Title

Every Heart a. Doorway (Wayward Children Book #1)

Author

Hi! I’m Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I’m also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.

Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).

Connect with Seanan on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram. 

Book Details

Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Tour.com
ISBN: 9780765385505

Book Description

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 the matter.

No matter the cost. 

My Thoughts & Takeaways

Read this for a #ReadLikeHellAThon prompt too – Beetlejuice prompt of ‘book with necromancy.’

Every Heart a Doorway introduces us to Miss West’s Home for Wayward Children, where children are given a safe place to recover from their otherworldly experiences. All of these children have somehow visited different lands – of all different varieties. The common denominator? They’ve all been forced to return “home.” 

Miss West’s home is part school, part orphanage, part addiction recovery center. Each child has been permanently marked and changed by their experiences.

Nancy is the protagonist and still yearns for her time in the realm of the dead, where everything seemed more peaceful, more ordered, more comfortable. After Nancy arrives at the school, children begin to turn up dead. 

The story is so unique and hard to place into just one box. Also, the diversity is INSANE. To start, our MC, Nancy, is romantic asexual – which I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen repped in a book. Additionally, there are plenty of other genders and sexual preferences throughout this novella.

Ready for the rest of the series!