The Book of Doors

Darling Doors

Rarely do I encounter a book that leaves me yearning to dive back into its pages immediately upon finishing. Gareth Brown's “The Book of Doors” falls squarely into that exceptional category. As someone still navigating the realms of fantasy literature, time-travel narratives often prove hit or miss for me. However, from the moment I laid eyes on the title, I found myself inexorably drawn into Brown's enchanting world.

At the heart of the story lies Cassie, a character who resonated deeply with me, reflecting facets of my own journey. Witnessing her evolution and resilience throughout the narrative filled me with an immense sense of pride. Her dynamic relationship with Izzy, characterized by their stark differences yet undeniable synergy, added layers of depth to the story. Similarly, the subtle yet electrifying chemistry between Cassie and Drummond enriched the narrative without overshadowing its essence.

What truly sets “The Book of Doors” apart is its meticulous world-building, anchored by a sophisticated magic system revolving around mystical tomes. Brown's modern setting seamlessly integrates with the intricacies of this magical realm, captivating readers with its immersive detail. Each character possesses a distinct voice and personality, contributing to the narrative's richness and authenticity.

Throughout the book, I found myself enraptured by the relentless action and unexpected plot twists. Moments of clarity illuminated the storyline, while others left me reeling, necessitating moments of quiet reflection to absorb the magnitude of what I had just read. In my eyes, “The Book of Doors” stands as a masterpiece of the time-travel genre, showcasing Brown's remarkable storytelling prowess.

As a debut novel, “The Book of Doors” heralds the arrival of a formidable literary talent. I eagerly await Brown's future endeavors, eager to see where his boundless imagination leads. This book has left an indelible mark on me, its impact destined to linger in my thoughts for years to come.

One of my favorite reads of the year. A wonderful, fantastical story about magic books, love, loss, pain, time travel, & friendship. Truly such a joy to read, & definitely will be in my rotation of comfort reads.

Special thank you to my friend Atheena, who got me this book for my birthday this year. I wouldn't have gotten to experience it without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you

I really enjoyed this book. I really love fantasy books that involve characters in a normal, realistic world discovering a magical world that exists right under their nose. I feel like is a sub-genre of fantasy, but I'm not sure what to call it. Either way, this is a good book. It gave me the same vibes as The Midnight Library and The Cartographers.

Book club book, so I'm skipping a review on this one to properly discuss it (I see you, Alex).

DNF - PG 100

Why?

Because this book is awful, terrible with no redeeming qualities and I am not going to subject myself to this trash anymore.

Bu first, I want to give a disclaimer, here:

I did not choose this book for myself. I would never have chosen this book for myself. So, you're probably all going ‘then why did you read it?' Well, that's simple. I subscribed to a service called ‘justtherightbook' from this little indie bookstore and this was the fourth book they sent me.

I really don't know why they sent it to me because after the first one, (The Starling House) I left feedback stating that I do not like contemporary fantasy, (which this proudly proclaims itself as being on the dust jacket) and after the second book they sent me, (Jumpnauts) I told them I had already attempted to read it, but it was a DNF because of the creepy guy (which this book has a male author that is creepy towards the female main characters). So, I'm left scratching my head as to how they thought this book was appropriate.

So, bare in mind that just looking at the book, I had a pretty good theory that it would not be a book of me. I know my reading preferences. The synopsis of the book did not grab me. I had never expected it would be this horrible, though.

Anyway, I gave it a go and...

When the story first stars, I thought it felt like an amateurish ‘The Watchmaker of Filigree Street'. It starts off very quietly and somewhat subdued, though the writing wasn't of a high enough quality to really back-up that feeling.

Then hit's the absolute sexism. And the male author describing their female main character in relation to her breasts. (Because in 2024 we can't be done with that.) And the fact that the main character's female best friend puts herself down via body shaming and food shaming by woe-is-me-ing about eating bacon, pancakes and a coke at midnight because ‘look at my aunts' fat shaming.

Then we much more graphic violence than I was prepared for.

The final last straw was getting to spend time in the head of a serial killer, a woman that tortured her parents to death and derives pleasure from killing animals.

On less important notes, as these issues can be polished with work and experience. And a solid editor.

The dialogue is clunky and amateurishly written. (But, to be fair, everything about this book is kind of clunky and amateurish.)

‘They stared at him silently, neither of them moving. Cassie met his dark eyes and saw a plea there, but she couldn't bring herself to respond.
“You don't trust me,” he concluded.
“You think?” Izzy said.
“We've just met you,” Cassie elaborated.

There's a lot of synopsizing of events. There's a lot of travel already that just made my eyes glaze over. There's a lot of weird reactions from Cassie. She's a liar, a bad friend and very self-centered. She also doesn't react to things in rational, normal ways. (Though I could easily see this as being a case of ‘but women aren't rational beings' trash.)

Anyway, life's too short and I already spent too long on this book. (To be fair, two chapters was too much time spent on this book.)

Out of all the time travel books this one is my absolute favorite. the character diversity is fantastic and overall is an amazing book. The ending was the closure I was hoping for and definitely left me satisified with this story. It was just perfection.

“The Book of Doors” is a captivating tale that quickly transports readers from the mundane to the magical. The story follows Cassie's discovery of a mystical book that turns doors into portals to anywhere. This enchanting premise, however, swiftly transitions into a darker narrative, illustrating the dangers of such power.

While the book excels in creating a world of wonder, its early chapters rush through Cassie's pre-magical life and initial explorations with her friend Izzy. A slower, more detailed unfolding here would have added depth. The dialogue sometimes lacks fluidity, yet these moments don't significantly detract from the story's overall charm.

For fans of the genre, “The Book of Doors” offers an enjoyable blend of whimsy and caution, leaving readers longing for more exploration into its magical possibilities.

I almost DNF'd this early as the writing felt basic and the characters one dimensional. It gets better but the pacing was off throughout. Could have been a 5 star rating but falls short

My kinda book! Really good characters and story. Felt kinda slow at parts and thought some plot points could've been further developed but like rlly enjoyed

Well, I liked the premise! Who wouldn't want literal superpowers bestowed on you through a book, right? The problem was that this book suffered some major pacing/development issues that prevented me from thoroughly enjoying myself, and it also requires the attentive reader to entirely turn off the part of the brain responsible for thinking logically about time travel implications. It was these two things that prevented me from rating the book higher, but I do have to say that I did mostly enjoy the story told. There was just a lot of telling.

Cassie works at a bookstore when an elderly regular of hers, Mr. Webber, stops by one snowy evening, exchanges some banter about world travel and The Count of Monte Cristo, and then passes away right there in the shop. In front of him, Cassie finds a mysterious book with an equally mysterious message for her right inside the cover. This was her introduction to The Book of Doors, which lets her travel anywhere (and anywhen) just by opening a door. There's other books out there with other strange and mysterious powers, and just as many people trying to get their hands on them. Cassie finds herself sucked into a power struggle she never knew existed, armed only with a book to keep her and her friends safe.

The cast of characters in this book is rather large, but don't worry, only a very few of them are actually relevant to the plot. There's an equally huge number of different books of different powers out there as well, but again, don't worry, as our heroes really only make use of two or three regularly. The author does a lot of handwaving of these other books (evidently a whole library's worth?), which was a little disappointing. The plot also moves incredibly slow in the beginning while everything's being set up, and then after it falls over the tipping point things start moving incredibly fast, which was a little problematic. It took so long for the plot to start moving, and then when it does, interesting plot points are handwaved away in a "we'll think about this later" off scene sort of way as the author barrels through their plot points to get to the end. After all the time setting things up, I expected a bit more care to be taken with the end.

And then don't get me started on all the time travel shenanigans that aren't adequately explained. DO NOT click this spoiler/read this spoiler if you're at all interested in this book (I'm not joking) (HEAVY ending spoilers here): So ultimately it was Cassie who made the books, right? But we don't actually ever talk about that and what that means or how it happens. She just saw Izzy die (but not actually), freak out, go through a door to nothing, and then.....hangs out there for months, sheds her emotions into books, and then somehow they're distributed out before everything started hundreds of years ago for everyone to fight over. She was the origin of the books, but everytime afterward that Cassie starts to think about it she waves it away as being too large to think about. Girl, you're right, but also the readers want to know wtf that was all about so we need to have a moment together, I think. It just smacked of the author having a cool idea but not really knowing how to adequately/satisfactorily explain it at the end, so we'll just have the main character not talk about it at all okay?

But if you're able to turn your brain off and want an original book superpower-themed thriller, give this one a try.

3,5 ⭐️ echt een heel uniek verhaal - in tijden niet zoiets gelezen. Had van te voren niet verwacht hoe dit boek zou lopen. Het is heel mooi geschreven maar soms kwam ik er wat moeilijk in omdat er veel karakters in voor komen. Tegen het einde vloog ik er juist doorheen omdat eindelijk duidelijk werd wat al die karakters met elkaar te maken hadden.

This book had me gripped from start to finished!! I could see this becoming an amazing movie

Fine enough as a YA book; I probably would've loved it as a teenager. But as an adult, I find it to be an occasionally engaging but uneven read. I enjoyed parts, and some twists were interesting. But it's not particularly well written, the characters are barely more than stereotypes, and there's a massive plothole paradox at the center of the story.

I loved it! It was adventurous, intense, and emotional. I was very much invested in the characters, and I liked the simple worldbuilding.

Simply put, this is a book about a world with special magical books. They're priceless, valuable artifacts that people want to get their hands on--to be used for various purposes. The protagonist, Cassie, suddenly finds herself smack dab in the middle of this chaos.

In general, I enjoy books about books. This one was no exception. The characters were likable, and I was drawn into the story even into the first and second chapters.

A page that was memorable to me as this:

“I don't know,” she admitted. “I just wanted to feel like I was at home again. That I still had a home.”
He said nothing to that. Then he reached across and put a hand on hers.
“I have to do something hard and scary,” she said. “I think maybe I just wanted to remember what it was like before there was anything hard and scary in the world, before I do it.”
“Life is full of hard and scary things,” he said. “Sometimes you know you are going to face something hard and scary.” He nodded and Cassie thought he was talking to himself as much as to her. “But you have to get on with it. No point bitching and moaning. Get it done.” She smiled sadly. “Very pragmatic,” she said.
“What else can you do?” he asked, and he seemed annoyed, with her, with the world. “Because if you stop you admit the bad stuff has won, don't you? All you can do is keep going. Refuse to be beaten, even when you are beaten. The bad stuff only wins if you let it. I refuse to be beaten, Cassie. I refuse.”
She had never seen him like this, she realized. This was the side of him he had always kept from her. This was the bitterness and the anger at all that life had done to him.
“I refuse, and so should you.” He jabbed a finger at her. Whatever you need to do, you get it done and you move on. Put it behind you and survive.”
“Yeah,” she said. “That sounds good.”

I hope readers alike can enjoy this story as much if not more than I did. Now, I must return this fabulous book to my local library and find my next one.

I really wanted to like this one. The premise and the ideas behind the story are very good and totally up my alley, but I just couldn't get past the poor writing, clunky dialogue, meandering story, or connect with the characters at all. The pacing was all over the place, it felt so jilted and just didn't flow nicely. One minute it feels like we're gearing up for some sort of climax and then it's interrupted by some side story, only to come back to the main climax, which never really amounts to anything. And this happens multiple times. The characters would say they had a plan on what to do next, then explain one thing they planned and when questioned what was going to happen after that, say they haven't thought that far ahead. Again, this happens multiple times. I had a hard time understanding the characters actions or motivations, in a lot of cases and it was actually frustrating me to the point I was ready to give up at multiple points! Mild spoiler: Cassie our main character at one point is given an extra 10 years of time, and what does she do with it? Learn to fight? Find out more information about the situation she's in? Do literally ANYTHING? No. She reads books....and reminisces....she does nothing to prepare herself for what's coming and it just.....frustrated me. She was useless throughout the whole book. You never really dive into anyone's head, there are so many POV's but not enough time with any of them to get to know the characters, so I just....didn't care. The villains were cartoony villains with no nuance or layers. They were evil because they are ‘evil'. The dialogue felt like it was for a younger audience at times. Until it wasn't. Then it was downright offensive. I'm honestly surprised I finished the book at all. I am also surprised by how many amazing reviews it has, it really is not well-written and needs some major editorial help. I feel bad giving it such a bad review, as I think the ‘idea' of the story could have been amazing, but the execution of it was terrible. I would not compare this to The Midnight Library or The Ten Thousand Doors of January - both favourite books of mine - while the story might appeal to those who liked those books, it isn't even a shadow of either of them.

This was gorgeous. I loved it!

I really loved the idea of this book, but unfortunately it was a bit boring. I felt that it was lacking a lot of potential wonder and magic that could have been fleshed out a bit better. I kept finding myself stopping and starting the book which is not typical for me as a reader. It just didn't hold my attention. I will give it another go once it's published as I still hold out hope for this book as it reminds of the the Librarian movies series meets a myraid of characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

2 stars. Great concept and I had been looking forward to reading this, but the writing style sadly didn't work for me at all.

The way this is written felt incredibly simple and juvenile. And so bland. Very few descriptions or explanations and those we did get seemed almost amateurish. Not very magical for a book about magic. I really struggled with it. I know many people enjoy this kind of writing; it just isn't for me. It lacked personality!

Unfortunately, I felt the same way about the characters. They were flat, their motivations made no sense to me and there were no connecting moments to explain their choices. If you just found a magic book that lets you travel wherever you want to go—which you immediately use, by the way—you should have a reaction beyond something along the lines of “This is the best thing ever, but now I'm hungry, let's go eat.”

The good guys, especially the two female friends, were annoying and the baddies resembled cartoon villains. The dialogue was atrocious and very much fell into the category of “People don't talk like this!”

After introducing all the important characters, the plot went in a direction that didn't interest me at all. I might have been able to get on board with it if I hadn't felt like I was fighting the stylistic writing choices with every page read. I wanted to enjoy a magical and immersive story all about the power of books, but regrettably, it was not to be.

Happy Publication Day to The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown. My two favourite things, New York and books, feature heavily in this fantasy novel.

Fantasy and Sci-Fi are not my go-to genre, but occasionally, I find a novel that blows my mind, opening a whole new realm for me to get my teeth into.

Cassie works in a book shop in New York. She loves her job, organising rows of books on shelves and talking to customers who pop by. The book begins with a regular customer, Mr Webber suddenly dying in the shop, leaving behind an unusual book which Cassie pockets. Cassie soon learns that this is no ordinary book but one that has special powers. It is the book of doors and can transport its owner to any door, anywhere.

Cassie soon discovers that this is not the only special book out there and that there are people who are willing to do anything to get their hands on the book of doors. Time-travel, battles, and magic unfold on the pages of this novel, making for such an exciting read. I just loved it, getting caught up in the gripping tension and gore of this adventure story.

The characters, for me, were the at core of this novel, and I was routing for Cassie to be victorious. I loved the chapters featuring Mr. Webber and the whole backstory of Drummond Fox were fascinating along with the Fox library.

I got totally swept away with the concept of this novel. The twists and turns were an unexpected but delightful surprise. The imagination and mind of Gareth Brown to think of this plot is mind-numbing