Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Door

This is one of those books that i can't just rate by stars. This was a deeply upsetting and disturbing read and i felt genuine pity for the characters but it also made me almost put it down the first time Emerenc beat the dog... A bizarre story that even though hurt my soul while i read it, i just couldn't put down. It caused me literal nightmares multiple times. It's a brilliant book but a very negative reading experience.

edit: i had to rate it a 5 star to put it among my favourites but it's not a 5 star honestly. but it's also so good i can't stop thinking about it

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mamacroonie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The last page of the Amnesia chapter made the whole experience worth it . Soul crushing

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luananki's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

this was so good?? the writing was beautiful and i also appreciate characters that are so realistically unlikable you can’t do anything else but to love them

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jayisreading's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

I think I'm going to have to check out Szabó's other writings, because this one had most elements that I like in a book that are character-driven, but it didn't quite grab my attention as much as I'd have liked. This was an interesting dive into a rather intense and complicated relationship between two women who came from very different backgrounds but crossed paths because one (Emerence) was hired to be the housekeeper of the other (the narrator). Emerence in particular was a memorable character with her sharp personality and mysterious background. I think what threw me off a little, though, was how she sometimes came off as an almost mythological figure, which didn't quite work for me. On another note, there was definitely significant symbolism attached to the door that led into Emerence's house that left a lot of food for thought.

Again, I'll have to check out Szabó's other works. This was an interesting step into modern Hungarian literature for me though.

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sarahjsnider's review against another edition

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3.5

This is a tough one because I am missing a lot of context about Hungarian history and culture. There is enough I can interpret to fascinate.

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mirandajanisse's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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missbear's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It was one of my goals for this year to actually make an effort to read books by authors who I've already tried and enjoyed. I say it all the time when I read a book by someone new — "I'm definitely going to read more by this author!" — and then the new year rolls around with so many new authors to try and I forget to go back. But this year, I was trying to maximize the number of books I really enjoyed, so I thought it would be a good strategy — and I was so right! Katalin Street was an unexpected delight last year and was so original and unique with its odd ghost perspective that I couldn't really imagine what another book by Szabó would be like. And The Door is completely different, in every way, but it still had that lightning strike effect that Katalin Street had, maybe even more so.

The thing that stood out to me most about The Door is that it's not magical realism (like Katalin Street is), everything in the book is theoretically realistic, and yet it has this feeling the whole time that something vaguely supernatural might be around the corner at any moment. This energy keeps the story incredibly compelling, which is especially impressive considering that there's very little plot and not much of a narrative arc. Even when events happen or time passes chronologically, you get the sense that the only point of including these kinds of details in the story is for the sake of developing the character of Emerence or the relationship between her and the narrator. And it works, because Emerence is such a strange and intriguing person, and the housekeeper/mistress relationship that the story is centered around is so unexpected. And, of course, because Szabó is such a talented writer. I'm ready to read anything she's written, no matter what the content is.

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