Reviews with content warning for Deadnaming - Every Heart a Doorway

I had a great time reading the book. The author's writing and narration style was amazing and so was the whole story. It was refreshing to read this story.

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kaiyakaiyo's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I liked this! A very quick read that I would’ve savored if I’d known it was so perfectly Halloween-y!

I will say that I guessed the baddie by accident very early on but said “no, they have to be a red herring”… Lol!

A tad predictable, but enjoyable nonetheless. A really interesting zoom in on what fantasy worlds mean to children, and what they protect them from. Not sure what to make of Kade’s story to be honest; it’s much bleaker than the rest & I didn’t feel we got a satisfactory explanation for that.

I also feel that Nancy is overshadowed by nearly every other character; she felt like a shadow of a person there only to introduce us to the universe & experience shock on our behalf. this was a book where the main character was the least interesting person in it.

Halloween read 1/5(?) down!

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mayaism_01's review

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I've been dredged up from the depths of an intense month-long reading slump by this book and I adored every page! After reading many 500+ page fantasy books it is truly a feat when you read a fantasy book that has mind-boggling (positive) world-building, an incredible cast of characters you can get invested in, and lovely prose all packed nice and concisely in less than 174 pages!

I've read from Seanan McGuire before under her pen name Mira Grant, and though I enjoyed the book I wasn't really in love with Into the Drowning Deep because of its slow pace and slightly convoluted story. This feels like a complete 180 in both style and content and I'm definitely a lot more interested in picking up more by McGuire, especially within this series!

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regaliaofchaos's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Truly beautiful, the way the story is written but also the story itself.

I was drawn to this book for its LGBTQIA+ characters initially and then read the full blurb on the inside flap and decided I needed to read it immediately. Nancy is truly a marvel of a character, in just 160-ish pages you as a reader get to see a full scope of her personality and part of that has to do with the nature of the world she visited. It was small things like this that had made all of the characters have a depth you wouldn't expect from such a short novel. My personal favorite is Kade because he knows he's not wanted in the world he came from even though he longs to go back, I also appreciated that him being transgender wasn't his entire personality or the only reason why he was involved in the story itself.

The plot itself isn't overly complicated, you can somewhat tell where it's going about 3/4th's of the way through but I really loved how it was handled.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I don't know how I feel about it? It was quite hard to read because it was written in this manner that some might call whimsical but I'd just say it's an Alice in Wonderland vibe, which is liking having a bunch of disco lights going around and giving you a headache. The plot twist was so obvious and I don't really understand why the book ended the way it did? Because it was short, it was quite shallow but also, I'm glad it was short because I didn't want to have to sit through so much of it. Glad I have read the first and understand what people are talking about but no more.

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meleigh's review against another edition

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2.75

This was a great concept but the ending fell flat, and the gore was a bit much for me.

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blueyballoon's review

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dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

absolutely not what i expected but i definitely she’d a tear at the end

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takarakei's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Loved this story and I feel like it's the start to a great series. Immediately interesting and intriguing. Mysterious and a bit dark. Fantastic representation. Quick read, and great narration on audio.

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