Every Heart a Doorway

The story is set in a boarding school for teenagers who have passed through "doorways" into fantasy worlds only to be evicted back into the real world. It serves as something of a recovery center for boarders who find they no longer fit in, either in the real world or their own uncomprehending families. For a fortunate few it is just a way station until they can find their ways back to the worlds they do fit into; for others, it's the least bleak choice in what may be a life-long exile. This unhappy ending for the students takes a terrifying turn when some of their number start turning up dead. A small group joins together in an attempt to expose the person committing these murders before it is too late to save the school, or even themselves.

Every Heart a Doorway was critically acclaimed upon release, and it won the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novella,[2] the 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novella,[3] the 2017 Locus Award for Best Novella[4] and the Alex Awards for 2017.[5]

The book is the first in an open sequence of novellas called the "Wayward Children" series, later volumes of which further explore characters and settings this one establishes.