Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, 1)
Winner of the Hugo Award, Hugo Award for Best Series, Alex Award, Locus Award, and Nebula Award
Nominated for the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and Tiptree Honor List
"A mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy — a jewel of a book that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll's and C. S. Lewis' classics" —NPR
New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire presents a fresh take on the portal fantasy genre that blends Alice in Wonderland, The Magicians, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests
Children 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.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced... they change a person. 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 new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things.
No matter the cost.
The Wayward Children Series
Book 1: Every Heart a Doorway
Book 2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Book 3: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Book 4: In an Absent Dream
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Every Heart a Doorway* offers a dark, atmospheric look at children displaced from magical worlds, with themes of belonging, identity, and...
This didn't quite work for me, and in a surprise compared to how I usually feel about books: I think it needed to be longer. It felt like we careened through some fairly shocking plot points that didn't resolve at all, with some utterly goofy in-world reactions to go along with them, and the protagonist was so passive that if you removed her entirely I don't think it would change a thing. It had its moments, and I enjoyed several of the characters and the prose itself, but not my favorite.
How unexpected was this book? I purchased this with absolutely no knowledge of what it was about (simply because it was in the fantasy section) and was delightfully surprised.
Meet the wayward children - outcasts from the "real" world after being transported and living full lives in alternate realities of nonsense, virtue, wickedness, logic and everything in between. They've been thrust back into lives that they've long abandoned with no way of getting back to their true homes and are now living in a boarding school designed by a survivor of the same experience, Eleanor. I absolutely loved the concept and the varied characters these portals produced.
Our protagonist, Nancy, has lived in the Halls of the Dead and hates the fast paced, volatile ways of the living and longs to be back where things are silent, still and make sense. Her parents just want their happy, "rainbow girl" back. As the book unfolds, we meet more and more interesting and even confusing characters (there's someone for everyone!) that give a glimpse into the plethora of worlds and adventures that the children have experienced...and then a murder mystery ensues. No kidding.
My favorite themes centered on the outcast group within the wayward children - this morbid motley crew of sarcasm and darkness that does much of the investigating while being accused by everyone else of committing the crimes. Their differences unite them and lead them to the perpetrator.
My only complaint is the rushed feeling toward the end. I left wanting more but I suppose that's a good thing with a series. Looking forward to reading the sequels.
Meet the wayward children - outcasts from the "real" world after being transported and living full lives in alternate realities of nonsense, virtue, wickedness, logic and everything in between. They've been thrust back into lives that they've long abandoned with no way of getting back to their true homes and are now living in a boarding school designed by a survivor of the same experience, Eleanor. I absolutely loved the concept and the varied characters these portals produced.
Our protagonist, Nancy, has lived in the Halls of the Dead and hates the fast paced, volatile ways of the living and longs to be back where things are silent, still and make sense. Her parents just want their happy, "rainbow girl" back. As the book unfolds, we meet more and more interesting and even confusing characters (there's someone for everyone!) that give a glimpse into the plethora of worlds and adventures that the children have experienced...and then a murder mystery ensues. No kidding.
My favorite themes centered on the outcast group within the wayward children - this morbid motley crew of sarcasm and darkness that does much of the investigating while being accused by everyone else of committing the crimes. Their differences unite them and lead them to the perpetrator.
My only complaint is the rushed feeling toward the end. I left wanting more but I suppose that's a good thing with a series. Looking forward to reading the sequels.
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