No one expected Jack to return to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, certainly not in bolts of lightning inside the actual home. Jack needs help as her sister, Jill, has stolen her body and the fate of their adopted world is at risk. Christopher, Kade, Cora, and Sumi are willing to travel with Jack to her strange and deadly world where science and mythology work hand in hand.
COME TUMBLING DOWN is the fifth book in the Wayward Children book. I would suggest at least reading the first book, EVERY HEART A DOORWAY, to get the gist of what happened with Jack and Jill at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. However, the stories in the series intertwine and twist back and forth as the children have traveled to various worlds, both logical and nonsensical, where the straight continuum of reality shifts. Readers who are familiar with all of the Wayward Children books will have a much richer enjoyment of COME TUMBLING DOWN.
Jack’s scientific approach to life is intriguing, even if her ways can sometimes be off-putting. I love that Seanan McGuire addresses OCD through Jack and her revulsion to being in her sister’s skin. We get some insight into just how badly it bothers her as she can see her own descent into madness if she is unable to recover her own skin. It’s a unique way to look at a mental health issue and offers another side to the science side of Jack.
Seanan McGuire has crafted an oddly mesmerizing and yet extremely dark world with the Moors. I cringe at times and yet I keep reading. I’m still not sure I truly like any of the characters and yet I’m fascinated by them. I want to know more about the worlds behind each and every door, how nonsense and logical worlds connect (or don’t), and what the rules are for each new world we explore. Surprisingly enough, the Moors is one of my preferred worlds out of the Wayward Children series, even when I wince at the level of violence and trauma the inhabitants of the Moors must live with. If you love dark fantasy, then don’t hesitate to give COME TUMBLING DOWN a try.
When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister—whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice—back to their home on the Moors.
But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.
Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.
Again.
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