Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children)

I cannot fully articulate how perfect this little book is. A wonderful story much larger and more important than its small binding implies. I will recommend this book for years to come. Don't let this pass you by.

I REALLY wanted to love this novella... The idea was brilliant, and I'm not the first person I've heard saying they wished they'd come up with the idea! That being said... I hate to leave a less-than-stellar review on any book... It was just lacking in so many ways. With an idea that rich, it deserves a much longer treatment. It started out interesting, but then near the middle, it all of the sudden becomes a murder mystery--which was hugely disappointing. It was like all of the potential got swallowed up by a crime plot, which was fine for keeping the suspense going, but it felt... cheap? Given what it could have been, anyways. There are fantastic moments of the descriptions of all the worlds the kids had been to. But there were SO many moments where the plot fell through gigantic holes that were dismissed or glossed over. The dialog was really awkward and some of the characters seemed malformed (not in a macabre sense, in a literary sense!). There were endless easily-fixed writing mistakes that were surprising from such a seasoned and acclaimed author. The idea and premise kept this book afloat--I'm not sure it would have survived without it. Maybe she will write more of this world and work out the kinks? I hope so...

I also thought it was odd in the sense that it's mostly YA content, but there are a few really graphic moments that push it over into Adult, as far as I understand anyways. Like, they were just gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous and shocking, which is annoying to me. I have no problem whatsoever with shocking content in the proper contexts, but I don't like the feeling of being manipulated into thinking something is darker and edgier than it really is. The thing is, if the content was just a TINY bit less shocking-for-the-sake-of-it, it would be a fantastic YA novella about gender issues, belonging, social dynamics, embracing differences... But because of those few moments, I wouldn't think it would be allowed to be classified as YA. Correct me if I'm wrong...

Sigh...

By turns horrifying and beautiful, EVERY HEART A DOORWAY is one of those books that never really leaves you. Every fantasy you've ever had about finding a portal to another world seems suddenly so much closer than it did before, and for the first time you wonder if a magical journey would be such a good thing after all.

Review first posted on jenasbookreviews.blogspot.com.

Sometimes, for special children, doors open into new and fantastical lands. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, many of these children are thrown back months or even years later and left wanting to go back. Eleanor West was once one of those children but her door never closed and she has been back several times but instead of staying, she runs a home for those children who are trying to figure out life here after being there. Nancy is one who has just come back from a land of the dead and wants nothing more than to go back where things make sense to her but her parents want their bright, rainbow girl again so they have sent her to Ms. West's house. There Nancy meets Sumi (a child who visited a high nonsense land), Kade (who was in a fairy land but was thrown out when they discovered she was really a he), Jack and Jill (girl twins who were with a vampire lord), and Christopher (who traveled to the land of bones). There are many more in the school but those are the ones who seem to take an interest in being her friend and Nancy is trying to settle in but things change after Sumi is found murdered with her hands cut off. Now Nancy as the new girl from a land of the dead is suspect and her friends are with her in trying to uncover who the real murderer is.

So many things to say about this book. I loved the diversity of the characters! The worlds were amazing but we get to know so little about them and I wanted to know so much more. This is really more of a novella than a full novel which means there is more worldbuilding than we would normally see in a short story so therefore so much more to tease us with but not enough time to go in depth with anything. This is truly Nancy's story so we get everything from her perspective and the details on her world but really, there seem to be so many stories to tell here and I really hope we get to have more of them.

Dark and twisted - well of course, it's by Seanan McGuire - haunting and poignant beyond words, here is a story of a boarding school for those of us who encountered magic once upon a time and desperately want the lightning to strike twice.

I always hated the trope of characters having a magical adventure and then FORGETTING them. Even Kipling resorted to this in the Puck of Pook's Hill stories. But McGuire presents a compelling argument for the mercy of forgetfullness: thise kids are tormented by the memory of what they've lost: the Neverland, Wonderland, Otherwhere they stumbled into, then out of. It's especially awful for the ones who chose to come back to this realm out of a sense of kindness and planned to go right back to where they really belonged - only to lose the portal and be trapped on this side. These kids cannot just resign themselves to Mundania, because they know there really is something better: it's really out there, i only you can find it. Again. Here's the thing: some of them do get a second chance to go back to the realm they long for, this time to stay. So they search, or try to recreate the conditions that opened the portal, or resort to rituals that might force an opening. Sometimes these efforts end in disaster and tragedy. Other times….

This one may break your heart, but wow! If you ever loved Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Water Babies, or Coraline, this one is for you.

What happens to children who spend time in other worlds, those who went through the strange door that wasn't there before, or the staircase inside a trunk, and now return to their parents and family. When they want to return to that other world and can't, their family has a chance to send them to a special school to help them adjust to the real world and forget about the fantasy, at least that's what their families think. The main character Nancy has just come to the school when murders start happening, she and a small number of students must work together to solve them to keep the school safe and ultimately themselves a safe place to live.
Fast read that I didn't want to put down until it was solved and what was going to happen with some of the students and Nancy. Sex is briefly discussed, but mostly this book deals with young adults and issues of fitting in, or not, takes the forefront.

This is a stunningly beautiful book. It grabs you by surprise too, starting with a nice slow set-the-scene introduction -- and then BAM, it grabs you and whisks you off into its magical land of not-actually-a-magical-land-and-that's-the-point. The premise of a school/recovery house for children who have gone into magical worlds and returned is brilliant and the mystery that crops-up in the start of the book is equal parts engrossing and horrifying. This book is a fast read, or at least it was for me because I could hardly put it down. I think I hardly even breathed while I was reading it, and the only reason I <i>did</i> put it down once was because I decided that I wanted to drag the enjoyment out to the next morning rather than staying up to the wee hours to finish all in a rush. If I hadn't deliberately indulged myself like that I could have easily finished it in one sitting and been left both totally satisfied by the conclusion and simultaneously wanting a million, trillion more pages of this brilliant world and its glorious characters. The representation was wonderful too! And not just in terms of "types of magical portal worlds" either, but actual representation in terms of diverse characters whose backgrounds and identities were even woven in to the plot and events and pivotal parts of their histories and abilities and experiences! There was nothing about this book that was not a sheer, unadulterated delight and I am head-over-heels in love with every single word on every single page. I'm not sure if it's possible to write a "perfect" book but this one comes damn close. I don't want to talk about details because I don't think a single moment of this story should be spoiled for anyone who means to read it, and I think everyone should read it as soon as they can get their hands on a copy! An absolutely glorious piece of fiction.

This story had so much promise. It had elements of all the best stories, but focused too much on the oddities of the characters. The lead was a transgendered male (born female). It was over explained and way over emphasized. The second lead was asexual - again too much emphasis on sexuality. It’s like the author substituted sexuality with true character development. It’s fine that both characters were LGBTQ, but for heaven’s sake, make that a minor quality - not the most important thing about them.
Also, this is supposed to be YA. I found the content to be a little too much for that age group.

An Agatha Christie style murder mystery set in a fey boarding school whose students and faculty are refugees from alternate fantasy worlds they've fallen out of. It's charming and touching; and you'll believe in the characters.

A few of the worlds are described, and maybe you'll wish the book was longer, so that you'll learn more about them. But the good news is this is the first of a series, and the second one is just out.

Don't pass this one by.

NOTES AND ASIDES: Murder, mystery, mayhem, and magic. Not for under 13s.

I love "Every Heart a Doorway" so much. The concept is simple yet infinitely explorable. The characters are relatable, and have surprising complexity for a book that isn't terribly long. McGuire turns a handful of stereotypes on their heads, sometimes boldly, sometimes subtly, including those of love, friendship, and gender identity. I can see why this book has turned so many heads, and now I think I must go track down the author's other books...

I was searching for material by McGuire because I so loved a short story by her I read in Lightspeed. I read Rosemary and Rue which was pretty bad (am early work) and found this on line. It was not at all what I expected. The doorways are "real" and the descriptions of each individual are complex and loving - even when the characters are not so loving. It made me look at my loved ones in a wholly different way. It is a short read but long on thought.

This book is for everyone who ever wanted to throw a book across a room because the character who'd fallen or found their way into some sort of fairyland wanted to come back to this world. A wonderfully written story I'll be reading over and over.

I found this just okay. I understand why people love this series and want more of it. It was confusing to me and somethings weren’t explained. That being said I would definitely continue on with the series, because even though I didn’t understand their world I need more.

Every Heart a Doorway has a great premise: how would the children who visited places like Oz, Wonderland, Narnia, or Never Never Land deal with life in our world after their return? After experiencing such fantastic adventures, everyday life on earth might seem rather mundane and dissatisfying.

It's a great concept and there are some genuinely wonderful ideas in this novel but the overall execution struck me as preachy and even clumsy at times. The book's main point seems to be about belonging, about finding where you fit into the world, even if you're a misfit. That's a highly relatable premise, especially to young readers. Many people feel alienated or lack a sense of belonging, particularly in their teens. I certainly experienced those feelings. Unfortunately, this book hammers the point home with a sledgehammer, practically pandering in its efforts to emphasize that the teenage characters are misunderstood by everyone from their parents to the outside world. In fact, they don't feel they belong in the world at all and the school is just the best haven they can find to share their mutual disappointment in living away from their various fantasylands.

The novel takes further missteps in its efforts at representation. It has been praised for those efforts (warning: quite a few spoilers ahead). The main character is asexual. There is a trans character. There are people of color in the story. That kind of representation can be a positive thing but this book deals with identity by checklist, as if the author was casting a politically correct bridge crew for the next incarnation of Star Trek. These characteristics aren't really explored and they barely inform the characters at all.

The characters, like the premise, are somewhat underdeveloped and Seanan McGuire chooses to focus on a few misfits who long to live out what I can only describe as a goth fantasy. Her protagonists range from morbid (Nancy, the main character, desperately wants to return to the Halls of the Dead, where she can live out her days remaining as still as a statue) to monstrous (Jack, a key character who describes removing a man's lungs "while he was still alive, awake, and trying to talk" as casually as if he's describing a bird in a tree outside the window). Nancy's longing is no doubt a metaphor for the desire a misfit teen feels to blend in and avoid trouble (or notice) but having these characters return to dark worlds where they can live out their unhealthy desires is a distinctly ghoulish, unhealthy goal on which to hang a book. After all, as readers, we are being asked to root for Nancy to return to the colorless Halls of the Dead, where screams are not uncommon and she can spend her days motionless!

Halfway through the story, an unengaging murder mystery develops that has a fairly predictable outcome and involves the characters acting in wildly irresponsible ways.

In the end (BIG spoiler ahead), Nancy gets to return to the Land of the Dead. Her doorway opens and she steps through it without hesitation. It costs her nothing. Her choice isn’t difficult and she does little more than wish her way there.

There's a great book lurking within the basic premise of Every Heart A Doorway but this novel is clumsily executed and full of undeveloped ideas and unlikeable characters.

I love Seanan McGuire's books. I love her "Wicked Girls" CD. EVERY HEART A DOORWAY is a story that fits right into her songs, "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" and "My Story Is Not Done." Nancy is a new student at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, a boarding school for "all the lost girls who came out of the rain," the Dorothys and Alices who fell down the rabbit hole and want desperately to find their way home. Eleanor West was one of those girls herself (they're primarily girls - missing boys get noticed more) and runs this school for those like herself. Some were in lands ruled by Nonsense (think Wonderland) or Logic, Wicked or Virtue. Nancy was in an Underworld, a land of the dead. Planning on returning there some day, she sticks to her goth wardrobe, rejecting the bright colors and company of the girls who visited worlds full of rainbows and unicorns. The problem is, Ms. West's home isn't quite the safe haven it's supposed to be.

This the first of a new series. I can't wait to read the next - which really tears me in two, because I also eagerly await the next Incryptid book.

Set in Evelyn West's School for Wayward Children, the children in question are not your typical troublemakers - they are the children who found the doors to other worlds, go walkabout in them, and then come back and must learn to deal with all that entails.

Nancy, a recently enrolled student, is having a tough time adjusting to the world of her birth. No longer truly "home" for her, she - and all the rest of the students - longs to find the door back to that other world. Bewildered at first, she does make some friendly acquaintances who try to help her acclimate to the school. But then the murders start, and she's a suspect. It's a race to find the culprit before the outside world learns of the problem.

I read this in less than a day, and it speaks to everyone who ever looked for one of those special doors to anywhere else. It's also for all those who feel different from everyone around them (Nancy is asexual, Kade is transgender, and there's more than one neuro-atypical person) and longs to be understood. It's a fantastic read, and I hope this is but the first foray into this world.

I had such mixed feelings about this book. I have read several other books by the same author, including her Kindle serials, so I knew her modern fantasy leanings, her use of stories as teachable moments, and her fascination with the idea of the narratives that define us. This book felt like a slightly longer Kindle serial and seemed like it should have been the start of something longer, although the ending of the book gives us a clear resolution.

This book, and its protagonists, are almost, but not quite, a bunch of different things. It was almost YA, but not quite. Shorter than a novel, longer than a chapter in a serialized story, but not quite satisfying in the novella format. The ending was supposed to be joyous (I think), but I found it heartbreakingly sad. I read it as an allegory, but maybe a should have embraced it a story.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who's ever felt like an outcast, and to fans of the author's other work. It's not quite what I wanted it to be, but it did leave me hoping for more stories set in this world, and I hope the author will revisit it soon.

Every Heart a Doorway is about a teenaged girl named Nancy and her time at a boarding school for wayward children. A “wayward child” is a child who stumbled into and spent time in a magical world and were later ejected. Some of these children want nothing more than to go back to the worlds they found, unable to readjust back in the “real” world. When their parents can’t cope with their altered child’s return, they send them here.

The first few pages seem, at first, to be similar to many fantasy stories involving a school but that quickly changes as McGuire wastes very little time introducing her small cast of quirky characters. The students of the school are lovably bizarre and delightfully tinted with various shades of darkness. Not evil, per say, (though some may be) but the range of other worlds hinted at in this book makes it feel like something strange, whatever its alignment, lurks just below the surface of each character. The diversity represented here is something that’s rare as well. There is a wide range of atypical personalities and lifestyles inhabiting this school, Nancy herself being asexual. Gender identity and and mental illness are also subtly, beautifully present in main and supporting characters. It’s nice to see a variety of well written characters whose traits are not only a little different than the standard tropes but also culturally and socially relevant in a non-political way.

The message of the book is ultimately one of love and tolerance. There’s a mystery to be solved and various worlds to learn about and McGuire delivers a satisfying tale in these 170 or so pages, and therein lies perhaps my only complaint: I wish there was more. Much more! McGuire’s imagination is clearly vast and twisted. She’s also a pretty skilled writer in that though the book may be short it’s not because it’s a “short story” but more that she doesn’t waste any words or pages. And, often, I would consider that a good thing. It is. It is a good thing to be a skilled writer. But I want so badly to explore these other worlds more! I won’t go into any details, but I found some of the studies and rules going in the school/world(s) so fascinating that I wish the book was 200 pages longer just to flesh some of those things out. I think just a little more depth may have helped the climax be a bit stronger as well. I also really enjoyed being with a few of the characters and would love to spend more time with them.

While this works very well on its own, I believe it is the first in a trilogy so I know there is opportunity to return to these characters and places. I’m very glad that I picked this up and that it lived up to the positive buzz surrounding it. I can’t wait to see what the next installment has in store.

Oh where to start. The author presents the facinating idea that reports of travel to alternate worlds (think the wardrobe in Narnia, think Alice and the rabbit hole etc.) are real. So there are schools about to help those, who can be identified to have travelled and who might have been gone and presumed victims of horrible crimes for years, to arrive back in the mundane world and to cope. I loved the idea and premises of the book. The idea is unique and I was hooked. I wanted to find out about the worlds people had been to and how they had lived there and how they they coped being back. We have an a-sexual main character and a further trans character, which I both loved because there are way too few of them around in fiction and they are much needed to diversify the reading experience and provide a sense of normalcy to, both, the general (sometimes ignorant public) and individuals self-identifying as trans or a-sexual. Having said that, both themes do not play any central role in the book, which I applaud for conveying exactly that sense of normalcy.

So all good until here, so what did not work then?

SPOILERS ahead: Once the idea of the book has been explained and the main character arrived, the plot feels very rushed any many ideas and the characters are not particularily well fleshed out. The characters remain very pale and partially one dimensional - displaying the exact self same reaction over and over again - Example: The headmistress's reaction to three consecutive fatalities is each time round: 'Oh dear, what shall we do? As long as I am haedmistress they shall not close us down, do not walk around alone, stick together and go to your rooms' - Bam, that is it. We are told the school has been open for decades and headed by the same head mistress. We were also told she had plans, what to tell despairing parents, should their kid find the way back to their parallel world again against all odds and yet, she has no contingency plans, there is no getting in other headmasters of similar schools, no board of directors meeting - no adequate reaction, nothing, just 'Oh dear!' and hand-wringing. That to me is utterly unbelievable. Also another student just states the same hateful tropes on different occasions, never varying, never developing and just fullfilling the function of the bullying character (without motivation fears, hopes, redeeming factors of her own).

There is a host of characters being introduced, I really wanted to find out more about but throughtout the book, we do not get to find out how the characters around feel and cope, hope and deal with their experiences. We do not get to find out how they feel the school they find themselves at.

Similarly, the school setting is never explored or even used. Pre - we are not taken to attend classes, find out what is being taught and how, what the school for the most part actually looks like inside and out, how it feels to walk its corridors etc. The story plays at a school but never actually get to experience it.

Once the story gets started with the first fatality the character who has not even properly settled yet is forced into allience with other uneasy charcters and their actions are never quite believable because the speed in which the event unfold is off and because these students do not even really know each let alone care for each other, which is why their actions come off as forced.

This book reads like a sketch of ideas that were to be devolped into a proper story at a later stage. And that is such a shame. These ideas deserved to be fully explored. As it is, it left me dissatisfied.

By turns horrifying and beautiful, EVERY HEART A DOORWAY is one of those books that never really leaves you. Every fantasy you've ever had about finding a portal to another world seems suddenly so much closer than it did before, and for the first time you wonder if a magical journey would be such a good thing after all.

I distinctly remember the feeling I had after reading Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, how Alice would find real life dreadfully boring and predictable. No one to do silly things with, even if you got irritated with them. Would she always want to go back?

The kids who went to Narnia did, and went often throughout their lives. So, Seanan McGuire, thinking of all the kids who went through some type of magic door and came back again, whether from fiction, myth or folklore has written a book about them. Curious and curiouser.

What a cool idea - what happens to all those children who disappear into alternate worlds, then are forced to return back here against their will? Depending on the type of world that were in, adjustment to our reality can be impossible. They won't want to be here. The children will act strange. Parents will medicate and force behavior modification, but it just won't stick.

The solution: Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Girls

To parents who were holding on by the skin of their teeth, the Home provided a place to dump their problematic offspring with the hope that a cure for their rare disorder would happen eventually.

To the girls, it was a haven where they could be understood and surrounded by like minded sisters from all kinds of world's.

That doesn't mean they get along, or won't do everything possible to get back to each separate world they love. And herein lies the story.

A grand and tragic adventure, which leads to hope and triumph. If my kids were younger, I would read this to them in a heartbeat. The longing of the girls is almost tangible. Each world is so unique and creative. The plotting on the axes of world types was a stroke of brilliance. The entire book just read like a classic to me. I believe it will endure the passage of time, remaining as relevant as Narnia, Alice, Peter Pan and other children's classics about children and fictional world's.

Five stars just isn't enough!

B R A V O. S E A N A N ! S T A N D I N G O V A T I O N ! ?

Review first posted on jenasbookreviews.blogspot.com.

Sometimes, for special children, doors open into new and fantastical lands. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, many of these children are thrown back months or even years later and left wanting to go back. Eleanor West was once one of those children but her door never closed and she has been back several times but instead of staying, she runs a home for those children who are trying to figure out life here after being there. Nancy is one who has just come back from a land of the dead and wants nothing more than to go back where things make sense to her but her parents want their bright, rainbow girl again so they have sent her to Ms. West's house. There Nancy meets Sumi (a child who visited a high nonsense land), Kade (who was in a fairy land but was thrown out when they discovered she was really a he), Jack and Jill (girl twins who were with a vampire lord), and Christopher (who traveled to the land of bones). There are many more in the school but those are the ones who seem to take an interest in being her friend and Nancy is trying to settle in but things change after Sumi is found murdered with her hands cut off. Now Nancy as the new girl from a land of the dead is suspect and her friends are with her in trying to uncover who the real murderer is.

So many things to say about this book. I loved the diversity of the characters! The worlds were amazing but we get to know so little about them and I wanted to know so much more. This is really more of a novella than a full novel which means there is more worldbuilding than we would normally see in a short story so therefore so much more to tease us with but not enough time to go in depth with anything. This is truly Nancy's story so we get everything from her perspective and the details on her world but really, there seem to be so many stories to tell here and I really hope we get to have more of them.

And more. I have always wondered what happened to kids who return from magical adventures. Are they happy to be home? How do they cope with an ordinary life? I'm so glad Seanan crossed that bridge and told that story

Beautifully crafted book. An amazing premise, striking world(s), whimsical and insightful writing, extremely memorable characters, lgbtqa+ representation, asexual protagonist, and a magic that can't be put into words. For anyone who's disappointed by the length and wants more, this is the first book in a series!

Dark and twisted - well of course, it's by Seanan McGuire - haunting and poignant beyond words, here is a story of a boarding school for those of us who encountered magic once upon a time and desperately want the lightning to strike twice.

I always hated the trope of characters having a magical adventure and then FORGETTING them. Even Kipling resorted to this in the Puck of Pook's Hill stories. But McGuire presents a compelling argument for the mercy of forgetfullness: thise kids are tormented by the memory of what they've lost: the Neverland, Wonderland, Otherwhere they stumbled into, then out of. It's especially awful for the ones who chose to come back to this realm out of a sense of kindness and planned to go right back to where they really belonged - only to lose the portal and be trapped on this side. These kids cannot just resign themselves to Mundania, because they know there really is something better: it's really out there, i only you can find it. Again. Here's the thing: some of them do get a second chance to go back to the realm they long for, this time to stay. So they search, or try to recreate the conditions that opened the portal, or resort to rituals that might force an opening. Sometimes these efforts end in disaster and tragedy. Other times….

This one may break your heart, but wow! If you ever loved Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Water Babies, or Coraline, this one is for you.

Premise. It is nearly a horror story, with some imagination thrown in. Of course, anyone who has survived teen years will get it. Some place else must be better than Here. Teen yrs and high school are a horror story all on their own.
How many of us really survived?

While this story has plenty of familiar echoes of passages to fantasy worlds (Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, the Magicians, etc), it's a unique experience that speaks to anyone who has ever been a teenager.

TW: gore, transphobia

Wow this was pretty amazing. I originally tried reading Every Heart a Doorway sometime last year and I ended up DNFing it because I couldn't get into it. But then as the months went by I was seeing more and more raving reviews on the internet so I finally decided I needed to give it another try soon. Finally, that has happened and I am so happy I decided to give it another shot!

The characters are by far the best part of this story. I love Nancy so much as a main character. Her door/world that she went into sounds so interesting and I am definitely interested in learning more about the Halls of the Dead. Nancy is asexual, a sexuality we unfortunately don't see enough in literature so it was really cool to read an asexual character. Especially for someone like me who is demisexual, so I am on the asexual spectrum. I like that Nancy's asexuality is causal and not the only thing about her that makes her interesting. Same with our trans character, Kade. His trans identity is something he's open and unashamed about, but he is more interesting for other reasons too. I really loved his character. He's sweet and protective over his friends. I really loved his connection with Eleanor also. Eleanor is such a sweet leader who honestly reminded me of Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter. She was strict, but soft and loves her students. Christopher was a character I feel like I was most intrigued by when it came to the world he fell into. I loved the idea of his world (and Nancy's) and wish we got more of it. I also really loved Sumi, Jack, & Jill but I wish we got more of them because I didn't feel as connected to them as I did Nancy, Kade, and Christopher. The great thing about this cast of characters is that they easily become this really tight knit group. This book is so short I was worried a handful of characters would be too much to really get to know them and have them connect but I easily believed they were a little family.

The plot, although a lot of fun, definitely took a seat back behind the characters. Like I said earlier, the book is very short so we didn't have a lot of time to have a well developed plot. Especially since the characters took up so much of the time. However, the murder mystery definitely had me interested, even if the answer to the mystery was easy for me to guess. I didn't mind that all that much because I was still really enjoying the story and writing. I do think the biggest downfall to this book is the size. I think a longer book would have given the writer more time to really build the mystery but it would also give the reader more time with the characters, especially the ones we don't get a lot of.

The writing is so well done. It definitely takes talent to write such a short book and have the characters and world so well developed. The idea of kids going into magical worlds and having to come back to our normal world and deal with it is such an interesting concept. I never thought about how Alice, Wendy, the Pevensie siblings, etc would have to deal with such colorful (or not, in Nancy's case) memories and just wanting to go back to their world. I love the concept and it's done exceptionally well.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. I already have the sequel (or prequel I suppose, from what I've heard) on request at my local library so I cannot wait to continue the series. If you have ever dreamed, wished, ached to live in your favorite fictional worlds like Hogwarts, Wonderland, Neverland, Narnia, etc this book was written for you. If you have felt ridiculed for your love for fictional worlds, this book was written for you. It's gorgeous and I think it beautifully connects us dreamers together.

3.5 stars. This was my first Seanan McGuire book, and I really enjoyed it.

EVERY HEART A DOORWAY reminded me a lot of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and with me being such a huge Alice fan, I was automatically in. The first book follows Nancy who has just come back from an underworld. She goes to a special school for those who have gone to other worlds and come back. Unfortunately, upon her arrival, strange things start happening and people are dying.

This book is not a thriller. It is not up to Nancy and her friends to figure out the killer. There is some mystery if you try to figure out who is killing students, but I found it easy to just sit back and listen and let the story go where it may.

I really enjoyed the whimsical elements and prose. I adored the worlds and how there were so many that are creepy yet beautiful. I enjoyed how every world is different, and the way in which McGuire described each one and each student.

This book is incredibly short. I found the introduction into the series well done and thought out. However, I felt the secondary part of the story (because the different worlds definitely take precedence) felt like an afterthought and rushed. I wish this part of the story had been a bit more fleshed out. I also did not feel like I was really able to connect with Nancy or any of the other characters. A lot were introduced, but not a lot of time was devoted to us getting to know them.

I listened to this book, and felt like it really transported me into the story. In the beginning, I felt like it made the book a bit hard to follow as I was bing introduced, but once I was settled in, listening made the story that much better.

Overall, I really enjoyed EVERY HEART A DOORWAY. It is almost lyrically written, and I cannot wait to read about Jack and Jill in book 2.

Seanan McGuire’s novella Every Heart a Doorway poses an interesting question: what happens to the children who return from their adventures from places like Wonderland? At Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, students are learning to cope with returning to the “real” world. For some, the transition is difficult. How can you accept your place in the world when you always want to return to another? For others, the transition feels impossible. Why stay in a world that does not see you for who you are when you can go home to the place that let you be yourself instead of a version forced upon you by others? McGuire’s novella is enchanting and haunting. I loved that each child had their own world that they escaped to, that made sense to them even when it didn’t to those with similar experiences. There are dark Underworlds and bright ones, some with logical foundations and others that thrive on nonsense. While Nancy is the protagonist of this short story, I was really drawn to Jack. She’s such an animated character. The fact that she apprenticed for a mad scientist and carried all these eccentricities back into this world made her such an interesting character. The mystery in this one felt short-lived, but that’s understandable for a novella. The ending was not what I expected. I thought Nancy had gotten to a place of acceptance and so I was surprised by the conclusion. All the children’s stories were so intriguing, I wouldn’t have minded a full-length novel and am happy to discover the next novella in this series covers Jack and her sister Jill’s story. I’d recommend Every Heart a Doorway to anyone who enjoys fantasy stories that involve hidden doors and portals to unseen worlds, and who ever wondered what happens to those who come back.

Actual rating 3.75 stars.

Such a colourful world that exists in this novel. Reminded me of ‘Hex Hall’ by Rachel Hawkins and ‘The Darkest Part of the Forest’ by Holly Black.

I loved the descriptions of all the realms existing through the other ends of doorways – portals to other worlds. But I am still trying to figure out why – what is the purpose of the doorways – how are they all connected... and what it means to the story. It wasn’t answered in this first instalment, but with another three books in the series ready to read, I still might yet get my answers.

The characters are all very interesting – colours of personality, identity, gender, sexuality, all mixed in with quips and foibles. Such a delicious array of characters, McGuire’s writing style stands out in shining holographic light. Maybe an author from a Nonsense world?

Nancy, as the protagonist was probably the most sedate of all – a little uninteresting, but it was great to get exposure to the worlds behind doorways through her eyes. Experience her own world and the yearning to return to it. How ‘normal’ people assumed that they were all mentally ill, suffering a breakdown or possessed an overactive imagination.

She had a quiet strength that only appeared when absolutely necessary.

Such a diverse cast. An asexual protagonist and a transgendered friend – I love the way the issues were dealt with, how they were introduced, like they weren’t anything new or unusual. It’s something that happens, like breathing. If only attitudes were like this in real life.

The plot twists were masterfully crafted and I did not see them coming. For such a short novel this really packs a wallop. The one downside is that I did not get enough of the bigger questions resolved, just a few of the smaller plot points. But it is a series, so I am excited to see where this is all going. Definitely picking up ‘Down Among the Stick and Bones’ very soon.

I felt like I was flying through this book, the chapters are shortish and introduce a plot point or tidbit of information and kept the pace going right until the end. I had to spread this out over a week or so because of my lack of free time but will definitely be re-reading this before long – maybe marathon the entire series. Sounds like fun. Especially since I was so impressed with the writing, it’s promising. Totally recommend!

The ideas were good, but the execution was, well, I'd describe it as Tumblrish. There's conflation of sexual preferences with sexual orientation and rambling about those to a point that goes beyond what's relevant to people you aren't interested in dating. Lots of Tumblresque social commentary written in a way that wouldn't convince anyone who doesn't already agree with it (I do mostly agree with it, but still). The social interactions aren't very natural and read like fanfic. Everyone's kind of morbid. Everyone talks like they've been to therapy.

My biggest complaint is that this book and the next book in the series mutually spoil each other. I've read the second book in the series (despite giving this one two stars- because they're short and fast and easy I guess), and I liked it more than this one, but basically its entire outline is covered in this book as backstory. If you read it first though, the murder mystery of this book won't quite work as such.

It's not classified as YA because it has some mild sexual content and swearing and morbidity and gore. But that said, I know from the internet and from my youth that this is what teenagers actually talk about and like, so I think it's really written for teens and the only reason it isn't classified as YA is so that parents won't complain. There's always that contrast between what teens think about and talk about unsupervised versus what their parents are comfortable with them knowing, you know? Anyway, look, the kids are going to find ways to talk and think and read about this stuff no matter what you do, so just let them have it.

"She was a story, not an epilogue."

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is the last stop for the girls—because they are overwhelmingly girls—who managed to slip away unnoticed and pass through a magic door into another world.

They never find the same things in their worlds. Some are Nonsense while others thrive on the rules of Logic. Some are Wicked and others are high Virtue. But even with their differences the worlds all have something in common: for the children who find them they feel like home.

And for the Wayward Children the doors have closed to them—maybe forever. So now they have to learn to move on. If they can.

After her time in the Halls of the Dead, Nancy doesn’t think it’s so simple. Now that she’s surrounded by other exiles like herself the only certainty is that they are trapped together until their doors appear again. If they do.

When students at the school become victims of grisly murders Nancy seems the obvious suspect. She knows she isn’t the killer but she doesn’t know how convince anyone else of that—or to find the real culprit—anymore than she knows how to get back home in Every Heart a Doorway (2016) by Seanan McGuire.

Every Heart a Doorway is the start of McGuire's Wayward Children series of novellas.

The Wayward Children are an inclusive group including the protagonist of this volume Nancy who is wary of the school partly because it is not her beloved Halls of the Dead and partly because she isn't sure how the other students will react when she tells them she is asexual.

McGuire's novella is well-realized and introduces readers to not just one fully-realized world but many, This story is an interesting exercise in form (as a completely contained novella) as well as genre. Within the portal fantasy framework McGuire leads her characters through a mystery, a horror story, and even a traditional coming-of-age story. And that's just in this first installment.

Every Heart a Doorway is a wild ride and a thoughtful exploration of magic and its cost as well as a wry commentary on the mechanics of fairy tales. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert, The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, The Perilous Gard by Mary Elizabeth Pope, Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

This is one of the most uniquely imaginative series I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I’m going to assume that, if you’re the kind of person who regularly reads book reviews, you were also the kind of child who grew up dreaming of impossible, faraway worlds. Of places like Neverland, Narnia, or Wonderland, and the sorts of adventures that children from classic stories always seemed to stumble across unexpectedly. Of enchanted doors in the most unlikely of places, and the promise of a world in which you belonged, easily and effortlessly.

But what if you did happen across one of these portals? What if you spent years of your life truly living out your dreams? And what if, one day, you stumbled across a second door, and found yourself abruptly thrust back into the real world?

This is a series about those children—the ones who have been irrevocably changed by their adventures, but find themselves forced to return the harsh, overly logical reality of our world. These are stories of identity and belonging and dreams, written with a breathtaking blend of whimsy and sincerity.

Every Heart a Doorway has a wide cast of characters, but it begins with Nancy—a teenage girl who wants nothing more than to return to the fantastical underworld where she spent the happiest years of her life. Unfortunately, she’s been been forced to return from her adventure, and has been struggling ever since to readjust to a “normal” life. Her parents think she’s delusional. Nobody will take any of her stories about where she’s been seriously. When she arrives at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, though, Nancy discovers she’s not alone. Every one of her classmates has returned from their own adventures in magical worlds, and is just as much of a misfit as she is.

I don’t want to get into the plot too much—it's so short that I’d feel as though I was giving too much away. What I can say is that this book is unusual and quirky, and somehow manages to be both warm and funny and morbid, occasionally at the same time.

I was so pleasantly surprised to realize how diverse this series is! Nancy is on-the-page asexual, and this aspect of her identity was addressed so wonderfully. There’s a lot more representation when it comes to the side characters, too—Kade is a trans guy, Christopher is Mexican-American, Sumi is Japanese, and Jack is a sapphic girl (I can’t remember if this is obvious in the first novella bc they’re all kind of blending together in my head, but it’s def confirmed in book two).

Content warnings: character death, transphobia (challenged)

Wow. Just wow. This book was fantastic and I completely fell in love with it!

Now with that out of the way lets get into the actual review, where I will explain why exactly I loved this book so much. (Though it might be more of a gush than an actual review.)

The whole premise of this story intrigued me. Children returning from other worlds and then trying to adjust to a “normal” life – it’s a topic that I didn’t know I needed to read about until I heard about this book, but now I just want more and more! Growing up the series that actually got me into reading was The Chronicles of Narnia and I always wondered what it was like for the Pevensie siblings to return to their everyday life. This book answered some of those questions that I had.

The characters within this story were definitely my favourite part of it. I found all of them fascinating and I wanted to know more about them. That doesn’t usually happen, especially which shorter books like this one. The characters within this story are very diverse, which I appreciated greatly. One of the characters was asexual and I found the representation of it amazing! I have never encountered a character within a story that explicitly stated they were asexual. Finding this representation made me especially happy, seeing that I’m asexual myself. (Not sure if you were aware of that fact or not.)

The plot of the story was interesting, but not the strongest aspect of this book. The mystery, which I won’t mention in any detail because of spoilers, was rather predictable. I just don’t think that there was enough time to build and develop the plot more, as this book was rather short (which I keep mentioning for some reason). Still, I enjoyed it a lot – some things were unpredictable and I enjoyed the darker and more gruesome aspects of this book a lot.

Overall, this book was fantastic and I would highly recommend it to everyone! I can’t wait to get my hands on the other books in this series, I just NEED them in my life. Hopefully I will be able to get them soon!

Nancy once found a doorway to a different world. She entered and loved where she ended up. However, her time there wasn't unlimited and she's back. Staying with her parents proves to be difficult after all the time she was elsewhere, so she ends up at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, a home that's filled with children like Nacy. They've all found ways into some kind of magical world and most of them long to be there again.

Something isn't right in the home, the peaceful existence they've managed to achieve has suddenly come to an end. Someone is committing horrible crimes and the staff and the children who are staying in the home are at risk. Nancy and her friends need to discover who's behind the gruesome attacks, so they can keep themselves and others safe. Will they be able to find answers before it's too late and this person strikes again?

Every Heart a Doorway is a fantastic story. I was immediately intrigued by the worlds Seanan McGuire describes. She divides them into Nonsense and Logic worlds, which is a brilliant idea. I loved the mystery behind the crimes in the home, the various magical lands and the memories the children have of them. Nancy is a strong and clever girl and I liked her from the beginning. She can stand up for herself, she's a good friend and she knows what she does and doesn't like. This makes her an amazing main character and I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough to see what would happen to her.

Seanan McGuire's vivid writing style always manages to pull me into her stories straight away. Every Heart a Doorway is spellbinding and original. It's an impressive and incredibly well written book. I love how creative Seanan McGuire's plots are, how skilled she is at world building and how thoroughly she makes every scene come to life. Every Heart a Doorway is a very special story filled with suspense, magic and power. I highly recommend this beautiful book.

A friend on GoodReads recommended this book to me, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Honestly, I told him I wanted something really short that I could read quickly.  

In that regard, Every Heart a Doorway is a raging success.

The concept of the book is fascinating.  We've all heard of those kids in stories who visit other realms, worlds, or dimensions.  This book deals with what happens when they come home ... but want to go back.

It also delves into the fabric of each kind of world that exists beyond.  Because the story takes place at a school, there is some explanation as to the general laws and rules of each world the various children have visited.  Again, this is a very cool concept. 

My only complaint is that the actual plot did not spark my interest all that much.  I adored the idea of dissatisfied travelers who want nothing more than to go back to their fantasy world.  I also love the idea of trying to categorize each world in an effort to force some semblance of sense upon them. 

The story, though, is primarily about a series of grotesque murders occurring on the school grounds.  Something of a mystery ensues revolving around the fact that very specific parts of bodies are being taken from each victim.

Furthermore, there's plenty of teenage angst in the dialogue.  Lots of feeling shunned and out of place.  During those moments, it became obvious I am not the target audience for this book.

However, I appreciated the quick pace, the vivid descriptions, and the very imaginative concepts.    

This first installment of the Wayward Children (because yes, there’s more) basically consists of the fairy tales you know and love turned on their head, modernized, and made awesome.

Summary:

When Nancy originally went missing, her parents were frantic. What they didn’t expect was to find her again in the basement, nearly a year later, claiming to have spent time in the Halls of the Dead, where the Lord of the Dead is waiting for her. Unsure about what to do, they send Nancy to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children to be “rehabilitated.”

This home, though, is unlike any other. All of the children, like Nancy, have gone through their own doors and visited different worlds, each classified between Logic and Nonsense, Virtue and Wicked. Most of the students, like Nancy, just want to go back to the worlds that cast them out, the worlds that had come to be their homes. Only, very few students ever find their door again.

The odds seem even less in their favor when students start turning up dead. Someone in the school is murdering students for body parts, and it’s anything but a fairy tale.

The Positives:

- I read it in one sitting. Not because it was short (okay, maybe a little because of that), but because I, too, was kidnapped. Too overdramatic? Well, anyway, I couldn’t put the darn book down, no matter how I tried. It made for some nice, light reading, quick to get through, over far too fast because, wouldn’t you know, I enjoyed it. And when you enjoy something, there’s just never enough. Especially at 165 pages.

- Helloooo diversity, my old friend. I actually really enjoyed the variety of characters in this, particularly Kade’s story. I thought it made his background so much richer to find that he was transgender and was actually banished from his world for being a boy when they had wanted (and thought they’d kidnapped) a girl. It brought a whole new level to the stories.

- The narration is delicious. It’s got the perfect blend of character thoughts and actual omniscient narration that actually makes the writing feel airy and light and easy to read. It really conjured up the idea of a fairy tale in and of itself, which just brought the story to life all the more.

- Jack basically is my husband, only smarter and female. Probably also better dressed. Which means, of course, that I find her endearing and charming, whereas everybody else (including the other characters) finds her creepy and off-putting. C’est la vie. I loved the role she played in this, and every scene she was in was a true delight. I just couldn’t get enough of her.

- The mean girl got her comeuppance. Which I liked because, yes, ma’am, vengeance. If karma’s a not nice lady, well, I can’t help that, now can I? I wasn’t supposed to, but I laughed. And then I was just sad because McGuire is also a mean lady and toyed with my emotions. Actually, I thought it was really well done, which is why it’s getting a mention, as it’s a scene that stands out in my mind. The mean girl is, obviously, mean—unapologetically so—but she’s also a person. A young person, even. So even though I enjoyed the brief tryst with karma, I felt really bad afterwards. Silly emotions.

The Negatives:

- Sometimes diversity can be a bad thing, too. In this case, I’m referring to Nancy. She’s asexual, which is great, but the way it’s handled in the story is meh. I felt like that narrative was a little forced, because it really didn’t seem to fit in smoothly with the rest of the story. It really stuck out to me, like a puzzle piece forced roughly into an incorrect spot, especially since she had to so painstakingly explain that she is asexual, but not aromantic, and delve into exactly what that means. It felt like diversity for diversity’s sake rather than just the character being the character. And nothing really comes of that admission/realization. It just left me wondering what was the point, if it wasn’t really a defining character trait and it didn’t impact the plot at all.

- The ending is … anticlimactic? Disappointing? Unfinished? All of the above? I know it’s meant to be a series, so the fact that the major conflict is left mostly unresolved and open-ended doesn’t bother me. It gives me something to look forward to (impatiently, as is how I look forward to most things). Nancy’s arc, however, closes all too neatly and easily and after everything that happened, the “resolution” felt unearned and almost cheapened by these otherwise strong characters that ultimately just get handed their ending.

Overall:

READ THIS. RIGHT NOW. No, you know what? Don’t even finish this review. I probably just ramble after this anyway. Who cares what I have to say? Just go.

I actually picked this book up because Beneath the Sugar Sky was on my to-read list for 2018 because I loved the premise. But who starts in the middle of a series? Rebels and silly people, that’s who. (Also, 15-year-old me who didn’t realize The Two Towers was book two of Lord of the Rings.) So, of course, I started with this book, and I was glad I had the second one, because I read them both in one day and it was so worth it. The series is fantastic, and I’m looking forward to getting my grubby, little hands on the third one.

All in all, this will probably end up being one of my favorite series, even though it’s short. I’m sort of disappointed that it’s so short, because it ends so soon and then the wait between them is forever, and I’m incredibly bad at waiting. I would highly recommend reading this, though. It’s definitely worth the time.

Easily one of the weirdest books I have ever read. I am still so confused by all the worlds and how they work, but the storytelling was fantastic and the character building fairly wonderful. **MAY CONTAIN SOME BRIEF SPOILERS**

I’ll start with the things I didn’t like first since it’s a shorter list: I really feel like this story could have been fleshed out more. At the same time, it works as a short story (170 pages). I was sad that Sumi wasn’t a larger part of it, and the antagonist was easy for me to figure out (granted, the story was very short). I wasn’t overly fond of some of the things Sumi brought up, and the language was a bit over-dramatic and over-used. There was no need for cussing.

Pros: The worlds feel real. Maybe they are; who knows. The writing when it came to the horrible moments were respectful of the dead. I was worried once the violence started that it would be gruesome, but it was handled tastefully. Nancy is an interesting character. She, Jack, and Christopher had some good moments. I will admit I am confused about Kade and everything going on with him. Jack was amazing. Her world was terrifying, but she was so not gross considering she lived in Frankenstein Land. Christopher was so sweet and I loved how even though he didn’t become a major character until halfway through, he changed and grew.

Now, Nancy is a bit wishy washy for me in terms of development and character, mainly in regards to the ending. I loved the idea of her becoming a teacher at the school, and I feel like her leaving instead took away all of the development she went through in the book. She started as the girl in the background and wound up becoming friends with Jack and Sumi who were both totally different from her. She helped Christopher come out of his shell, and Kade got out of his library. You had all of this great change in her life and then she leaves. I’m hoping more is explained with the other books and that she comes back!

All-in-all a pretty good read. If I hadn’t been in the mood for a fantasy/faerietale-esque story I would not have read this. Not my usual read and it did have some stuff that made me cringe or was a little TOO weird. As much as I would like more length for explanation purposes, I enjoyed having this be as short as it was because I think length would have killed it with too much detail.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a school for those children who have disappeared from our world for a short time only to return and not be able to reconnect with reality. They have traveled to all different lands through various portals but for one reason or another were not able to stay in the worlds they long to return to.

Nancy's parents have enrolled her at the Home for Wayward Children as a last resort to have her return to her normal self after she had disappeared for a time. Her parents don't know what has happened to her and only want the girl she used to be but Eleanor West understands Nancy the way no one else could.

Every Heart a Doorway is weird. Very weird. But oh so lovely in it's oddity that I thoroughly enjoyed this read from start to finish. The story starts off with a vibe that you have been dropped into the middle of something but it does catch a reader up on what and why this mysterious school and characters exist fairly quickly and becomes quite engaging trying to figure out what will come next.

Not only is there the fantasy side to this story but it also turns a bit into a thriller/mystery read with the events going on so that also completely grabbed my attention. The characters are very diverse and their world/worlds very complex but only touched upon so far in this series but I would be quite intrigued to see where the author takes this series next.

Overall, 4.5 stars. Great start to this series, definitely an interesting start to say the least.

Where do I even start with this book!? Man, First I LOVE the idea of this book. I personally always wondered about how characters could live after being entered into these crazy, magical worlds.
I would like to believe that every person who comes back from a different world is welcomed to a place like Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children but who really knows. This is a fast read, I blinked and it was over. It was another read that took less than two days to read and one that I wish was longer because I enjoy these characters and the twists.
With it being a short read, I was scared it was going to be rushed or that it was going to drop me but Seanan McGuire is a wonderful writer who can balance so much in such a short read. Every Heart a Doorway brought tears to my eyes at one point and many smiles.
I enjoy the mystery. The clues danced out between the pages made me guest back and forth on the outcome. But for me, I feel that the characters are what made this book amazing. The diversity feels real, no forces or pushed onto these characters.

Overall, if you are looking for a quick, GLBT fantasy read, look no more than Every Heart a Doorway because it's so worth the read. But be warned this is a story that you'll easily get lost in the boom be taken out right away.

First in the Wayward Children urban fantasy series for Young Adult readers and revolving around children spit back by their magical land, children who have always disappeared under the right conditions: slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere…else.

In 2017, Every Heart a Doorway won the Locus Award for Best Novella and the Alex Award. In 2016, it won the Nebula Award for Best Novella and was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy.

My Take
At last! An explanation for those children who feel they are in the wrong place.

It’s a creepy blend of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, Little Monsters, and the like. Quite the depressing little story with so many kids rejected by their families for being different. Kade especially has my sympathy. Nor does it help that McGuire tells her way throughout Every Heart a Doorway.

Intellectually, it grabs me, but without pulling me in emotionally, I simply read and didn’t cry. That’s not to say that I’m not looking forward to seeing where McGuire goes with Down Among the Sticks and Bones , for how can a writer follow this?

It’s an emotional hook in a found narrative plot beat that pulled me in, as McGuire causes Eleanor to sound as if she’s plotting to do horrible things to the children brought to her. A schtick she’s perfected over the years. But that too was merely intellectual. The crisis point barely registers and was an opportunity McGuire should have exploited to make me afraid.

Not even third-person protagonist point-of-view from Nancy’s perspective could pull me in, for her experiences in the Underworld don’t move me. Well, they didn’t move her either…not to be too snarky…

I do like the idea of each child being pulled to the world that best suits them, “…where she could wear it proudly, not hide it away. That was her real story. Finding a place where she could be free. … [A world] that understood you so well that it had reached across realities to find you…”

The Story
Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced…they change a person. Changes which the children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her newfound schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

The Characters
Nancy Whitman is back from the Halls of the Dead, sent back by the Lord of the Dead who wanted her to be very sure. A world where she learned complete stillness and lost her need for food.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is…
…a boarding school for troubled children and run by Eleanor West, who used to be Ely West the Wayward Girl who visited a Nonsense world all those decades ago. Lundy, another of the teachers, had been to a high Logic, high Wicked world where she was forced out at 18 in spite of the bargain she made.

Sumi, Eleanor’s ward, went to a high Nonsense world, a mirror world, Confection, and will be Nancy’s roommate. Kade Bronson’s parents don’t want him back, not unless he’s willing to go back to being Katie. He went to Prism, a Fairyland, a high Logic world pretending to be high Nonsense, where he became the Goblin Prince in Waiting. He likes to sew and tracks the clothing left behind that newcomers can use.

The very creepy twins who went to the Moors are Jacqueline “Jack” who worked for a mad scientist in her world, Dr. Bleak, while Jillian “Jill” was “beloved” of their Master, a vampire. Christopher carries the bone flute he brought back from the Country of the Bones where his Skeleton Girl lives.

Other students include Seraphina who “is a rancid bucket of leeches on the inside … with a face that could move angels to murder”; Loriel Youngers went to Webworld, a high Logic world, where the Queen of Dust is anxiously awaiting her return; and, Angela is another judgmental snot.

Nonsense, Logic, Wicked, and Virtue are the primary types of worlds with many variations in between including being high or low with touches of the others.

The Cover and Title
The cover is is so innocent with the woodland scene at sunrise, a new-looking oak door in its jamb, standing ajar, inviting you to come through. It’s safe enough, for you can see both sides… There’s a testimonial at the top with the white title disappearing as it goes through the door, only to become solid again on the other side. The author’s name is below this in a white serif font

The title is true for the kids and some of the instructors, for Every Heart [is] a Doorway to the land to which they long to return.

Fantasy stories are full of children who find themselves in another world -- Narnia, Oz, Wonderland, Fairyland, and many other strange and magical places that the children explore before going back to our world.

But what happens to the children then?

That idea is at the heart of "Every Heart a Doorway," which introduces us to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, where children who speak of journeys to impossible places can be counseled and assisted as they struggle to deal with a world that no longer fits them. Seanan McGuire's writing is luminously unnerving, and she effortlessly whips together the fantastical struggles of her characters with a haunting murder mystery on the school grounds.

For the last six months -- or six years, if you ask her -- Nancy was in an Underworld of cold stars, pomegranate trees and shadowy gods. She longs to return to that strange, cold, ethereal world ruled by the Lord of Death and the Lady of Shadow. So her parents send her to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, which specializes in children who have gone to other worlds and come back -- both Logic and Nonsense worlds of various types, angled either towards Wicked or Virtue. Yes, the classification is very complex.

Nancy soon finds that the other kids there (and the teachers) are like her -- they have been altered by their time in these other worlds, and find themselves unable to live normal lives. All of them crave a return to the place where they now feel they belong, but only a few will ever return.

But Nancy's orientation is rudely interrupted when girls are suddenly murdered on the grounds, with each one missing an essential body part. People immediately start throwing accusations around at some of the more morbid children, including Nancy herself, and a panicked Eleanor even prepares to evacuate the school. As more deaths heap up on the Home, Nancy and her new oddball friends must uncover the murderer's identity, and stop them before they kill again.

Seanan McGuire has been writing excellent urban fantasy stories for many years, but "Every Heart A Doorway" is an almost transcendent story. Part of its charm the concept (a refuge for those who have travelled to other worlds), and the idea that those other worlds exist -- though only a few seconds of them are actually seen, McGuire spins a silken web of glimpses and hints that are all the more tantalizing because they are never actually shown in the story ("dancing skeletons that gleamed like opals"), only reflected in the children who have been there.

And her writing is absolutely enchanting, full of lingering magic that has followed the kids back to our world. The prose is often as disturbing as it is beautiful ("A girl with hair the color of moonlight on wheat stared at her hands while she talked about boys made of glass whose kisses had cut her lips..."), and McGuire comes up with some truly memorable moments (Christopher leads a dead girl's skeleton to her grave through his flute music). Some of the cruder comments can cause ripples in the luminous storytelling, but once the murders start, it seems to work better.

And all the characters are also oddballs, haunted by a hollow yearning for worlds where they fit in, because there is some part of them that needed to be there. Nancy is a prime example -- she is now a creature of stillness and shadow, unable to cope with sunlight or colorful clothes. She's also specified as being asexual early in the story, which is hinted to be a part of the reason why she fits into the Underworld of starlit beauty and unmoving ghosts more than she fits into the everyday world. She's awkward and ill-fitting at first, but grows more self-sufficient and strong as the story unwinds.

The other characters also don't quite fit in, even in a school full of kids who went down the rabbit hole -- hyperactive and brutally blunt Sumi, the prim mad-scientist-in-training Jack, quietly sensible Kade (who is transgender and reaching adulthood, and thus unable to return to a place that only wants little girls), and the meek bone-obsessed Christopher. They're even more poignant as you realize that the adults who run the place are basically the grown-up versions of these kids, and that outside the Home, they have no education, no home, no future.

"Every Heart a Doorway" is an astoundingly good novella that shows off Seanan Mcguire's writing talents at their best -- it's uplifting and bittersweet, enchanted and bloody. And even if only for a moment, it will open a door for you.