Book Review: Another Portal Fantasy Not to be Missed, The Book of Doors is an Impressive Contemporary Fantasy Debut
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when a book is likened to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the expectations are high. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, is, in my opinion, nothing like Addie, other than being primarily in NYC, and a bookstore is involved. However, I did find many similarities between it and The City of Stardust, one of my favorite reads this year (that’s definitely not for everyone, as the Goodreads rating will show, but I maintain it just needs to find its right readers). But back to the book in question: The Book of Doors is a portal fantasy, which is one of my favorite subgenres. And I have to say, I enjoyed it! Was it perfect? No. But for a debut, it was pretty close, and I’m impressed. If you love time travel, the idea of special books that grant the holder magical abilities, a truly evil villain cloaked in mystery, and a slow burn romance subplot, you might also love this read. What kept it from being a perfect five stars for me were a few choices the author made with the story that had me going, “Seriously?!” No spoilers here though! And overall, I did really like it. So what else do you need to know?
Things to Know:
Standalone
Portal Fantasy
Magical Books
Time travel
Third person POV
One of my favorite things about how this book is written, are the full circle moments. Brown did a wonderful job tying everything together, and I was left pretty satisfied in the end. We first meet Cassie at the bookstore and cafe she works at, and there’s a lovely older, lonely gentleman who always comes in and has his coffee and reads. He’s reading The Count of Monte Cristo (Ok, totally sold at this point as it’s one of my favorite classics). He passes away suddenly and Cassie realizes he’s left her an old book, and the adventure begins.
“This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.”
She and her roommate, Izzy, discover the book opens regular doors into completely different cities. And like any 20-somethings, they have some incredible nights visiting all the best cities in the world. We’ve gotta talk about Izzy for a second. She’s the most annoying character. Always making really stupid decisions, I was so incredibly frustrated with her the entire story until the very, very end.
Because of Izzy’s actions, we find out there are many nefarious people after this book. And not only that, there are other special books offering their owners incredible special abilities: control over matter, joy, pain, and more. Drummond Fox is a ‘librarian’ and keeper of many of these special books in his secret library that only Cassie’s book can open a door to. He attempts to help Cassie, but having been through a tragedy with the books previously, and the villainous woman coveting them all, he’s determined the book may be better off destroyed than in the wrong hands.
Did I mention there’s also time travel?! I actually love how time travel was handled in this book. I really can’t share more without spoilers, so you’ll just have to read it yourself!
And now we come to the villains. I loved them…because you truly hate them. “The woman” as she’s called throughout, is truly an embodiment of evil, and you’re given a couple breadcrumbs, but you really spend most of the time wondering how on earth she came to be like this, and why does she have such an obsession with collecting all of the books. The reveal on this one was one of those full circle moments, but also felt frustrating to me. It worked so perfectly for the story, but left me saying, “Are you kidding me?!”
Then we have Mr. Barbury, who was your average terrible person. He’s murderous and has been chasing Drummond for years trying to get his books. I liked the idea of having more than one villain, especially because, while they were both after the books, they’re very different characters.
There’s also some morally grey characters, and you’re given quite a few different POVs throughout the novel. I didn’t mind that though. The main twist, honestly felt a bit like a cop out to me. It was my least favorite part, but at the same time, made everything work and piece together in a perfect puzzle. So I gotta give props for that. Overall, I really enjoyed this story, and I’m looking forward to what Brown writes next! Many thanks to NetGalley for a review e-copy. All opinions are my own.
Favorite Quotes:
“I know you like to hide in books, and maybe that’s my fault, because I like having you around all the time.”
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”He was lonely, Cassie knew, but he carried it lightly, never imposing his loneliness on others.”
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“This world is awful and mean and I hate it…but books have always been a place I can go….I prefer books to the real world.”
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“Happiness is not something you sit and wait for. You have to choose it and pursue it in spite of everything else.”
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