"Wayward Children 1 & 2" by Seanan McGuire

Every Heart a Doorway is the first novel in an adult fantasy series by Seanan McGuire called Wayward Children. It is based on the premise that some kids are able to find hidden doors into other worlds and disappear for a while. Think Narnia or Alice in Wonderland. Characters in McGuire’s book also found hidden doors and disappeared. For some of them, years went by before they returned home. Whereas for their parents, it was just a matter of days or months. The novel explains that these kids are able to find doors to other worlds because something in them calls to that particular world on a deeper level. Some ended up in whimsical settings, others in an underground world filled with ghosts, yet others in a horror story populated with vampires and werewolves.

There is a special boarding school for these children where they learn to adjust to being back in their own world. We learn a bit about several of the characters and the worlds they traveled to. But then unexpectedly, a gruesome murder occurs on the school grounds. Someone out there is hunting for the children.

I must say that this book is way over-hyped on Goodreads and booktube. I had extremely high expectations going into it. In reality, I struggled through it and was mostly bored. The only thing that kept my interest was the murder mystery. I then quickly picked up book two, called Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and I liked this second installment much-much more.

Book 2 is a prequel story about the twins Jack and Jill whom we’d met in the first book. We get a closer look at their story: their parents, the kind of house they grew up in, the events that led to their finding a hidden door, the actual journey to another world and their return back. I really enjoyed the fact that this book is set in another world. It felt like a fantasy or a fairy tale. The first book was just too short for the number of characters that were introduced. As a result, we don’t really get to know anyone closely or understand what is happening in their minds. Down Among the Sticks and Bones focuses on just two sisters and their identity struggles and we get a closer look at the world they travel to. I rated the first book 3 out of 5 stars and the second book 5 out 5. Both books are fairly short (under 200 pages), and would make great Halloween reads.