Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Title: Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1)

Author: Seanan McGuire
Date Read: August 8 2017
Published: April 5 2017 @ Tor.com
Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

“Going back” had two distinct meanings at the school, depending on how it was said. It was the best thing in the world. It was also the worst thing that could happen to anybody. It was returning to a place that understood you so well that it had reached across realities to find you, claiming you as its own and only; it was being sent to a family that wanted to love you, wanted to keep you safe and sound, but didn’t know you well enough to do anything but hurt you.

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I'm starting to realize that I really like novellas. I love getting that snapshot of a world or a character or an idea, while still having so much wiggle room to speculate and think about it. I think that's incredibly special, because really what a novella does is offer the reader a possibility, while still allowing that reader to mull over the implications of that possibility for themselves. What if a child were to return from their adventures, completely changed, to an unchanged Earth? What if they tried to go back? What if they'd do anything to accomplish that?

The premise of Every Heart a Doorway, a school for the children who are cast out of portal fantasies like Wonderland and Narnia, is both very charming and very sad. I think that this premise, and the subsequent implications about parenthood and acceptance and friendship, is the story's main selling point. At its core, this is really an ode to every child who ever felt like they didn't belong, and the joy and heartbreak involved in finding a place of your own and losing it. Which, honestly, is a lot like growing up in general, which I think is why this idea pulls so much at our heartstrings. 

Original and beautiful concept aside, there were definitely some things I thought were done really well and some things I thought could have used improvement. Some elements that I really liked were the ways that the kids grew to trust and care for each other and the kind of wish-fulfillment therein-- finding people who accept you for who you are, oddities and all, is always really wonderful to read about. I also really appreciated the way that Kade's backstory was handled. Maybe it's because his story was only touched upon briefly, but I think that McGuire was able to really toe the line of respect for Kade's experiences, while also putting forth an adventure that I would gladly read about. 

And then there were some things about it that I didn't love, like the reveal at the end. If you've read this story, you'll know what I mean. It's a lofty goal, honestly, to try and infuse a murder mystery into a book that's only about a 160 pages long, and I just don't think it really did the characters or the situation justice. It's frustrating as a reader to see such a huge plot point wrapped up in a matter of 4 pages. And there was also the way that the boys seemed to hold this sort of idealized air while most of the girls were portrayed as catty, which I'm just.... over. I just feel like with its message of acceptance and diversity, there really wasn't a need for there to be the kind of girl-hate that there was.

And here's where we get into the personal part of this review, because I think it's important to talk about representation and its personal connections to the people represented. So here we go: I'll be honest, as someone who identifies as on the ace spectrum, I don't know that Nancy's sexuality was done in a way that felt honest or natural to me. Granted, I've never read a book before where a character talked about being asexual, which is huge in theory. I'm just thinking particularly of the scene where Nancy brings up her lack of desire to date anyone when she's talking about her parents. It was like the author kind of just wanted somewhere to shove that in, while having set up no precedence for her parents to have had a problem with her not dating? Up until that point, the problem appeared to be that she was too sullen, and suddenly it was like "oh and also they hate me because I don't want to have sex" which is just... I don't know. I didn't like it. It was just a weird exchange, and definitely didn't feel like it fit into the context, while also robbing the opportunity to show Nancy actually telling her crush about her boundaries, which, as someone who's had to have those conversations, would have been way more valuable to me. It's kind of a slippery slope though, because my experiences are really different from others' and just because it didn't vibe well for me doesn't mean it didn't well-represent someone else. 

Overall,  I would definitely say that Every Heart a Doorway succeeded in more things than it misstepped in, and I won't deny that it was a beautiful story with a very readable writing style and a charming group of friends. I'm excited to continue with the series and I'm crossing my fingers that we can get a novella in the future about Kade becoming the Goblin Prince because I am here for it.