Book Review: Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children, #5) by Seanan McGuire

Title: Come Tumbling Down

Author: Seanan McGuire

Series: Wayward Children (Book #5)

Number of Pages: 206

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: A-

Recommended?: Yes

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I was looking forward to this book coming out as soon as I finished the last one, and I was not disappointed. Come Tumbling Down is without a doubt one of the best novellas in this series so far. It’s creative, darkly humorous, and provides some closure in the story of Jack, one of the most entertaining and dynamic characters. In the opening scene of this book, Jack takes a lightning portal to the school asking some of her former friends for help with her ongoing evil twin problem.

 

Jack’s power-hungry twin sister Jill has caused bloody chaos for a while now, but this time takes the cake. Not only has she killed Jack’s beloved mentor, she also stole her body in hopes of using it to achieve her dream of becoming a vampire. Jack hates wearing her sister’s skin so much that it’s making her lose her mind, and she needs help taking her life back from Jill before takes permanent ownership of her body and claims dominion of their portal world. Four of the school’s students (Kade, Christopher, Cora, and Sumi) reluctantly go back on through the portal with Jack and her undead girlfriend, Alexis even though Jack’s morbid pastimes and overfamiliarity with death make her scary in her own right.

 

I adore Seanan McGuire’s wild imagination, and I enjoyed every moment I spent reading this book. A lot of fantasy novels take hundreds of pages to set up their world-building, but McGuire manages to do the same in less than half that amount of time. The books in this series are like a snack that immediately leave you wanting more, and every time I catch up on the latest one I hope that she’ll never stop writing them.

 

Some of the characters are still seriously underdeveloped (I’m looking at you, Cora) but I feel like I’m getting to know some of them better since they were introduced in the first book. The tensions and vastly different personalities between the characters is part of what makes it so fun. Sometimes they barely seem to like each other but they still come through for each other, albeit with reluctance and mutual distrust. The detailed pencil illustrations scattered liberally throughout make the reading experience even more entertaining and addictive.