Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Every Heart a Doorway | 2016 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 2 | כל לב הוא דלת | 2016 | Seanan McGuire | N/A |
| 3 | De brindilles et d’os | 2017 | Seanan McGuire | N/A |
| 4 | Down Among the Sticks and Bones | 2017 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 5 | Beneath the Sugar Sky | 2018 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 6 | Sob o céu açucarado | 2018 | Seanan McGuire | N/A |
| 7 | In an Absent Dream | 2019 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 8 | В небивал сън | 2019 | Seanan McGuire | N/A |
| 9 | Juice Like Wounds | 2020 | Seanan McGuire | N/A |
| 10 | Come Tumbling Down | 2020 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 11 | Across the Green Grass Fields | 2021 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 12 | In Mercy, Rain | 2022 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 13 | Skeleton Song | 2022 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 14 | Where the Drowned Girls Go | 2022 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 15 | Lost in the Moment and Found | 2023 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 16 | Mislaid in Parts Half-Known | 2024 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 17 | Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear | 2025 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
| 18 | Through Gates of Garnet and Gold | 2026 | Seanan McGuire | Buy |
The Wayward Children series is one of Seanan McGuire’s most acclaimed works. Every Heart a Doorway (2016) won the Hugo Award with its premise: children who found doorways to other worlds — Nonsense worlds, Wicked worlds, Virtuous worlds — and then were forced to return to reality. Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children takes them in, but the desire to go back never fades.
The series has grown to 18 entries through 2026, alternating between novellas that explore specific portal worlds (Down Among the Sticks and Bones, In an Absent Dream, Across the Green Grass Fields) and those that advance the main storyline. Each portal world has its own internal logic — some reward darkness, others light, some operate on logic, others on nonsense. The series asks what happens to the heroes of portal fantasy after the adventure ends, and the answers are often heartbreaking.