Review: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

I have meant to read this book for years, and I am bananas excited that I finally did it!

Every Heart A Doorway is the first in a series of novellas centering on a boarding school and the children who can attend it. The school is for people who have gone through doors to different worlds and, upon return, are not willing to give up the hope of return. That is all I knew when I went into this book, but the plot of this first book is that a girl named Nancy came back from an underworld-type door and is now the new kid at this school. Once she arrives, a mystery is presented, and some of the suspicion is pointed at Nancy as the new kid. She and her new friends must figure out who is causing the ill events before the school's existence is put into danger.

I really enjoyed reading this book! It is only 171 pages, but the story feels so complete despite its short length. I am mostly just excited to jump into the other books; I have just bought them all and am quite excited to dive into the rest.

Nancy is such an interesting focal character; I hope we get more from her in another book eventually. Her world sounds so interesting; I really liked how her world was used to draw comparisons to real-world mental health issues. It is always awkward when these are skated over or never addressed in fantasy; this book acknowledges the real while still leading you through a fantasy space. Nancy clearly is dealing with anxiety throughout this book, and many other characters are dealing with other mental illnesses; they are just not treating the fantasy elements as mental health concerns.

I mostly just really had an excellent time reading this book; I really loved the mystery and being introduced to this world. I don't want to spoil anything; I just wanted to gush about how much I loved this book, and now excited I am to read more.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.