For so many of us, our own fantasies of being accepted to Hogwarts or to Professor Xavier’s School are about finding a second family that understand parts of us our families of origin never could that help us understand parts of ourselves that we couldn’t unlock on our own. But where it thrives most is where it captures that tension between your birth family and the family that we all make. But even with these expectations, I was very pleasantly surprised by this little gem of a book.įantasy and Sci-Fi almost always work as metaphors on some level, and it isn’t surprising that a book about a school for misfits of any kind grapples with our own insecurities about adulthood, coming of age, and fitting in. I picked up Every Heart a Doorway expecting it to be well worth my time. McGuire is best known for her urban fantasy series of October Daye novels, which are well written and satisfying even as they sometimes fall victim to the problems that can plague longer series written on tight deadlines. The real strength comes from McGuire’s characterizations and the subtle, quiet tone to the work. It is well plotted and paced, but there are no real surprises here. Shortly after her arrival, another student is found dead and Nancy, along with her newly made friends, must find the killer before the school is closed or they become the next victims.Īs a murder mystery, the plot itself isn’t innovative. We find our own Door into this school through Nancy, a young woman who has just returned from one of several Lands of the Dead.

Most of them hope to return to their individual worlds, somehow, by finding their Door again. Some of them are traumatized by what they experienced there. Some of them are heartbroken at being kicked out of paradise. Each student at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children has accidentally stumbled into an otherworld and then returned home to find themselves so changed that they can no longer fit in at home.

Out in the countryside exists a boarding school for unusual children.These children are all children living in the “after” part, the “after” that comes after The End. The premise of Every Heart a Doorway isn’t exactly new. A departure from McGuire’s usual fare, Every Heart a Doorway is a bittersweet twist on conventional fantasy that neither shies from more dwells on the darker side of our encounters with the fantastic. This year I was delighted to see one of my personal top five making those lists: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire.

The closing months of the year always bring a host of “Best of…” lists.

Every heart has a doorway