Seanan McGuire
Tor
Published April 5th, 2016
ISBN: 0765385503 (ISBN13: 9780765385505)
Not all children who wander through portals to other worlds get to stay there. Some get ejected, some just stumble their way back to this reality.
At Elanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, they are understood, believed, and not treated like they’re crazy. Elanor tries to help them cope with being stuck here, either until they find their doors and go back or begin to accept that they may just be stuck here.
Nancy’s parents drop her off to Elanor’s, and she is overwhelmed by all the odd kids pining for the strange worlds they’ve lost. Things quickly get stranger when her housemates start turning up dead and mutilated.
“Every Heart A Doorway” is a wonderful, weird, sometimes darkly whimsical story about fitting in by standing out. All of the house’s inhabitants didn’t fit in anywhere before they found their ideal worlds, and fit in less now that they’re marooned back in this one. Some handle it more successfully than others, but ultimately it’s learned that “No one gets to tell me how my story ends but me”, and that every heart truly holds its own doorway.
I thought this book was intended to be a standalone (and it does work as one), but apparently, it’s the first in a new series. I’ll definitely be sticking with this one, and you should too.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.