A complex, satisfying fantasy debut

Cassie lives a very quiet life in New York. She works at a bookshop and spends her spare time reading. When one of her regular customers, the elderly Mr Webber, dies quietly in the store, he leaves behind an odd notebook for her.

She soon discovers that the book is magic and can take her anywhere in the world, so she and her flatmate Izzy have a great time hopping from country to country via ordinary doorways.

Izzy, who is far more extrovert than Cassie, is worried that the book might be dangerous. She’s right. There are lots of people who want to get hold of it and most of them don’t have good intentions, especially ‘The Woman’, a truly terrifying figure.

When Cassie discovers that the magic notebook is also a time machine, she’s thrilled and uses it to visit her grandfather whose death has left her stuck in the past and unable to get on with her life.

I expected The Book of Doors would be a traditional fantasy – good versus evil, lots of battles between opposing sides and a happy resolution. And while the plot does start that way, it becomes something far more complex and satisfying.

This is a story about many things, such as the past and how it affects both individuals and the future: “Too many things that [Cassie] now knew were connected all the way back to what had happened to her grandfather. It was a chain that couldn’t be broken”. It’s also about the power of friendship and platonic love, loneliness, and how strong emotions are created and manifested.

The plot is exquisitely crafted, and I was astonished to find, after I’d finished reading, that this is writer Gareth Brown’s debut.

I’m looking forward to reading his next.