Eleanor West's boarding school has some very peculiar pupils. To be frank, their parents think they've gone off the rails, but the children and Ms West know better. All the children have visited a land of fantasy. It's different for everyone, but one thing they all share: they were cast out.

West claims to help the children, but not in the way their parents think; she lets the children compare and cultivate their experiences, encouraging them in ways for finding a way back to their fantasy world. After all, she was once one of them.

Every Heart a Doorway is about what happens to Peter Pan, Alice, children of Narnia, when they grow up. Unfortunately, when Nancy enters the school, what happens is death.

It's a dense but wonderful book, with just the right amount of sense of wonder reminiscent of those old children's stories: it's not based on them but it draws strength from them.