Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
ELEANOR WEST’S HOME FOR WAYWARD CHILDREN.
NO SOLICITATION, NO VISITORS, NO QUESTS.
Eleanor West knows how hard it can be to feel as if you’ll never make it back home. She understands the pain, loneliness, and isolation, which is why she opened Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. To give them a place where they are among others like them, children who wandered through doors to other worlds and are now trapped here on our Earth. A new student, just as lost and grief stricken is arriving and soon things at the Home will never be the same again.
I read Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire for Pride Month (one character was asexual, and one was transgender), and I was delightfully surprised by just how much I enjoyed it. The characters, who don’t belong here and are misunderstood, were easy to relate to. The story was entertaining. And the concept of doorways to other worlds opening for select children was utterly appealing. My only problem with this book was the pacing.
Throughout the course of this story, we follow Nancy, a girl freshly returned from an Underworld land. She is quiet and still as a result of her time there, and our world is much too fast and loud and she desperately longs for her door to reappear so she can return home. As a new student in the home, we can discover the post return world alongside her, as she attempts to adjust to her situation and learn from others going through what she is.
Eleanor is a caring, empathetic headmistress and learning about her unique situation put things into perspective. Kade was another brilliant character, unwelcome in both the worlds he should belong to.
The concept of other worlds connected to ours (and perhaps each other) by hidden doors was an interesting one. Add to that the fact that these doors only appear to certain children, and open up to the world they truly belong to, and this concept becomes a fascinating one. Those that reside at Eleanor’s school have been pooling all of their experiences and knowledge in an attempt to map these worlds, which tend to fall into the categories of high nonsense or high logic, virtuous or wicked. I would love to see this map in the future, even though it could likely never be completed.
My problems with Every Heart a Doorway stem from its surprisingly short page count and subsequent pacing issues. I feel like Seanan McGuire could have used her space better. At the beginning, the pace was a comfortable one that allowed us to feel at home in the world we’ve stepped into, as we learned and grew within it. However, as we come to the conclusion and everything rushes past in a blur, it becomes clear that for the length of the book, the beginning was much too slow. If the book were longer, or the pacing more consistent, this issue would not be an issue at all.
Overall I really enjoyed Every Heart a Doorway and fully intend to continue this series in hopes of learning more about the worlds and characters, which hooked my attention here. If you enjoy fantasy with some urban elements, boarding school settings, and characters desperate to find the places they belong, then I am confident this book will be a good read for you!
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Rebecka O'Malley 