I am a firm believer in Re-reading books.

And this book? This book proved it to me yet again how important it is to re-read especially books that weren't what i expected on the first read!

i LOVED this book during this second read.

BUT i loved it because i read and loved the companion book Down Among the Sticks and Bones and it gave me the insight to Jill and Jack that i needed -that confused the heck out of me during my first time reading this book.

When i first read this book it was okay.
But i didn't understand how it could be that there where those two characters -jack and jill- that where so utterly strange and clearly brutal and murderous in some way and everyone just seems to accept that they were as they were.

But with the background that Down Among the Sticks and Bones gives us now i understand, now i get this book and it was so wonderful to get back to this story and see where those two characters ended up after what happens in Down Among the Sticks and Bones!

 so my recommendation? Read Down Among the Sticks and Bones before reading this book!

It will give you the needed feel for the Doorways, the worlds, the characters in those worlds that i needed to understand this "first" book and makes you appreciate what this book tries to do -or at least what i took away from this second read through: everyone has the perfect place in the world - You just have to find it!

With knowing the second book and re-reading this book it just made so much more sense and i just LOVED IT! I can not say it enough times!


Of course some things still stand true from my original review:
- i still don't like how everyone just seems to accept that people get murdered and nobody REALLY tries to find who does it other than four kids that are clearly in over their head with that kind of thing. 
- we all know who did it (who is the murderer) right away. Right? that can't just have been me that figured that out even during the first read where i was utterly confused as what the heck kind of people where running around there because how could a kid that says she was in a world with unicorns promise a bloody murder if something didn't happen and nobody even rises an eyebrow? (again maybe just me? could be. I am very sceptical and overly logical by nature!)
- i hate that McGuire puts this little comment in about C. L. Lewis. Not because i am the biggest fan of his works or anything but because i think that if you are writing a story all about doorways you shouldn't go around saying something mean about another author that did the same thing before you. Thats just disrespectful in my opinion. McGuire basically "steals" the idea from Lewis and than turns around and says the guy was stupid? Not okay in my book. So that is a clear star deduction simply for that. 


And more now with this read through i don't understand the publication order. 
I get that McGuire first wrote this. 
Maybe even got inspired to write Jack and Jill's story only after this book was published because people asked about it. I have no idea. I didn't look it up if it was stated somewhere. 

BUT i think the order should have been changed in saying that this book is book two in the Wayward Children series. Especially since it stats that Down Among the Sticks and Bones is the prequel to this book. So it would only make sense that the books would have been numbered in the right order -the order they should be read in!

First Down Among the Sticks and Bones than Every heart a doorway.

And after having stated that more then enough times now i am just going to say this:

Read this series!
Read those books
They are wonderful
And even better on a re-read than they were during the first reading experience. 
Its wonderful writing, great story telling and very interesting characters that you have to re-expereince to really appreciate them (at least i did!) and i only hope that the next book will follow Kade. Because i would love to read more about him and how he is doing!


And with that lets end this review as i started it with one of the many memorable quotes sprinkled throughout this book:

________________

First read review - January '17:

First star rating: 3 stars

I wanted to read this book since so many people raved about how great it was and i was becoming curious. I always have to read the books i get curious about. I can not be the only one that does that!

Anyways... getting back to the actual topic!

Overall this book was creative. And interesting. 

But also a bit all over the place, predictable and very underdeveloped?

I mean i can kind of see why people enjoy it so much but at the same time there is just sooooo much that makes me grinch a little and be unhappy with the book. 

The biggest of my "huh? That does not work!" things was clearly the "murder mystery". 
Lets face it and just say that a school for out of worlders like this exists. I would hope that it would not just let a murderer run wild and basically not care at all for the safety of their students? That would be a bit .... well i was going to say strange but yeah clearly that would be strange! 
But that was just very widely swung for me, which how careless that was handled and then how utterly predictable and unnecessarily it all was. Because just why the heck did it even all happen in the first place?

The story was just very underdeveloped and raw feeling in my option. Which could have been because it was that short. Or because a lot of things didn't make much sense to me. Or because i kind of lost track of who the heck we were currently following along with the very strange point of view this book has going on!


I did however love that the author did use a great mixture of different diversity in this book, that she didn't just use white straight characters but instead included an "around the world" feel into this, which makes sense since clearly doorways into other worlds do not just open in the USA or near white straight people!

I also did enjoy the ending. It was a cute little ending that made me happy because i don't feel the unbearable urge to get the next book right away, but can wait with that for a while. 


So all in all??
This book is a cute idea, but in my option it sadly lacks a bit behind in the actual implementation of all the ideas the author wanted to incorporate into this short little book. 

BUT it was a unique spin and i am willing to give the second book a try and see where this story goes and how it evolves from where this book started the story out with. 

And because i liked how this book ended. 
And i am always a sucker for picking up a second book if i liked the ending of the first!