The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?
 

In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door.
 

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.
 

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.
 

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .
 

Because some doors should never be opened.

This might be the earliest I’ve ever read a newly published book as I ninja-ed it the day my library got a digital copy and I was very excited based on the synopsis and listed genres. For me, the Book of Doors was a solid comfort read (note, NOT the actual Comfy read genre) that felt nostalgic in the first half, invoking the wide-eyed magical feel of many YA fantasy books I read growing up yet clearly intended for adult readers. This book is also fully targeted towards book lovers with countless descriptions and settings based on book collections, stores, or libraries (to be expected for a story involving magical books).

What I did not expect was the surprisingly ambitious and well-executed time-traveling/manipulating second half that manages to recover and tie-up the narrative successfully after a disjointed mid-section. Despite the obviously heavy fantasy elements provided by the magical books (I assume it’s not mentioned in the synopsis as not to show it’s trump card early), the Book of Doors should first and foremost be considered a soft time-travel drama.

A young women in her 20’s living day to day in New York, Cassie is at the pivotal stage in her life where she hasn’t quite discovered herself and figured out adulting. She also carries a fair bit of regret and loneliness following the death of her only family member (her grandfather who raised her) and the death of Mr. Webber in chapter 1, a long-time frequent customer at the bookshop she works at. Upon discovering Mr. Webber has passed away while reading in the bookshop, she receives a mysterious leather-bound book gifted to her which is later revealed to be the Book of Doors which seemingly has the ability to open any door and transport its holder to that location.

Much of the early bits of the book that I found to be a highlight were these early bits of exploration as Cassie revisits locations she once traveled through on a trip following her grandfather’s passing. Gareth Brown’s visual and sensory descriptions of various European locations (and other foreign locations via other characters’ perspectives) are detailed and romanticized through a rose-tinted lens, full of sentimental longing and wonder. These early chapters had a great balance between descriptions and action compared to Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea which has a very similar beginning and premise involving doors.

Unfortunately once Drummond and other individuals are introduced following the discovery of Cassie’s book, the story got a bit cluttered for me. There are a lot of new characters that are introduced back to back along with their life stories that, despite being varied and interesting, derail the cohesive feel of Cassie’s story. The intent is clearly to show the reader how many different individuals are out there seeking the magical books with different prerogatives, however I found it hard to keep track or worse, care about the characters outside of Cassie/Izzy and Drummond. The Book of Doors uses all of these characters to form an action-packed conclusion, but in hindsight I feel the placement and jump from two characters to 6+ (not including Drummond’s friends) could’ve been paced and spread out better.

It is also in this mid-section where I started to feel like the novel was trying to do a lot of different things at the same time and not particularly excelling at any of them. There’s plot threads involving a serial killer and the protagonists on the run, a collective group of “librarians” trying to discover the source and power of the books, time-traveling and memories being added or taken, books being tracked down and sold/auctioned off; there’s a lot going on and it feels like the plot gets lost along the way. When I said earlier that this book felt nostalgic in capturing many YA fantasy themes, I meant it quite literally as this book attempts to throw maybe five of my favorite YA books into an oven while trying to produce a magical multi-swirl cake.

The good news is that once the story moves into its time-travel-heavy back half, the various plot threads start to come together. The book fully utilizes its time/space traveling power allowing its various holders to constantly jump, culminating in a clever and exciting conclusion. While I found most of the action scenes in the first half to be a bit abrupt and stop and go, the action in the last one fourth is solid. The Book of Doors also fully commits to the time-travel concept complete with its own consistent theory of time-travel/continuity, and it often surprised me with how well the plot was planned out (no plot holes all to common for time-traveling stories). Almost every action taken in the first half of the novel is somehow affected or setup by a time-traveling action in the back half and I definitely went back to re-read a few earlier chapters upon finishing the book.

What helps the Book of Doors really sell itself (and what honestly pulled me back into the story after losing a bit of interest in its mid-section) is its quieter, reflective moments. When Cassie uses the door to speak to two prominent figures in her life, now as an adult with more baggage then before, the book pulls out some emotional punches relating to regret and loss. These chapters where Cassie looks for guidance and help from characters that are no longer available to her were by far the best parts of the book for me and an area where many other time-travel stories fumble. It’s hard to say anymore without giving away major spoilers, but for me and many other readers who have aging friends and family members in their lives, it tugs on the heartstrings while also providing wonderful character development for Cassie.

Speaking of characters, I found both Cassie and Drummond to both be interesting and well-written leads. The natural banter and narrative chemistry between them works well. As previously written, I have a low tolerance for overly emotional and dramatic personalities and despite being emotional, Cassie relays her feelings in an internal and nuanced way which works in an effective yet classy way. She’s also the perfect foil to Drummond, a lone wolf who has learned to keep his emotions and attachments at bay. Despite there being mild attractions between certain characters, the Book of Doors is not a romance novel and has very little romantic content which I would’ve found to be a distraction.

Unfortunately I found he side characters to be less interesting on average despite a good attempt to make them more developed. Despite her being one of the biggest motivating factors encouraging Cassie in this magical adventure, I found Izzy to be mildly irritating and her story arc to pale in comparison to Cassie/Drummond in both depth and quality. Other side characters’ perspectives are given multiple chapters to show glimpses into their lives, but I felt like their limited contributions to the overall plot didn’t warrant such lengthy expositions (hence the odd middle third part). As the cast grows, the story takes on more of an ensemble cast narrative when I personally thought the book is at its best during one-on-one scenes. I love books that are able to move and manage large casts in complex plots, however the attempt here feels a bit clunky at times and at odds with the book’s most ambitious individual character moments.

However when it comes to characters, Mr. Webber almost compensates for any shortcomings elsewhere. An elderly solitary man and a frequent customer to the bookshop where Cassie works, his entire personality, life, and story arc is excellent (again, unfortunately saying anymore will give away spoilers). Despite Cassie and Drummond being the “main characters”, Mr. Webber is truly the heart of the story and I didn’t want his chapters about 300 pages in to end.

Sitting comfortably around 4/4.5 for most of the read, I’m ultimately rounding up to a 5 based on the solid execution of the back half of the book’s plot and the wonderful character interactions during the time travel chapters. I’m still surprised at how well the conclusion managed to tie-up all of the multiple plot threads into a cohesive and clean ending. I’ve also read an increasing number of adult fantasy or urban fantasy novels which I find to have a different feel or tone to YA fantasy novels I grew up with. The Book of Doors is probably the closest novel I’ve read lately that utilizes a cast of adult characters while still retaining that magical fantasy feel of my favorite childhood authors like Eoin Colfer, J.K. Rowling, Cornelia Funke, etc. Also the last chapter. The novel ending with Mr. Webber after the Cassie’s journey across time and space coming full circle from the beginning was sweet, heartfelt, and left my stone cold heart just a little bit moved.