Scan barcode
jennijen's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
knynas1's review
4.0
4 ⭐
Fun, imaginative, magical, and action packed! I really enjoyed this story and got strong Narnia vibes as it is a portal story with an evil witch queen. The bonds of family and friends is another main theme of the book and I thought it was enchanting.
Fun, imaginative, magical, and action packed! I really enjoyed this story and got strong Narnia vibes as it is a portal story with an evil witch queen. The bonds of family and friends is another main theme of the book and I thought it was enchanting.
brandypainter's review
4.0
Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.
I became a fan of N.D. Wilson's writing after the release of his very first book Leepike Ridge. I am an enthusiastic fan and pusher of both his 100 Cupboards trilogy and Ashtown Burials series. His latest book, The Door Before, is billed as a prequel to the 100 Cupboards, but it is also a prequel to the Ashtown Series as well.
Hyacinth Smith has a gift. Her father refers to it as a green touch. Hyacinth just knows she can coax life from growing things making them larger and bigger-giving them the power to reach their full potential. Hyacinth's family has always traveled around, staying in other people's homes and doing odd jobs. Now they finally have a home of their own, but the family is splitting up. Her older siblings are going to a special camp for children in the Order her parents are a part of. Her parents are going to an important meeting for that same Order. She is being left (along with her younger brother) at the new house, which is currently occupied by an odd great aunt who is cultivating a field of lightning struck trees. It turns out Granlea has been trying to open doors to other worlds and is responsible for letting in an ancient evil force. She also let in two boys determined to face off against that evil. Hyacinth teams up with these boys as they all desperately try to survive and keep the evil from spreading.
Hyacinth has a quiet strength and calmness about her that helps her get through even the toughest of situations and hardest of times. She is often scared and terrified, but she is good at persevering. Readers of the 100 Cupboards trilogy will recognize this in her, as it is the same quiet strength matured by age she has in that trilogy. Family is fiercely important to Hyacinth and she loves her siblings as much as she loves to be quiet and observe the world around her. She is a main character whose life and mind it is easy for a reader to slip into and assume. Her interactions with Mordecai and Caleb upon meeting them are interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed Caleb's humor, wit, and common sense. (Again, traits we see matured but still there in his later life.) It was slightly more difficult for me to get a real handle on Mordecai. He is full of angst and a healthy dose of a martyr complex for sure. He seems to change his mind about Hyacinth awfully fast and for little reason I could see except the plot required him to start trusting her. I also felt like there wasn't enough relationship development between Mordecai and Hyacinth in this book to justify Caleb's comment at the end that Mordecai was keeping Hyacinth near for himself and not for her. Readers of Wilson's other books know that they obviously eventually develop a close relationship as they are the parents of the hero of the 100 Cupboards books, but taking this book on its own, it didn't make sense.
The plot of The Door Before is fast paced. There is a lot going on and the scenes jump quickly from one to another with a lot of action and peril. Nimiane is full of rage and anger over the loss of her eyes and bent on avenging herself on Caleb and Mordecai. The Smiths happen to be in her way so she will crush them too because she can. Nimiane is truly great villain in every sense of the word. She always has been, but here you get to see her prior to her years of entrapment full of rage, power, and with an organized force. It takes everything the heroes have to hold her back and attempt to stop to her.
This is the shortest of Wilson's books in either the Cupboards or the Ashtown series and it relies quite heavily on world building already accomplished in both. The Order isn't really explained and the references to Henry, Kansas might be a tad confusing to any reader who is starting with this book. That being said, I do think it can be read and enjoyed on its own. You don't have to fully understand the Order to see what it does and how messed up it is in this book. You may question why the author cared enough about this random town to actually mention it specifically, but it won't throw you out of the story. If it's read first, it should lead to readers to the other two series. And then it would be fun to go back and look at it with fresh eyes and all that combined knowledge.
If you've already read the Cupboards Trilogy and the Ashtown Burials, you definitely want to read this too. It's an action filled, satisfying story that gives some insight into the past and there are a lot of cameos from characters you know and love you will appreciate.
I became a fan of N.D. Wilson's writing after the release of his very first book Leepike Ridge. I am an enthusiastic fan and pusher of both his 100 Cupboards trilogy and Ashtown Burials series. His latest book, The Door Before, is billed as a prequel to the 100 Cupboards, but it is also a prequel to the Ashtown Series as well.
Hyacinth Smith has a gift. Her father refers to it as a green touch. Hyacinth just knows she can coax life from growing things making them larger and bigger-giving them the power to reach their full potential. Hyacinth's family has always traveled around, staying in other people's homes and doing odd jobs. Now they finally have a home of their own, but the family is splitting up. Her older siblings are going to a special camp for children in the Order her parents are a part of. Her parents are going to an important meeting for that same Order. She is being left (along with her younger brother) at the new house, which is currently occupied by an odd great aunt who is cultivating a field of lightning struck trees. It turns out Granlea has been trying to open doors to other worlds and is responsible for letting in an ancient evil force. She also let in two boys determined to face off against that evil. Hyacinth teams up with these boys as they all desperately try to survive and keep the evil from spreading.
Hyacinth has a quiet strength and calmness about her that helps her get through even the toughest of situations and hardest of times. She is often scared and terrified, but she is good at persevering. Readers of the 100 Cupboards trilogy will recognize this in her, as it is the same quiet strength matured by age she has in that trilogy. Family is fiercely important to Hyacinth and she loves her siblings as much as she loves to be quiet and observe the world around her. She is a main character whose life and mind it is easy for a reader to slip into and assume. Her interactions with Mordecai and Caleb upon meeting them are interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed Caleb's humor, wit, and common sense. (Again, traits we see matured but still there in his later life.) It was slightly more difficult for me to get a real handle on Mordecai. He is full of angst and a healthy dose of a martyr complex for sure. He seems to change his mind about Hyacinth awfully fast and for little reason I could see except the plot required him to start trusting her. I also felt like there wasn't enough relationship development between Mordecai and Hyacinth in this book to justify Caleb's comment at the end that Mordecai was keeping Hyacinth near for himself and not for her. Readers of Wilson's other books know that they obviously eventually develop a close relationship as they are the parents of the hero of the 100 Cupboards books, but taking this book on its own, it didn't make sense.
The plot of The Door Before is fast paced. There is a lot going on and the scenes jump quickly from one to another with a lot of action and peril. Nimiane is full of rage and anger over the loss of her eyes and bent on avenging herself on Caleb and Mordecai. The Smiths happen to be in her way so she will crush them too because she can. Nimiane is truly great villain in every sense of the word. She always has been, but here you get to see her prior to her years of entrapment full of rage, power, and with an organized force. It takes everything the heroes have to hold her back and attempt to stop to her.
This is the shortest of Wilson's books in either the Cupboards or the Ashtown series and it relies quite heavily on world building already accomplished in both. The Order isn't really explained and the references to Henry, Kansas might be a tad confusing to any reader who is starting with this book. That being said, I do think it can be read and enjoyed on its own. You don't have to fully understand the Order to see what it does and how messed up it is in this book. You may question why the author cared enough about this random town to actually mention it specifically, but it won't throw you out of the story. If it's read first, it should lead to readers to the other two series. And then it would be fun to go back and look at it with fresh eyes and all that combined knowledge.
If you've already read the Cupboards Trilogy and the Ashtown Burials, you definitely want to read this too. It's an action filled, satisfying story that gives some insight into the past and there are a lot of cameos from characters you know and love you will appreciate.
sydneyjacques's review against another edition
4.0
Um this was 221 pages of happiness. I wish it was closer to 400 pages but I guess I can get over that.
lissajean7's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a couple chapters to get into this one, but once it started it just kept on rolling. I really liked all the characters, and would happily read about what happens to them next. Other than the rambling, mood-setting first couple chapters, I really wanted this story to have more, be longer. I wanted to know more about her family, and the Order, and Mordecai's and Caleb's world. All of it. It was fun, but too short, and I've already read the other three 100 Cupboards books (which I loved). Anyway, I enjoyed this one.
lady_mair's review
3.0
3 1/2 STARS
I wanted to give this book 4 or 5 stars, I really did. It was SO exciting to return to the world of the cupboards. This was definitely a mash up of 100 Cupboards world-building + Ashtown Burials creepiness. The characters were better than a lot of Wilson's other novels of late...but it still didn't carry quite the same punch as Cupboards. It felt like a lot of fan service (oh here's the raggant, here's a grumpy faeren, here's a young Rupert Greeves, etc.) Still not quite sure what I think of a combined universe... Then again, this book kept me up late several nights...and I felt a thrill when Mordecai & Caleb showed up and Mordecai used his vines...
Ah well. Here's hoping we get that last Ashtown book someday soon.
I wanted to give this book 4 or 5 stars, I really did. It was SO exciting to return to the world of the cupboards. This was definitely a mash up of 100 Cupboards world-building + Ashtown Burials creepiness. The characters were better than a lot of Wilson's other novels of late...but it still didn't carry quite the same punch as Cupboards. It felt like a lot of fan service (oh here's the raggant, here's a grumpy faeren, here's a young Rupert Greeves, etc.) Still not quite sure what I think of a combined universe... Then again, this book kept me up late several nights...and I felt a thrill when Mordecai & Caleb showed up and Mordecai used his vines...
Ah well. Here's hoping we get that last Ashtown book someday soon.
jonahbarnes's review against another edition
Good fun, nice connections to the other stories.
gschwabauer's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did.
It didn't do anything wrong., mind you. But Hyacinth never felt fleshed-out to me the way that Henry did in the 100 Cupboards series. I wondered, as I was reading, if N.D. Wilson was so excited about the backstories of Mordecai and Caleb that he accidentally made them the stars of the show instead of Hyacinth, the actual main character.
It just didn't have that same raw creepiness that the originals had. Wilson doesn't quite delve into the precise details of setting that would have made me squirm. There's reference to quite a few creepy concepts, but I felt like I actually "saw" few of them. No matter what world we're in, the original series has an unsettling aesthetic, a low thrumming overtone of "danger! danger!" And while my mind felt that way about this book, my gut didn't. In Henry's story, the tension ramps up slowly, but in this book things feel very . . . abrupt. And no one seems to react the way a real person would react.
I did enjoy the time I spent reading; Wilson's prose is excellent and his ideas are interesting. His worldbuilding concepts are fascinating and inventive. This book just felt like it was simplified and stripped down for a younger audience, the characters far flatter and the worlds more bare-bones. I wanted it to be about twice as long if it was going to recapture the magic of the original. I think it could have been twice as long and been nearly twice as good. Oh well.
It didn't do anything wrong., mind you. But Hyacinth never felt fleshed-out to me the way that Henry did in the 100 Cupboards series. I wondered, as I was reading, if N.D. Wilson was so excited about the backstories of Mordecai and Caleb that he accidentally made them the stars of the show instead of Hyacinth, the actual main character.
It just didn't have that same raw creepiness that the originals had. Wilson doesn't quite delve into the precise details of setting that would have made me squirm. There's reference to quite a few creepy concepts, but I felt like I actually "saw" few of them. No matter what world we're in, the original series has an unsettling aesthetic, a low thrumming overtone of "danger! danger!" And while my mind felt that way about this book, my gut didn't. In Henry's story, the tension ramps up slowly, but in this book things feel very . . . abrupt. And no one seems to react the way a real person would react.
I did enjoy the time I spent reading; Wilson's prose is excellent and his ideas are interesting. His worldbuilding concepts are fascinating and inventive. This book just felt like it was simplified and stripped down for a younger audience, the characters far flatter and the worlds more bare-bones. I wanted it to be about twice as long if it was going to recapture the magic of the original. I think it could have been twice as long and been nearly twice as good. Oh well.
bookworm_baggins's review against another edition
5.0
This was about half the length of the original series novels, read fast and fun, and was a beautiful bridge between worlds.
silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I loved the main series, and this one took me a bit longer to fully engage in for some reason, but eventually I succumbed to ALL the perfect elements in this story. I wouldn't have been mad if the whole series was about this family traveling the country in their camper, fixing up machines and gardens and killing monsters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit and Death