Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Apr 11, 2016 Maryam rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-2016, fantasy, ya

Actual rating 4.5

So what happened when Alice came back from Wonderland and couldn’t forget all those amazing adventures?
What really happened to those kids from Narnia, kings and queens turning to normal people in split of a second?

That’s what this book is about, aftermaths…. Children or better to say adults in their desired worlds are abandoned and returned to our world at the age they left it. In real world they've gone missing for a few month but for them it was years.They don’t like it, they ...more

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May 16, 2020 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it really liked it

Shelves: lgbtqia-gender, fantasy, paranormal, 2020-reading-challenges

Every Heart a Doorway is another book that deserves a better review than I can give it right now. I read it about two months ago, but didn't get to review it right away, despite enjoying it so much that I immediately put holds on the rest of the series through our local library. Then the pandemic hit the US, and most things shut down, including my brain, especially anything that involved creativity and communication, and this poor book has just sat here since then waiting for a long overdo revie Every Heart a Doorway is another book that deserves a better review than I can give it right now. I read it about two months ago, but didn't get to review it right away, despite enjoying it so much that I immediately put holds on the rest of the series through our local library. Then the pandemic hit the US, and most things shut down, including my brain, especially anything that involved creativity and communication, and this poor book has just sat here since then waiting for a long overdo review. Obviously at this point I don't remember details well enough to truly do it justice. But let me do what I can.

This book came to me highly recommended by fellow library staff. I have always loved those fantasy books where kids stepped through portals into other, fantastical worlds, so a book reflecting on that from an adult perspective, especially on what it means to come home from that world and try to live a normal human life again, intrigued me. A book written by an LGBTQ writer also gave me hope that there would be at least some representation of diversity. And friends assured me that the book was great.

And they weren't wrong. Every Heart a Doorway isn't a very long book, but it grabbed my attention and immersed me in its world right away. While I didn't necessarily love any of the characters, and I wished there was more diversity represented, I found each character to be distinct and fascinating. I had to keep reading, because I wanted to know more about their worlds and about what would happen to each character.

I didn't expect the story to turn into a (view spoiler) mystery, but I was mostly fine with that (just sad when some characters left the story, because I wanted to know more about them than I already did). The mystery kept me turning the pages. I won't lie and say I was surprised by the resolution. I'd been pretty confident I knew who the culprit was, and I was not wrong. I also didn't expect the sort of ending this story had--it wasn't my usual preference, not a normal HEA, but it fit well with the rest of the story, and left the story open for more adventures in the future, while still allowing it to stand alone just fine.

As I mentioned, I wished there was more diversity. Yes, there's an Asian character. I appreciated her nonsensical zaniness, but understand how an Asian author I respect could also express disappointment that the sole Asian representation fell back on tropes of zany mystics. Beyond that, there was a trans character and an asexual character, both of whom were represented thoughtfully. Overall it wasn't bad. I just wished there'd been even more representation.

In general, I really enjoyed Every Heart a Doorway and have been looking forward to reading more books in the series. I found the alternate worlds that McGuire crafted to be fascinating, although often also horrifying, and I look forward to exploring those worlds in greater depths in future books. I have several books in the series here waiting for me to pick them up, and I hope that they can take me away, not only from the human world within the books, but also from the dumpster fire pandemic world of Earth 2020. I recommend this as an intriguing book that offers both escapism and introspection, and is a fun, fast read with several more books in the series. I hope you enjoy it too. ...more

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Jan 01, 2016 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, alternate-planes-and-histories, fantasy-and-sci-fi, alice, r2016-in-2016

Time resumed.

Time had a way of doing that.

This is hard for me to rate, and I'm wavering between 3 stars and 4 stars. This is really a novella, and in general I don't do well with novellas - I want MORE, more meat, more tension, more complexity, more STORY. I'm left feeling that there's no there there.

Also, the dialogue often felt kinda clunky.

But I found I was very sad when I finished. I wanted more book. So I must have liked it!

The plot: Nancy fell down a rabbit hole (figuratively, only) in ...more

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Feb 24, 2022 Jaime rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, fantasy, fantasy-contemporary, novella, lgbtq, grief, read-2022, 52-book-club-2022, popsugar-2022, around-the-year-2022

Miss West's boarding school is one thing to the parents -- a place to fix their "broken" children -- and another to the students -- a place to learn about what's happened to them with people who are just like them. These children have all been through a door to another world, a world that seems to be made just for them. But for a variety of reasons, they are now back in the "real" world and unable to deal with the grief of losing the very thing they wanted most. The Home for Wayward Children is ...more

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Mar 26, 2016 Ryan Mac rated it liked it

This novella had an interesting premise (children who have walked through doors to magic worlds and then find themselves back in the real world are sent to a special school to learn to move on with life) but it was too short and felt underdeveloped to me. It was hard to get a feel for the characters and their worlds and terminology. Although maybe the point of the story was to see things through the new girl Nancy's eyes and she was confused and lost--so maybe that was okay. Summary: good but co ...more

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Aug 22, 2020 Ana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2020-aty, 2020, 2020-august, 2020-newts

I did not expect a murder mystery. I was here for the after party of a chosen one because the after of a portal vs fast has a!what fact Ares me. And yet a murder mystery is totally what could happen with a chosen afterwards. But I loved the characters and I loved the concept of everything.

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