Reviews

In a world straight out of a horror movie, one twin sister is adopted as a vampire's daughter, to be turned when she becomes of age, and the other is the mad scientist's apprenticed, to eventually become a lightning-wielding mad scientist herself.

But when the vampire's daughter makes one reckless mistake after another, the mad scientist's apprentice is forced to act.

...and that is where this book starts from. The entire backstory of Jack (the scientist) and Jill (the vampire-to-be) are taken from Down Among the Sticks and Bones, which is about the early lives of the twins and how they came to travel from our world to the horror movie one, and from Every Heart a Doorway, the award-winning novella about children returning from extraordinary worlds and not fitting into our world. Jack and Jill were in a school for misfits, longing for their home in another world.

There are two things I keep thinking about, namely that:

1. I like Seanan McGuire's writing, it's fun.
2. It's not mind-blowing. It's more of a comfortable, warm blanket.

And that's good! We need simple fun. But at the same time, on a closer analysis, it feels like something's missing.

In this particular book, Jack (the scientist) comes back to our world to ask for the help of other children. One gets in trouble the moment she steps into the world, another follows her. One is there for emotional support, I guess, and a last one will actually do something helpful with the quest. All in all, they are there in a horror world risking their lives to... not accomplish very much except be there for Jack, and, in one case, need rescuing. Which is fine, but it still gets treated like them fighting together, which I'm not 100% certain about.

Something didn't quite work here - perhaps the focus on the supporting cast, rather than Jack herself (although it was her story), and the way we see her struggles from the outside, as somewhat concerned and uncomprehending old and new friends.