Nobody gets to tell me how my story ends but me

Rachel Boudreau

Every Heart A Doorway
By Seanan McGuire

In every heart is a doorway and in every doorway a world. Imagine for a moment you are a child again. Imagination running wild and the only impact on your life is who you are playing with at recess tomorrow. Then it appears a doorway from nowhere but where it could go is endless in its possibilities.

This is what happened to Nancy. Whisked away to the underworld to dance with the Lord of the dead and finally when she finally felt at home they threw her out. Her Lord of the dead promising that she would return if she is truly sure she wants to stay. After returning to the real world Nancy is sent to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children where children like her are sent to "get better" and "grow out of their delusions".  As Nancy arrives she is immediately thrust into a world of nonsense, logic, and magic. Only when she starts to get used to her surroundings does the craziness begin. How is Nancy supposed to return to her world when she is trying not killed by the terror stalking the halls. It's up to her and her newfound friends to get to the bottom of it before they end up hurt or worse dead.

“Together they walked across the property, a girl, a boy, and the dancing skeleton wrapped in rainbows” (McGuire,140)

I love this story! The story is so intriguing and I wonder why I didn't pick it up sooner. Its humor is infectious and while reading it I struggled to not burst out laughing public. While its humor is positively dark and silly, where it really shines is its deeper meaning and quotability. Many times I would read a paragraph and have to take a moment to contemplate what it may actually mean. A wonderful example of this is When Nancy thinks “all things she would have done among the living were gone now, rendered impossible when her heart stopped beating. Death was precious. That didn’t change the fact life was limited” (McGuire, 86). I also love it for the characters inclusiveness. There is both an asexual and transgender character, both are never treated any differently and both are accepted as they are. I would recommend this book to teenagers, fantasy lovers and fans of Grimm Fairy Tales. The story is filled with whimsical and wacky characters that are easy to fall in love with and relate to. By the end of this book, I was near tears. The story was beautiful and I didn’t want it to end but it did as all things do.