The Book of Doors
Tragically, every time I open my office door it has the predictable outcome of leading me to my office. Yes, I know suprising. Don’t get me wrong, I like my job, but I find my door’s unwillingness to bend the rules of physics even just the once very tiresome. Why doesn’t it lead me instead into Haribo’s biggest gum bear factory (Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin in case you didn’t know, I do know as I have cholesterol problems)? Cassie Andrews, the protagonist of Gareth Brown’s “The Book of Doors” know no such problems, for she has a book…of doors!
The fantastical narrative focuses on Cassie as she is thrown from her quiet life of suffering the loss of her grandfather in modern day New York into a world where books with magical properties are being hunted by the most dangerous of individuals. Indeed, she has just been given the most powerful one, a book that can turn any door into any other door at any time. What follows next is cat and mouse chase between Cassie and her friends on one side and two supervillains with their own magical powers on the other.
Where this book works best is strangely in Brown’s description of places, which is frankly, cozy. He requires no door his book will take you to where he wants to with his prose. The story is original and clever, satisfyingly self-contained in fact. The periphery characters are well drawn, if the villains a little cartoonish. There are sufficient twists to keep the reader guessing but truthfully the final chapter perhaps happens a little too easily. But to be honest, the author had taken us on enough of ride to well be in his rights to tell us jump off when he does.
Where it fails is in some of its characterisation. I didn’t like the protagonist, she came across as self-involved, and indeed her paramour, and other protagonist was similarly self-involved, both are arguably the true cause of the evil in the narrative. Their friends deserve better. The violence can also be a little jarring when it happens though the novel never pretends to be anything other than dark. I would also contend that the book of doors is rather wasted on the main character who seems to feel its only application is to go back to places shes been on holidays to, which is kind of like saying "lets go back to the that nice beech holiday in Naxos 2019" instead of saying "wouldn't it be gas to call Alexander the Great a stupid bollx and run through the nearest door". Perhaps, I am showing my immaturity but it does feel something of missed opportunity in her hands.
All in all, while the protagonists are something of drips there is enough flow to this story to make this book worth pouring through. An enjoyable and clever read. 4/5