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BooksFantasy

Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children #5) by Seanan McGuire (book review).

‘Come Tumbling Down’ is book 5 in the ‘Wayward Children’ series by Seanan McGuire. Each of the books in the series so far have been short novella of around 200 pages. This review is bound to contain some spoilers for the previous 4 books in the series so proceed with caution if you’ve not read all those books.

Jack and Jill vanished back through their doorway in a previous book. This time Jack comes back but she is very much changed since the last time we saw her. Jack needs the help of her former schoolmates to go back to the Moors and go on a quest to save them. Of course, her schoolmates jump at the chance, some a little more enthusiastically than others, to go on a quest. None of them are quite prepared for what they will have to go through in a world where dead doesn’t quite mean dead and there are gothic horrors round every corner.

This book follows on from book 2, ‘Down Among The Sticks And Bones’, in this series in that we’re continuing Jack and Jill’s story to its conclusion. This makes this book the odd one out as so far we’ve always gone to a new world with one of the wayward children. This time we’re revisiting the Moors, but we do get to visit new places on the Moors and to meet some new terrifying characters. I do wish we had a new world to explore but my wanderlust was somewhat sated by the new places in the Moors.

I have to mention the one things that amongst everything else makes these books so amazing and that’s the representation of all types of people. In this particular book, we get the usual trans rep, POC rep, weight rep etc. but they’re joined by a person who uses sign language. There is also representation of anxiety, panic attacks and OCD all done in a way that feels natural and normalising.

I love how all these characters are just living their lives and the representation isn’t all they are, it just appears on the page as part of them. It’s wonderful to be able to see yourself in books and these ones just do this so fabulously.

I obviously love all the characters in these books but this time my favourite was Sumi. She was just so entertaining to read especially how she could turn on a sixpence in terms of her personality. She’s all candy-sweet one moment and then all of a sudden she’s switchblade dangerous. Then you realise that the switchblade is her all along just hiding under all that frosting. Second favourite character is Jack. Oh my heavens, she goes through some stuff in this book.

I’m honestly not sure how she copes with what happens to her, especially with her OCD which she has learnt to control and use for her scientific experiments.

I mustn’t forget to mention that there are fabulous pen and ink drawings in these books. Every other review I read doesn’t mention them but I think they deserve a special mention as they really are an excellent addition to these books.

I usually finish by saying whether I’ll continue with a series. It must be obvious by my gushing review that, yes, I will follow this series of books as long as it continues. To me, these are my doors into other worlds and I’ll keep seeking them forever.

Sarah Bruch

February 2022

(pub: TOR, 2020. 206 page illustrated hardback. 206 page small enlarged paperback. Price: $19.99 (US), £15.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-76539-931-1)

check out website: www.tor.com 

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