as a toddler can.
Jack and Jill, born into this mindset, find a temporary savior in Gemma Lou, their paternal grandmother. They want kids to show them off, to earn social status, and to mold them into something convenient rather than unique. The book’s first third collects a series of vignette-ish descriptions of their parents, Chester and Serena Wolcott, and their stubborn natures. Jack and Jill are thrust into life after their unfit parents decide to have children for no good reason. Seanan McGuire explores the darkest corners of individuality and coming of age while giving us a much-needed injection of Jack and Jill, two key characters from Every Heart. No, they’re not overdone), paints a sweeping picture of a difficult upbringing and self-discovery. This story, starring twin sisters Jacqueline (Jack) and Jill (before you ask–yes, there are plenty of references to the nursery rhyme. Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire’s first prequel to Every Heart a Doorway, offers brutal ruminations on the nature of childhood and the implications of growing up.
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