Every Heart a Doorway

Did You Know?

• In 2019, Syfy and Legendary Entertainment optioned to adapt the Wayward Children series into a television show adapted by Joe Tracz.
• In July 2021, Paramount Pictures acquired the film rights to the Wayward Children series; Pouya Shahbazian will produce the film.
• In 2023, Every Heart a Doorway was banned in Clay County District Schools, Florida and removed from school libraries in Duval County Public Schools, with pending review for upcoming school years.

Plot

Some children, though rarely, stumble upon doorways that lead to entirely different worlds. Nancy discovered one as a child, taking her to a land of the dead inspired by the myth of Persephone and Hades. After being sent back home, her parents refused to believe her, so they enrolled her in a boarding school for kids who’ve had similar journeys. Among the other students are Kade, who lived in a fantasy realm with goblins and fairies; Jacqueline and Jillian, who came from a gothic world of vampires and mad scientists; and Sumi, who returned from a nonsense place full of candy and rainbows. Each child was changed by their otherworldly experiences, where they could be their true selves, and most desperately want to go back.

Not long after Nancy arrives, Sumi is murdered. Her hands are cut off. Soon after, staff member Lundy and student Loriel are also found dead—Lundy missing her brain, Loriel missing her eyes. Suspicion falls on Nancy, since she visited the land of the dead, and on Jack, due to her ties to a mad scientist. But Nancy and her friends eventually discover the truth: Jill is the killer. She planned to use the stolen body parts to craft a key that would reopen her own doorway. Jack kills Jill, then returns to her gothic world, hoping to bring her sister back to life. Nancy, meanwhile, finds her own doorway again and goes back to the land of the dead.

Reception

Every Heart a Doorway was well-received by critics, including starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. Booklist's Erin Downey Howerton wrote that the fantasy pierces the shimmering veil of childhood imagination by reminding adult readers that their own doorways still exist deep in the chambers of their all-too-human hearts. Kirkus Reviews highlighted that McGuire understands and has true compassion for outcasts and outliers while also making it clear that being a misfit does not mean you will necessarily get along with all the other misfits, who do not fit for different reasons.

Publishers Weekly similarly wrote that the gothic charmer is a love letter to anyone who has ever felt out of place, noting that the characters are strange and charming and that McGuire puts her own inimitable spin on portal fantasy, adding horror elements to the mix. School Library Journal's Gretchen Crowley noted that the characters are well drawn, and their feelings about their impossible situation are believable. Locus included Every Heart a Doorway on their list of the top 13 recommended novellas of 2016, and the American Library Association selected it for their 2017 Rainbow Book List.