A review by meaganmart
Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby

4.0

Laura Ruby pulled me in with a ghost narrator. She kept me with her beautiful, painful examination of what it means to be a woman. The secrets women keep, the truths we hide (even, sometimes from ourselves), the pain that we bear, Ruby captured it all. We have our protagonist, Frankie, trying to navigate through a world that terrifies her after a childhood spent in a Catholic orphange. Sweet Frankie who craves love, who yearns for affection in a life where she is constantly told she is unwanted. We watch her mature into a woman who keeps her own counsel, one who navigates the fear and channels it into a new life for herself. We see her story unfold through the eyes of our ghostly narrator, Pearl, who has hidden her truth so far away from herself that she can't even remember how she died. Frankie gives Pearl the strength to delve into her past, and when it matters, Pearl reaches back into the world of the living to give Frankie a push to the future she deserves. Wonderfully written this is a truly unforgettable novel.