Every Heart a Doorway

Like most people, I absolutely adored this book and I can't wait to continue with this series. The writing of this novel was absolutely gorgeous without feeling flowery or overly written. Each and every character was interesting and unique in their own way that made me want to know more about them, which is mostly why I'm so excited to read the rest of the series and spend more time with each character (especially Jack and Jill) Somehow, the world and each character was so vivid despite the book's size, which also manages to pack in a beautiful amount of diversity without it feeling like diversity for diversitys sake. However, the whole “murder” plot is the reason I had to knock off a star. It ended brilliantly, but the whole lead up didn't feel like it contributed much to the story. This may seem weird, since it's the plot of the whole thing, but I cared much more about learning about the characters than figuring out the murders. It felt a little rushed and wasn't overall handled well. Three girls were murdered and it seemed to be taken nonchalantly by the main cast of characters. (Since the main few characters were all very familiar with death, however, this part may be forgiven a little.) Despite the fact the it had a very good ending, I left this book feeling a little sad I didn't get to spend as much time with some of the characters. Hopefully some of these characters show up in future books. Overall, a sweet tale I'm going to remember.