Book Review: Every Heart a Doorway
Title: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan MacGuire
Genre:: Fantasy
The story: What happens to children who fall through magical doorways into fantastic realms and then return to our earth? Many of them don't know how to adapt, and most long to return to what they consider their real home. Eleanor, a woman who fell through a doorway and returned to Earth long ago, operates a boarding school for her fellow survivors. Nancy, the protagonist, recently returned from the underworld and immediately falls under suspicion for the murder of one of her classmates.
My review: Cool world building, but not actually a good book. The author is so focused on exploring her premise that the characters mostly feel like puppets moving through the plot. 160 pages isn't really enough for a murder mystery, and there is a lot of random extraneous material about the protagonist's asexuality. If it had connected to the plot, it would have been fine; since it didn't, it felt like a public service announcement about what asexuality is. It was reasonably entertaining while I read it, but I wasn't very satisfied by the end.
Genre:: Fantasy
The story: What happens to children who fall through magical doorways into fantastic realms and then return to our earth? Many of them don't know how to adapt, and most long to return to what they consider their real home. Eleanor, a woman who fell through a doorway and returned to Earth long ago, operates a boarding school for her fellow survivors. Nancy, the protagonist, recently returned from the underworld and immediately falls under suspicion for the murder of one of her classmates.
My review: Cool world building, but not actually a good book. The author is so focused on exploring her premise that the characters mostly feel like puppets moving through the plot. 160 pages isn't really enough for a murder mystery, and there is a lot of random extraneous material about the protagonist's asexuality. If it had connected to the plot, it would have been fine; since it didn't, it felt like a public service announcement about what asexuality is. It was reasonably entertaining while I read it, but I wasn't very satisfied by the end.