Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has a more straight-forward narrative style rather than the more poetic one of the last few stories. Chronologically, it takes place after the events of Beneath the Sugar Sky. Books 4 and 4.5 are prequel novellas.

In addition to completing (maybe?) the story of the Wolcott sisters, McGuire continues to explore the themes they’ve been laying down throughout the series. What does it mean to ask children to “be sure”? How much trauma can children (and teens) take? And other topics like body dysphoria – taken to an extreme here with the main plot point.

As the back of the book text says, once again we have the students breaking the “no quests” rule. I’m unsure whether this is McGuire setting up a future conflict or backing themselves out of a narrative corner. The amount of time we’ve spent with Eleanor’s thoughts in books 3 and 5 make me think something is being set up here. Perhaps even something sinister. But I’m not sure.

I think if you’ve been enjoying this series of novellas and short stories so far, there’s no reason to stop now. This is both more of the same and an expansion of themes. I think it provides enough newness to keep from dulling my interest in the series. Looking at the Goodreads series page it seems that McGuire plans to release at least 10 novellas in the series. I think if there’s a narrative plan (McGuire being a plotter rather than a pantser) then I think we’re in for quite a treat because so far the stories have flowed well back and forth and even the prequels haven’t fallen victim to the usual annoying prequel tropes.

This is the last book I already owned in the series, so I’ll probably take a pause as I work my way through various series that I’m in the middle of. But I won’t remain far from this series for long!



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