Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

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.

This book went by very fast, and of course, it doesn't have that many pages but I never felt it like this with books in this series before. It felt for the first time like the story was really rushing through things.

I also don't love Cora as a character. One of the things that were great about these books was that all these kids are crazy because of the worlds they came from, but Cora takes that away somehow. She isn't insane because of the world she came from she just misses the feeling and all that, without the whole scarred by the things you have seen aspect which makes it feel wrong, she doesn't fit in with the stories. I hope the next books don't focus on Cora that much because I really dislike her character.

Breaking the no quests rule was absolutely the right thing to do. I think In an Absent Dream is still my favorite of the books, but this one comes close.

The bookest of the Wayward Children so far, this follows Jack and Jill in the aftermath of Jack killing Jill in the first book (and Jill getting better...) McGuire clearly loves Jack and Jill the most out of all of her characters, and it shows here: the characters are more developed and more nuanced than any of the others by this, their third appearance. (Unrelatedly, do boys ever get to be protagonists for McGuire? Kade and Christopher also put in their third appearances and still are flimsy setting material.) Taking a diverse cast into the monotone, horrific setting that is the Moors provides some dark humor and also some depth to what otherwise starts to feel bland in its darkness.

I liked that we actually got a narrative arc and I finally felt like I had a full story, both plot-wise and emotionally, of Jack and Jill. This was the first novella that actually felt satisfying. On the flip side, I don't actually enjoy Jack, Jill or the moors, so ups and downs. (I know, right? I don't actually like the sardonic female scientist character? Oh yeah, because she's a monster.) But overall, as a canon, the books are stronger than they are individually.