The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
The Book of Doors (William Morrow) offers up a delectable fantasy tantalizing for most people: travel anywhere, any time. It’s for anyone who’s daydreamed of another place, wishing they could go, wishing they could return, wishing it were easy. Gareth Brown‘s first novel is a winding, rambling tale, woven with dilemmas and viewpoints aplenty.
Opening in snow-bleached NYC, Cassie Andrews shares banter with her favorite bookstore patron Mr. Webber, an older gentleman who stays late to drink coffee and read. As Cassie is closing up, Mr. Webber gently dies in his seat, leaving a little leather book, with a note inside addressed to her along with a few inviting lines:
This is the Book of Doors.
Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.
No Doors Barred
Cassie tries the book out by accident. A reminiscence of Venice fills her with warm nostalgia, causing the book to radiate a rainbow of color and grow heavy in her hands. She opens the bathroom door to find herself transported to the Venice of her memory, alight in the glow of dusk.
The Book of Doors is too tempting to resist, and soon Cassie and her roommate Izzy are traveling the world over. It’s interesting to consider; would you be strong enough to resist such a gift?
Led by emotion, they fail to assess the risks; sure, Izzy suggests that Cassie should “be careful” while she herself takes a Google deep dive, but Cassie can’t believe her luck and takes full advantage of it. She feels indebted to her grandfather’s memory. He never got the chance to travel, so she wants to do it for him.
But their casual trips and Izzy’s snooping exploits don’t go unnoticed, and soon they’re in mortal danger. Their savior Drummond Fox informs them that the phrase “any door is every door” has more than one meaning. Not only can you travel through any door, anywhere; you can also travel through any door, anywhere in time.
In addition, there are seventeen books found so far with a special knowledge, power or purpose; special enough to kill for: The Book of Luck, The Book of Memory, The Book of Illusion. Then there’s The Book of Despair, which our main villain The Woman brandishes quite frequently to personal delight. Her sole wish is to wring the possibilities from every magic book. No shades of gray here: she’s all darkness and grisly dread.
Step Into the Story
Gareth Brown’s gutsy debut hums along swiftly and has plenty of sharp turns along its route, too looping to divulge. Cassie’s burden becomes heavier than ever, and her clever ideas backfire in more ways than one. Logic bites its own tail as everything comes full circle. Cassie is more connected to the books than she ever thought possible, and must fight with everything she has in order to save both herself and her friends.
Brimming with page-turning antics and wholly malicious villains, The Book of Doors seems timely and ripe for a sequel. Employing a heavy “tell not show” technique, the dialogue is ambiguous and keeps the reader guessing. Its plot may be heavy, but there are no gritty details involving technical specifications of time travel machines or wild theories on how and why it exists. While the antagonists are all shadow and gloom, the rest of the novel is light as air. But though The Book of Doors only scratches the surface of the genre and doesn’t break any molds, it’s fast-paced, easy to read and sure to amuse.
