Clare L. Deming

I just finished reading Every Heart a Doorway last week. This is the first book (of 9 so far) in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire (paid links). She is one of the authors that I previously mentioned in this post on 10 Authors I Haven’t Read Yet from November 2023.

This is technically a novella, so it was a shorter read. This book won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards in 2016/2017 and the series won the Hugo Award for best series in 2022.

Here is the blurb:

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.

I think that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first fantasy book that I read, and definitely the Narnia series was one of my most beloved stories growing up. I absolutely love the premise of Every Heart a Doorway, which looked at what happens to children who have traveled to another world and then returned to their mundane lives.

I had to wonder what type of story this would be though, now that their adventures are over. It turns out that when you gather many such children at a special school to learn to deal with the aftermath of their fantastical adventures, things don’t always go well. This book featured a murder mystery, as students start dying with parts of their bodies missing.

The characters in this book were diverse and well-drawn for the short length of the novella. I had my suspicions about the identity of the murderer, but it didn’t become clear until later in the story. I have heard that the following books in the series alternate between continuing the greater story and going back to tell about the children’s backstories. I’m not sure I’ve seen a series structured quite like that before. I intend to keep reading more of this series soon.

Have you read any of the Wayward Children series? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.