A review by geneticginger
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Cassie works in a bookshop and one day is given a book that allows her to open any door in the world. She discovers that there are more 'special books' in the world along with a lot of danger from evil people wanting the books.

The premise of this book was fascinating, but the concept as a whole really fell flat. I've read all the books that this book is compared to (The Starless Sea, The Immortal Life of Addie LaRue, and The Midnight Library) and this book did not compare. It felt like this book was trying to do it all - fantasy, time travel, romance, mystery - without doing any of it well. The characters were underdeveloped and very one-note with no personality. The whole time travel feature was circular and had a weird element of mysticism that didn't make sense.

There were also several violent/gory scenes in the book that were hard to read with how descriptive they were and really turned my stomach. 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.
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