Come Tumbling Down – Seanan McGuire

“Every Heart a Doorway” was brilliant, but the sequels don’t feel like sequels. They don’t tell parts of a larger story. Characters stay two-dimensional. Which is to say that the later “Wayward Children” books don’t get the ‘lift’ that comes from being part of something bigger. Each stands or falls on its own.

As a book that has to stand on its own, “Come Tumbling Down” is okay but not outstanding. The world we are shown is too simple to carry the story, with vampires in their castles, scientists bringing corpses to lightning-powered life, and villagers who can be pushed so far before the pitchforks and torches come out. The characters have appeared in earlier books, but do not endear themselves to the reader.