Reviews - The House of Doors

1.11k reviews for:

The House of Doors

Tan Twan Eng

3.95 AVERAGE

jenwinnell's review

4.0

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

coppolaklein's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

kewynn's review against another edition

4.25

medium-paced

susanleslie's review against another edition

4.5

I was slow to warm up to this book, but the writing was always beautifully evocative of the place and eventually it came together for me. I had recently finished reading The Great Reclamation, which makes for a great pairing with this book in terms of views of Malaysian history from two very different viewpoints.

zarrazine's review against another edition

3.75

mysterious reflective

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rieviolet's review against another edition

3.5

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The novel is not bad but, like the other book by Tan Twan Eng I read (The Garden of Evening Mists), it didn't left a particularly strong impression on me.

The writing style is good but at times it gets a bit too much overwritten and descriptive for my personal taste, and that was an issue I had with his previous book too. It's not that I don't appreciate a nice metaphor or simile from time to time, but here there is definitely an overabundance of them.

The setting and the historical background are really interesting but I struggled a lot with the characters. It's not just that they were (almost all) quite unlikeable, I also found it difficult to connect with them, they felt distant and a bit flat. By the end, I didn't care much to learn more about them and about what their fate would be, I was more interested in getting a resolution for the plot concerning the trial/murder mystery.

I've heard from another reviewer that it felt a bit like this book lacked a clear centre onto which the reader could focus, and I completely agree. There is a lot going on (multiple story threads plus a double POV), but in the end I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from it.

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