Where has this story been all my life?

No seriously. I never knew I needed this gorgeous story, but I did. I was hooked from the word go. It's rich, bittersweet, just the right amount of whimsy, and gore. You need this story.

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Short and sweet

A very intresting and original concept, beautifully written and narrated. I honestly don't have any complaints.

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Stunning, Magical, Creepy

A twisted, magical tale of children fron other worlds. Very enjoyable, even the gruesome parts!

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2 people found this helpful

Diverse

Every Heart a Doorway is a novella that follows Nancy, a teenager who stepped through a door to another world. There are hundreds of children who have done the same as Nancy, stepping through to other worlds. Once they come back, they're not the same. And for those returned children, there is Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.

I loved this book! I loved the characters, and the diversity within those characters. Nancy was asexual and Kade was transsexual and I think its brilliant that both of these sexualities are being explored through novels. I liked the murder mystery element, but I wish that the book was a bit longer so that we could have become more attached to the children before some of them died.

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Beautiful and heart-breaking

Story:

I loved this so much, I just couldn’t put it down until it was done. It’s magical, charming and perfectly weird, but also very dark and has a surprising amount of grisly bits. It’s about loss and difference and identity and also a little bit about hope, about finding a new family, a new home and new purpose when yours rejects you. And it can also be read as a metaphor for growing up and dealing with parents or a world that tries to make you ‘fit’ in ways that aren’t you.

It’s also very clever in its use of certain fantasy tropes, with a lot to say about portal fantasies and the characters you tend to find in them. I’ve read stories before that feel like they are in conversation with the fantasy genre, but this one is particularly successful at also being an utterly compelling story in its own right, not to mention including a great, diverse set of characters that I had a genuine emotional connection with. Just brilliant.

Narrator:

Amazing! The narrator handles this story and the characters in it so well, it's a delight to listen to.

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Not bad?

It’s not bad I suppose. It’s not great. It’s a book. It’s readable. I listened to the whole thing. It just didn’t touch me. At all. But who knows, maybe you’re close enough to the characters to find something for yourself here.

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Pretty cool, concept works better than expected

It's nice to see Seanan McGuire write a main character who isn't, you know, a Forceful Protagonist with Witty Banter in the way that make many of her other main characters seem a bit... samey. (Although in Into The Drowning Deep she also had a different type, but still. She's written like hella many books.) The concept seems kind of... It seems hard to make work in a way that is both indulgent and a good book, but she makes it feel pretty good.

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Not expected story

I actually liked this book! Though didn't expect it would be that "dark"...the narrator was Brillient! For me it was an easy listen - though would log liked it to of been a longer story!

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I really really loved this book

The narrator was fine and easy to understand, but what stood out was the beautiful story and the effective writing style. I love this author and this book was so good - I listened to it all in one go. Plus the asexual protagonist and transboy main character helped a lot; good representation is always appreciated, and this was really good.

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Different and lovely

This was fresh and absolutely stunning, I only wished it was much much longer, need to find out if this has a sequel.

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