Review: Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (2020)

A flawed but enjoyable adventure in a land of monsters.

Come Tumbling Down is a 2020 novella by Seanan McGuire, and #5 in the Wayward Children series. It was a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella, and the Wayward Children books won the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series.

If you haven’t heard of Wayward Children, it’s a series of novellas that takes the concept of portal fantasy to an extreme. Children slip into secret worlds - think Narnia, Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland - and then get kicked out for some reason or another, often years later. The series focuses on a group of these children (now teenagers or young adults) as they struggle with their lives after returning to the “normal” world, desperate to find their doors once more. One such child, now an elderly woman, started a boarding school for these children to serve as a safe space for them: Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. These stories either all focus around events and adventures at the school, or tell the story of the adventure a child slipping through their door for the first time.

“Either he’d graduate and go home to parents who expected him to be interested in college, a career, what they called “the real world”, or he’d find a door of latticed bone and butterfly wings, interlaced with marigold petals, and he’d disappear for a second, and final, time. He know which ending he wanted.”

Hugo voters love this series. Every one has been a finalist (6 years in a row now), and it’s a safe bet that #7 will continue that trend. The books are unique enough that you can enjoy one and dislike another - a lot depends on the world and story McGuire decides to explore. These novellas tend to tightly follow a theme, feature diverse characters, and contain imaginative worlds. The first entry, Every Heart a Doorway, is a book I’d recommend to almost everyone. It's short, well-written, creative, and if you like it, there's a half-dozen others waiting for you. If you’re unsure, try #2 - it’s completely different.

“Whoever said heroism was fair?" she asked. "It's the unfairest thing of all. 'Come, oh human child, and learn to swing a sword for the sake of people who've decided the thing you're best for is dying in their name.' We were lambs for the slaughter, all of us, and if we've survived, it's not because we're special. Come on. Let's be heroes one more time.”

Come Tumbling Down reverses the formula: instead of lone child finding a door and entering it, one suddenly appears in the basement of the school, and out of it steps a former student looking for help. Although the school has a clear rule against it (“no quests”), a group of students assemble - and with permission from the headmistress - venture into the doorway to help. The world they enter is known as The Moors, a world of monsters and madness (also the setting of the second book in the series). The Moors can be thought of as an amalgamation of classic horror come to life - think the castle from Dracula, the lightning-powered mad science of Frankenstein, and a seaside village from The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

“The Moon has known my first breath, all three times I’ve taken it, and She loves me all the same.”

This premise has a lot of potential. McGuire crafts an engaging story around a challenging quest: storming the vampire’s castle and killing his beloved before the next full moon. It explores themes around heroism (and monstrosity), mental illness, and body dysmorphia. It is full of vivid imagery, moments of excellent prose, and a diverse set of characters with differing goals and motivations. McGuire does a good job at making sure each character stands out individually across the course of the quest. There’s a lot here that shines.

“Spending time with her was like trying to form a close personal relationship with a cloud of butterflies. Pretty—dazzling, even—but not exactly companionable”

But as I was reading I couldn't help feel that something got botched in execution -missing from the list above is any sense of fear. The first time readers visited The Moors, it was the traditional portal fantasy setup: you stumble into a world unknown and experience it through virgin eyes, which works phenomenally well for a horrorscape. But in Come Tumbling Down, there are few unknowns. Time has turned a once scared child into an seasoned master, and the reader is provided answers to questions they don’t get the chance to ask. The mystery is gone from The Moors, and with it any real sense of foreboding.

“A little knowledge never hurt anybody,” said Sumi.

“Perhaps not. But a great deal of knowledge can do a great deal of harm, and I'm long past the point of having only a little knowledge.”

At times it also felt crammed, too many well-defined characters in too small a space. While each character gets their time in the sun (or blood-red moonlight), perhaps a slightly smaller cast would allow for developments to be more meaningful. Overall, I thought it was a mistake to return to The Moors this way, and while I enjoyed my time with the book, I hope that McGuire brings us more adventures in new worlds. Come Tumbling Down didn't fully justify the return trip.

You should read Come Tumbling Down if:

• You’re a fan of the Wayward Children series (particularly book 2)

• You love horror aesthetics, regardless of how frightening it is.

• You want a quick tale of heroism in a land of monsters.