Every Heart a Doorway

A fast read with an intriguing concept that reverses multiple YA fantasy tropes: It’s a non-magical boarding school for teens who have experienced magic. And it’s not about the adventures they have going through the portal to a fantasy world, but about how they handle the trauma of coming back to the mundane one. The characters are interesting, and I’d like to read more about them, but halfway through it turns into a murder mystery. That gives it a plot, but it comes at the expense of the characterization. (And some of the characters.) It was entertaining, though, and it does make me want to check out the second book.

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I loved everything about this book except the murder mystery. It honestly felt as if the murders existed to just make all these interesting kids do something, when, in all actuality, the characters were so developed they would have made this a fascinating read without the murder mystery. I hope the second book is a bit more character driven. Mysteries do not work well in this series. The writing is really good. Dialog is epic! And, above all, the murder mystery in this book just made me unwilling to finish it. Remove the murder mystery, and I'd give this book more praise.