Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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Every Heart a Doorway - 4 Stars
Down Among the Sticks and Stones - 5 Stars
Beneath the Sugar Sky - 5 stars
In an Absent Dream - 3.5 stars
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Genre: YA, Scifi / Fantasy, 4 Stars, Diverse
People who should read this: If you love imaginative short stories with a diverse cast and crazy adventures.
The series isn’t over. Far from it actually. The rumor is that McGuire will keep writing this series as long as her publisher will let her. Until the last book, I was hoping that it would never end. The short style of writing works, but is it also a ploy to make readers shell out the big bucks for very little story, doled out just enough to make us itch for more?
I only say all of this because Jack is back in the fifth book and clearly her entire story could have made up a single book.
Maybe I’m just being bitter.
Jack is one of my favorite characters though.
WayWard Children was not what I expected. The premise is unique. If you’re lost in your world, a doorway could open, taking you to the exact world that you were meant to be in. Whether it be logical with an underpinning of nonsense, or illogical with a layering of rules, it’s the exact balance to settle your aching heart. And if you’re so unlucky to be forced back into your original world, Eleanor has opened up a home for all the lost children. There the wayward children talk about what their world were like, never judged for their stories, and left to search for the doors that may never open again.
Overall, I’ve loved the entire series so far. Each book possess so many good questions while still being an excellent fantasy story. The first book, Every Heart a Doorway, is the perfect opener. Readers are shown a small sliver of the world and a few of the characters that flit in and out of the various books. Even though my rating isn’t as high as the others, I think this might be my favorite of them. The book is so diverse, touching on topics that are just being explored in recent books - inclusion, LGBT, asexuality, judgement. It felt like an actual part of the story and not something just put in for the case of diversity. McGuire’s dialogue is also off the charts, the best in all four books.
And after carefully dipping your toe into this wild world, Down Among the Sticks and Bones throws you right in, taking you on the journey of two kids going through their doorway. Here we really begin to learn the rules. And even though we know where the ending will lead, there’s still a great twist. I personally loved seeing how the pieces all fit together in the end. Still, this is where the third person narration and the shorter story style started to show. There’s still room for so much more with these books. I wasn’t able to feel as immersed as I did with the first one.
If everything was too dark for you in the first two books, Beneath the Sugar Sky is as lighthearted as you can get, if you ignore the girl disappearing before your eyes. The first look at a nonsense world made entirely of baked goods and sugar, it will lighten your spirits just a tad, showing the beautiful range that McGuire has. Unlike the first two though, this book is a little too clear cut. Her points are very obvious. McGuire goes right to the jugular with body image and being overweight.
Then we come to the last book, In an Absent Dream. Here I’m beginning to lose my interest. Not in the story. No, that’s great. I’m losing interest in the story being shoved into these tiny little snippets. Huge worlds are needing to be explained, forcing McGuire to tell more than show. She took on a big undertaking with the last book and it showed. I felt rushed through, barely clinging onto the ideas that were happening around me. I couldn’t connect. I was forced to just accept and take the wild ride for what it was - a wild ride.
It’s so weird to say all this when the third book was just as crazy with the characters hopping between worlds. It was even shorter. Yet somehow, that book was so easy to follow along with.
Overall, as my first taste of McGuire goes, I’m in love. I’m not sure how her writing style will fit in bigger works, but it definitely suits this series. Her imagination is endless. Her diversity real, not just shoved in for the hype. Not a single one of the books felt like YA. If you could just read the first one, I think you’ll easily fall in love.
Happy Reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 95/110