Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire [Book #5]

Content Tags: Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, Death, Murder, Sororicide, Drowning, Necromancy

Description from Storygraph:

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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This was my favorite book in the Wayward Children series. So far, at least. The banter resulting from the communication styles and personalities of the characters was fantastic. I especially loved Jack and Sumi's interactions. Each character has been developed with such unique and intriguing personalities - even Jill. The descriptions of characters, particularly from other characters describing them, evokes such a clear image of them (not physically, but at their core - who they are). Such as this description of Jill: "Jill had always been the more dangerous, less predictable Wolcott, for all that she was the one who dressed in pastel colors and lace and sometimes remembered that people liked it when you smiled. Something about the way she'd wrapped her horror movie heart in ribbons and bows had reminded him of a corpse that hadn't been properly embalmed, like she was pretty on the outside and rotten on the inside. Terrifying and subtly wrong."

This book also introduced signed language for a character that was intermittently non-vocal because revivification is a bitch. And Sumi knew signed language - bonus points for the inclusion of different languages and dialects of signed language - and was able to interpret and advocate for this character to the others who did not know signed language. Whenever I consume media that includes a character that is non-verbal and everyone else is just like omg what could we possibly do to communicate with this person it makes me so frustrated - particularly in fantasy. One, that's such a fucked up way to add "drama" or whatever the fuck else they're trying to accomplish. Two, signed language is right there - embrace it and better inclusivity and accessibility in your stories!

One of the things I love the most about (most of) the wayward children is how they don't question the "weirdness" of each other. They simply embrace and support the needs of each other. 💗

Oh also, I take back what I said in my post about Beneath the Sugar Sky about reading the first book first (and reading the others in order). The further I get, the more I think it kind of makes more sense to read them in order. Even with the three books that have included stuff with Jack and Jill, there were other characters and pieces of information you got from other books. Book #4 is more stand-alone, but you'd still need to read Book #1 to get the full connection. So, I'm going with: read them in order if you want to make sure you have as much background and additional detail as is available.

Book Reflection Wrap-up:

What was your favorite part of the book?

Every single moment that one of the wayward children encouraged, comforted, supported, saved, etc. another one. (And there were a lot of them - which I loved!)

Were there any lines or scenes in the book that made you cry?

Did I come up with this question just so that I could talk about this particular line? Yes, yes I did. And the line that made me cry was: "You taught me what it means to be a person when I could have been a monster so easily." I am not going to expand on why this made me cry, who said it, or who they said it to. Just know, it made me cry when I first read it, then again when I made a note of it, and again just now when I re-read it to type here. 😭