The Book of Doors – Gareth Brown

Published By: Bantam
Pages: 416
Released On: 15/02/2024

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

In New York, 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 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.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and let me tell you – it is phenomenal!

It is a mixture of the fantasy, an adventure, magic story, magical, a bit of laughter (dark humour mostly), a thriller, a horror, a romance (even if that is more implied than obvious). It’s got it all in spades, and buckets, and everything else you can carry something in.

I always think that an author who writes a book like this has to have some very impressive spreadsheets to keep on top of everyone and everything and every time and place, and if that is true then I really want to look at them. Can someone write a book just documenting people’s spreadsheets? Is that a thing? I want it. I do love a spreadsheet. Anyway…where was I?

Now, I know we don’t judge books by their covers, but we do, and this cover is beautiful, mainly because it is a cover that shows about 20 books on it. And I am easily pleased.

I usually give every book I read up to 25% before I decide whether it’s worth me sticking with it or not, as not every book is for me, but I knew right by the end of the first page that I wouldn’t be walking away from this. The way of writing, it just felt like it could be a classic of the future. This is a book where you’ll fall in love within the first page.

It is intense. I can normally finish a book this length in 2, maybe 3 days, and sometimes in one day if I’m really committed. But this book took me longer. Mainly because it was the Christmas season and I was busy, but because it deserved so much focus, so much time spent on it, and time well spent it was too. There’s this layer of mystery around everything, from the characters to location, clothing to book, thoughts to actions – it leaves you very on edge.

I did make the mistake of reading the last 1090 pages at night, and all I wanted to do was to go to bed and go to sleep but there was no way I could put this down. I felt my jaw hit my chest on numerous occasions, it is so shocking and surprising and twisty and turny. I was desperate to get to the conclusion but I also didn’t want it to end.

The idea of being able to travel anywhere, places you’ve been to and those you only dream of. Cassie was often moved to tears by this, and to be honest, so was I. It sounded like such a wonderful opportunity to appreciate all the world has to offer by just stepping through a door. If only. But obviously, with everything good comes the possibility of something bad, and that is explored fabulously here, right to the extremes of good and evil.

It is very to-ey and fro-ey, with scenes from the past and the present interlinking. Potentially unwise and complicated, asking a lot from the reader. But it flows so naturally that I can’t think of another way he could have written it. Things you read at the start of the book start to make sense by the end, and things you read about later harks back to things you read early on. It’s so clever and well executed.

Ok, so I know the main book in question within this book is not your average book, but for me, what Gareth has created, it really shows the power of books and why they’re so important. People who aren’t bibliophiles or perhaps only read now and again can laugh at us more book obsessives, but I personally think books and the written word are one of the most powerful things we have, and underneath everything magic, I felt that was a very important message. Books can take you out of your world, they can give you magic and wonder, they can give you friends if you’re alone, love if you’re lonely, happiness if you’re sad, and I believe they have the power to save your life, and I felt that very strongly in this book.

There are many, many characters, but there were a handful that stood out for me that I will explore in more detail.

We firstly have Cassie, our main protagonist. Seemingly in the background, not necessarily important, plodding on. She felt a bit subdued, like she was waiting for greatness. But at times she felt a bit too trusting. But what stood out the most for me, is that she felt very real, like she could be me or you. Such a great main character. And then we have Izzy, her best friend and roommate. I felt she was a bit mysterious at first and wondered if she was hiding something or there was more to her, but I felt for a lot of it, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But she is a great character to work off Cassie, and together they make a formidable team. The final female character I will look at is called The Woman. We don’t know much about her other than the fact that she is very frightening, very evil, and has the power at her fingertips to cause death and destruction. And whilst that is on the surface, I felt there was something she was hiding, something she was trying to forget, and it was interesting uncovering all her layers.

Now, the main male characters I would say are Drummond Fox and Hugo Barbary. Drummond is also of the book world. He’s mysterious right from the start, and honestly, continues to be so, even as we get to know him. I wasn’t sure whether he was a good guy, or whether he was just playing along to gain things for himself. He felt sad and heartbroken, but with this tough exterior he’d built around him. I really enjoyed getting to know him. And then Hugo…I won’t go into too much detail about him as everything I could say is a potential spoiler, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say he’s not a nice man, almost akin to The Woman (see above), and another greatly written baddie.

Cassie felt very normal with the idea that this book she owned could do magical things. She reminded me slightly of Dr Who, how the companions are always okay with the idea of travelling through space and time, no questions asked. Cassie was similar in that sense. That’s a good thing by the way. I long to be a Dr Who Companion. In fact, I think the plot of this book could make a very good Dr Who episode.

I wish I had a way of going back in time and starting this again, or just forgetting what happened so I can start it afresh. It’s just glorious and I envy everyone who gets to come to it new.