The award winning novella, Every Heart a Doorway, introduced us to the School for Wayward Children, which only accepts children who are apparently convinced that they not only belong in another world but that they have been there and if they can only find their Door again they can go back to their true home. The parents believe the boarding school will straighten out their children while the real goal of the school is to help them cope with being stuck in our reality after going on quests, saving worlds, and even falling in love. Some went to worlds made of candy and some to solemn underworlds, so only their shared loss and constant hope that their Doors will return binds them together. The sign on the door reads "No Visitors, No Solicitation, No Quests" but these kids will end up going on several quests and along the way some of them find their way home. While I haven't read all of them, they're best when in the mood for something different and more lyrical, I'll sum up what I have read.

Every Heart a Doorway begins with the arrival of new student Nancy who is finding our reality difficult to deal with after spending decades of time in the Halls of the Dead while only two years passed on Earth. Her roommate Sumi is a child of High Nonsense who saved a world called Confection and married a Candy Corn Farmer. Kade is a solemn boy who went to a fairy world of High Logic where he defeated the Goblin King in battle but was tossed out when they realized he was a boy instead of the girl they thought. The horribly named identical twins Jaqueline and Jillian (Jack and Jill) who went to a world of mad scientists and vampires... it's a diverse group. But someone is killing and maiming the corpses of students and teachers and suspicion falls on Nancy as the new student. The concept is cool, there's a lot of both humor and human nature, but unfortunately it's very short considering it had the price tag of a full length novel until recently.

Down Among the Sticks and Stones tells the story of Jack and Jill in the dark world The Moors where Jill is adopted by a vampire and Jack is apprenticed to the mad scientist known as the Doctor who cobbles bodies together from corpses and animates them with lightning. Both are thrilled with their new lives but something is just off with Jill and before long they are forced to flee back to our world with a torch and pitchfork wielding mob at their heels. One of the best entries in the series in my opinion, even though you basically know how it ended from book 1. For me it was because the monsters are monstrous and the horror of the mad scientists' maxim that it's not a question of whether they can do something but whether they should, and the answer is always yes. 

Beneath the Sugar Sky is about the first major quest the kids go on to resurrect Sumi and save Confection from the paradox of her dying before her kids were born. Along the way they travel through several worlds, including the Halls of the Dead where they ask for Nancy's help. It's a brighter more humorous story than the dark morbid second book and they learn a lot more about how the Doors work which might help more of their friends get home in the long run. Since Sumi is one of my least favorite characters in the series, I don't like the Nonsense dialog, it's no surprise that this was my least favorite.

I picked up the series again with Lost in the Moment and Found which doesn't actually involve the school at all but is about a the store which connects to various worlds through the Doors. Antoinette, Antsy, gets lost and finds herself where all lost things do, the Shop Where Lost Things Go. Having no immediate way home she's allowed to stay as long as she works for her keep. Part of her job involves checking every morning to see if they have a new Door and then she and the manager venture into the strange worlds to find fantastic merchandise and the much more prosaic, but necessary, food. Antsy loves it at first but the Shop hides a dark secret and she knows that even if she escapes it would only mean another child will take her place. This was my second favorite book of the series because the plot was better developed and the resolution was harder to achieve.

Lastly, I read the most recent book Through Gates of Garnet and Gold since that title suggested we were with Nancy in the Halls of the Dead. Nancy has been back in the Halls of the Dead for many years and quite happy there although she misses the friends she made at the School for Wayward Children. She spends her days as a living statue. Her heart beats only twice and she only breaths once in every hour but the Stillness suits her. Then one day the spirits that inhabit the halls go on a rampage devouring any of the statues that betray their humanity by moving. The Lady of the Dead urges them to flee back to the worlds they came from and bring help. Only Nancy successfully reached a Door and reappears in the school. Despite the sign on the door this is obviously the start of a quest and while her three best friends Cristopher, Sumi, and Kade are ready and willing to help along with a newer student. It turns out this quest is personal for all of them because they actually know the spirit responsible for the rampage, the original killer from book 1. No spoilers here! Along the way Nancy if forced to confront the fact that the Lord of the Dead is not the ruler she thought he was. She still loves him and his Lady but as we know, if she's no longer sure that world is her home she'll end up back on Earth. So how exactly do you deal with a spirit that can't be killed because it's already dead? I'd really like to recommend this one just because Nancy is my favorite character in this series but the truth is the plot is a bit weak. On the plus side, this is the first book in which one of these kids has to confront the fact that reality doesn't always match our perception of those we love and admire and has to make a hard choice.

The novellas are short, so despite all of the awards they've won, it was hard to justify the price tag; however, in addition to libraries they are also now available in Kindle Unlimited. They're good for adults, young or not. I like that these are like traditional fairy tales which were as often violent and horrible as they were fairy glitter but I think it's the truths about human nature that drive these stories that have won them so many awards.  There are different narrators for the books according to who the main characters is. For instance, both the first and most recent book have the same narrator because Nancy provides the PoV.