Books like “Every Heart a Doorway”

What to read after “Every Heart a Doorway” by Seanan McGuire: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Fallen
Lauren Kate · 2009
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Boarding School
After a boy dies in a fire she cannot explain, Lucinda is sent to Sword & Cross, a bleak reform school in Savannah. There she is drawn to Daniel, a distant student she somehow knows. The shadows she has seen since childhood, and Daniel's secrets, point to a love older than her life.
2
Looking for Alaska
John Green · 2005
Similar setting: “Boarding School”
Miles Halter leaves his quiet Florida home for a boarding school in Alabama, drawn by the last words of famous people. There he joins a tight circle of friends, falls for the reckless Alaska Young, and is forced to reckon with loss and guilt.
3
The School for Good and Evil
Soman Chainani · 2013
Similar setting: “Boarding School”
- Boarding School
- Coming of Age
Every year two children are taken to the School for Good and Evil, one to train as a hero and one as a villain. Best friends Sophie and Agatha are sure they know which is which, but the school has its own plans for them.
4
Vampire Academy
Richelle Mead · 2007
Similar setting: “Boarding School”
- Boarding School
Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, trained to guard her best friend Lissa, a Moroi vampire princess. After two years on the run, they are returned to St. Vladimir's Academy, where Rose falls for her instructor and the school's wards hide dangerous secrets.
5
The Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater · 2012
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Found Family
- Coming of Age
Blue has grown up in a house of psychics and is warned she will cause her true love's death. Drawn into the search for a lost Welsh king with a group of boys from a prestigious school, she finds her life tangled with theirs and with their dangerous families.
6
A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Brigid Kemmerer · 2019
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Portal Fantasy
Prince Rhen is cursed to relive his eighteenth year as a monster until a girl falls in love with him. Harper, torn from the modern world into his dying kingdom, only wants to go home, but the curse and the enemy at the gates will not wait.
7
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Lionel Shriver · 2003
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Through letters to her estranged husband, Eva looks back on the life of their son Kevin and on the years she struggled to feel any bond with him. She tries to understand the person he became, and to face her own part in what happened.
8
Bird Box
Josh Malerman · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
Something outside drives anyone who sees it to violence, so the survivors live blindfolded. Malorie has kept two children safe for years. Now she must row them downriver without looking, toward a refuge that may or may not exist.
9
The Blue Sword
Robin McKinley · 1982
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Found Family
- Coming of Age
Harry Crewe, newly orphaned, travels to a remote outpost on the Darian border to live with her brother. Corlath, king of the Free Hillfolk, carries her away from the fort, and she finds an old magic waking in her blood. Caught between two peoples, she must decide where she belongs.
10
Between Two Fires
Christopher Buehlman · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Found Family
In 1348, as the Black Death empties France, a disgraced knight finds an orphan girl in a dead village. She says the plague is only part of a larger war between heaven and hell, and persuades him to carry her across a ruined land toward Avignon.
11
The City We Became
N. K. Jemisin · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Found Family
In a New York where great cities are born as living avatars, a homeless artist becomes the spirit of the city. As a hostile force called the Woman in White spreads through the streets, five avatars of the boroughs must unite to defend a city still struggling to be born.
12
Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard · 2015
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Coming of Age
Mare lives in a world split by blood: silver elites with powers and powerless reds. When a dangerous ability of her own is exposed, the royal family hides her in their palace, where she becomes a pawn in two secret wars.