Every Heart a Doorway is the story of a school for children who have come back from magical worlds and who, in their right mind, is going to turn down a story about a school for kids who don’t fit in elsewhere? We all want to find that place where we can be accepted for who we are, instead of being forced to conform to some tyranny of the majority version of ourselves.
This book has so many intriguing bits, like sympathetic mad scientists reanimating the dead, nonsense worlds where children run on rainbows, and creepy underworlds where girls are rewarded for slowing the beating of their heart down to nearly nothing. There’s so much eye candy that it’s hard not to get swept up in the story.
At its core, this is a murder mystery, but the book is over before you know it. If I had any complaint at all, it’s that I would have loved to go deeper and have more glimpses of the lives these children led in their fantastic and horrific lands. And wouldn’t you know it, I’m going to get that chance, because the sequel, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, comes out in June.