Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
“Nobody gets to tell me how my story ends but me."
This book is a dark, creepy almost fairy tale about children who find cracks - a wardrobe, a rabbit hole, or a simple doorway - and find themselves somewhere else; somewhere their family members and friends won't believe they've been. In these cases, Eleanor West comes to the families' homes to offer assistance.
Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children is where these despairing parents send their troubled children who disappeared for a time, and came back claiming they'd been to a different world; possibly for years rather than just the few days or weeks they were missing. Eleanor West promises to help, and she does, however she believes the children's tales as she is one of them herself. She brings them to her home because she understands the loss the children feel when they are brought back to the “real" world. These kids just want to get back to their home, these other worlds, where they felt like themselves for the first time. They just need to find that doorway to lead them back to where they belong.
This story was very strange, but it was so wonderfully written. It is eery, with this almost perfect balance between comical and serious, dark and light, fairy tale and thriller. I have already put the next two books in the series on hold at my library.
Synopsis: Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.