Every Heart A Doorway

Published in 2016, Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway is a young adult fantasy/mystery novella and the first book in the Wayward Children series. The story centers on Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, a boarding school for youths who have journeyed to magical realms and struggle to reintegrate into the real world. The narrative follows Nancy Whitman, a recent arrival who lived in the Halls of the Dead. As she adjusts to her new environment, a series of mysterious deaths occurs, compelling Nancy and her peers to uncover the truth behind these tragedies. The novella explores themes of hope, belonging, and familial expectations and won the Nebula Award (2016), the Alex Award (2017), the Hugo Award (2017), and the Locus Award (2017).

This guide refers to the e-book edition released by Tor in 2016.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, graphic violence, bullying, transgender discrimination, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a boarding school for children who have found doorways to other realms, which are referred to as portal worlds. While her students’ families consider them to have mental health conditions, Eleanor knows that their experiences are true because she spent much of her childhood in another world, and she still longs to return there. One day, a new student named Nancy Whitman arrives. Nancy spent years in an Underworld called the Halls of the Dead, but she was only gone six months according to her parents, who believe that the 17-year-old was kidnapped. After her time in the Underworld, Nancy finds it distressing to wear bright colors, but her parents replace the dark clothes she packed with colorful outfits in an attempt to make her act like she used to before her disappearance. Nancy’s roommate, a girl named Sumi, brings Nancy to Kade Bronson, a fellow student who is a talented tailor. Kade gives Nancy black and white clothes that make her feel comfortable. During her first night at the school, Nancy learns that the portal worlds are described based on their relation to the cardinal directions of Logic, Nonsense, Wickedness, and Virtue. A woman named Lundy, who spent her youth in a world called the Goblin Market, acts as the students’ group therapist and helps orient Nancy to the campus. Lundy looks like an eight-year-old, but she is an adult who ages backward due to a pact she made in a thwarted attempt to remain in her portal world.

On the morning of Nancy’s second day of classes, Sumi is found dead in the hallway. Her hands were removed, and she appears to have bled to death. Kade worries that twins Jacqueline “Jack” and Jillian “Jill” Addams will be scapegoated for the crime because Jack studied under a “mad” scientist in a Wicked world called the Moors. He asks Nancy to help him keep an eye on the twins. A girl named Loriel accuses Jack of killing Sumi, but Jack argues that no one would have found Sumi’s remains if she had killed her. The next morning, Loriel is found dead, and the girl’s eyes are missing. Sumi was Eleanor’s ward, but Loriel’s biological family is still involved in her life. Eleanor is afraid that the school will be closed if the truth is exposed, so she asks the students to dispose of the body. Nancy, Jack, Kade, and a boy named Christopher volunteer for the task. Jack discovers that someone struck Loriel from behind and that she was alive when her eyes were extracted. Nancy and Jack suspect that the killer is taking the body parts that were most important to the girls’ survival in their portal worlds.

Christopher traveled to a magical world called the Country of the Bones, and he possesses a flute that allows him to communicate with skeletons. Jack uses acid to dissolve Loriel’s flesh, and then Christopher animates her skeleton with his music. When Jack asks Loriel who murdered her, she points to the empty space beside Jack. After ensuring that the bones are buried where no one will find them, Jack and Christopher return to the school. That night, someone screams outside Nancy’s room. When she, Kade, and Christopher investigate, they find Lundy’s body and see that the therapist’s brain has been removed. A group of students led by Loriel’s roommate, Angela, accuses the trio of being involved in the murders. Eleanor sends everyone back inside. The recent tragedies weigh heavily on the headmistress, who has aged rapidly over the last few days.

On their way back into the school building, Nancy, Kade, and Christopher find an injured Jack. The scientist is clutching a deep cut in her shoulder and faints from blood loss. Nancy stays outside while the boys carry Jack inside. Using the skill of becoming supernaturally still that she learned in the Halls of the Dead, Nancy makes herself virtually undetectable. When a bloodstained Jill walks by, Nancy realizes that she is the killer. Jack confirms that her sister attacked her, and Nancy, Jack, Kade, and Christopher confront Jill. She explains that she plans to use her victims’ bodies to construct a perfect girl who will be welcomed in any world, much like a skeleton key can open any door. Jack kills her twin, reveals that she was always welcome to return to her portal world if she left Jill behind, and opens a door to the Moors. She intends to resurrect her sister as a reanimated corpse.

At the end of the semester, Nancy prepares to spend the holidays with her parents. Kade returns the suitcase that she arrived with, and Nancy finds an encouraging note from Sumi inside. Her departed friend’s words empower Nancy, and she realizes that she can decide the ending of her own story. Immediately after she achieves this insight, a door to the Halls of the Dead appears. Nancy steps through the portal into a grove of pomegranate trees, home at last.