Danielle on Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Dan brought this book home (Dan is always bringing books home, which is one of the many reasons that he is awesome) and I read it.
Then I read it again.
And then again.
At about 169 pages it's not a terribly long read, but it is a powerful one. If you're a reader, you don't need me to tell you that some books and stories resonate; they chime a chord against your soul.
This was one of those for me.
In Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire creates a world in which some people are, for lack of a better word, special. There are doorways to other worlds for them and, when they pass through those doors, they find themselves in magical places where they fit in a way that they don't belong in this one. For multiple reasons, however, they are forced to come back and when they do, where they have been is not understood and they fit into this world even more poorly because there was somewhere else that they belonged.
However, there is a woman who has created a sanctuary for these people, who are primarily children -- a school where they can find refuge among others who understand them, and who know what it's like to long to return to places where they were not awkward, or weird, or different, but instead were just allowed to be. This novel is the tale of someone who is newly arrived, and the events that unfold as she tries to assimilate and understand where she has been and where her life will go next.
One of the things that I love about this book is that McGuire's doorways don't always take people to perfect places. One of the characters doesn't fit in the land he found himself in OR the world outside of the school walls. However, that character does find a place for himself within the school, suggesting that everyone has a place where they belong, even if it's not the place they expected.
Without going into more detail (and I really don't want to spoil this book for you), I will say this: if you are looking for a lyrical, beautifully written story about acceptance, understanding, and finding your place in this (or any other) world? You should read this.
In extra exciting news, I have discovered that this is to be a series called Wayward Children and the next should be out in June of 2017 (it's titled Down Among the Sticks and Bones and features two of the main characters in Every Heart a Doorway). You can get Every Heart a Doorway and preorder Down Among the Sticks and Bones) here!
Happy reading!