Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire is a nice little fantasy tale of the place where children go after going through a Door to Another Place (Fairylands, for example), and then coming back. It's short, and sweet, and sad, and gruesome. It's about real children, not a list of characters from other books, either. The gruesome part is the murder mystery half of the book, but that's really only window dressing for the exploration of the characters and worlds. It's short, and I'd have liked to see more exploration of both the children and their worlds – but that's what the sequel is there for.

I liked Come Tumbling Down okay, but I feel it repeated previous plots. The worldbuilding and writing was still good, but I felt that character growth was taking place mostly between books. Both the boys involved were useless for most of the time, which is especially unfortunate with the trans guy cast in a (learned?) helplessness and inability to be of help.

As with every book by Seanan McGuire, In an Absent Dream is full of charm and wit and very real observations about how children work. As a part of the Wayward Children series, we follow yet another child into a Door to a place that fits them very well. This time it is Lundy, who gets to see the Goblin Market. I liked a lot of it, because the characters are real and charming as ever, with some character growth and some failings that are painful to see, yet relatable.

While Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire was yet another pleasant entry in the Wayward Children series, it didn't grab me nearly as much as the previous novellas. I'm not into Candyland in the first place, or that of the troupe of children on the rescue mission I only really liked half (and felt for those two or three). The whole story just felt flat, and I felt that the main character was more told than shown, and due to this and her tendency to inaction, she felt rather pale.