The Book of Doors

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.)