This has been the year of doors so far, first Ten Thousand Doors of January then Starless Sea, now this. Unfortunately this book was a door that opened into nothingness.

It was such a brilliant concept, and such a weak execution. Logic worlds and Nonsense worlds and Rhyme worlds and etc etc all exist at the peripheries of our world, found by children who need them. And when those children unexpectedly find themselves back in our world the lucky ones end up in the care of Eleanor, herself a returned child who grew up, who runs a boarding school to help them cope.

And. . . that's it. That's the entire book. There's a halfhearted attempt at making a plot out of a murder mystery with a dismayingly obvious killer, but you never get to know any of the kids. You certainly don't get enough substance to care about any of them.

The only moment of emotional resonance in the entire book is Spoiler when you find that Floriel suffered and died needlessly because the door to return her to her world was in her bedroom all along but even that was sad more as an abstract than actually caring about the character herself.

This could easily have been a short story and I would have probably loved it.

UPDATE: Re-read on audio for a book club, and I still think it's terrible and overhyped.