Down among the sticks and bones

Before they ever reached Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, Jacqueline and Jillian Wolcott were the carefully arranged twin daughters of parents who cared more about appearances than about their children. Jacqueline was dressed in bows and kept spotless; Jillian was cropped and toughened into the son her father wanted. Neither girl was ever allowed to simply be herself.

Then, at twelve, the sisters discover a staircase inside an old trunk and descend into the Moors: a stark, thrilling, dangerous world of red skies, monstrous seas, resurrectionists, and a vampire lord who rules from a crag above the village. There, apart for the first time, Jack is taken as apprentice to the mad scientist Dr. Bleak while Jill is chosen by the Master — and each finds a belonging, and a self, that will set them on a collision course.

Seanan McGuire's gothic prequel deepens the Wayward Children series with a haunting fairy tale about nature, nurture, and the terrible freedom of being wanted for who you truly are.