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A review by skinnamarink
Through the Door by Jodi McIsaac
5.0
I intended to read this over the next 2 weeks or so. It went a bit faster than that! More like 4 hours, with periodic breaks to refill my wine glass. :)
Through the Door is the first book in a trilogy, which is fortunate because I'm not nearly satisfied with my quick journey into its world yet.
The basic plot is that of a single mother (Cedar) raising a daughter (Eden) in Halifax. Eden, it turns out, has some odd abilities that start to show up when she's 6. Odd abilities like being able to open a door to anywhere she wants to go. Her bedroom door becomes a gateway to Egypt, the family cottage, or a Disneyland castle. Cedar is skeptical of such things, but this is in-your-face real magic. Suddenly a lot of family secrets start coming out of the woodwork, turning her worldview upside-down.
I'm still trying to put my finger on the thing that's different about the way Cedar is written, but I think it's this: Cedar is a mother of a young girl written by a mother of young girls. The book touches on family pressures, work/life balance, and the desire to be a great mom with a satisfying career. The conflict between being home with your child and working to pay for that home. The stress of raising a young kid and trying to figure out how to tell your kid that you adore them AND this might not actually be the most awesome chapter of your life. And no matter what, ancient gods be damned, no one's making decisions about your kid without your say-so.
It may be that I'm not used to reading fantasy novels written by women. It almost feels like a mash-up between Neil Gaiman and Alice Munro, which CLEARLY needed to happen.
The other thing I like is that the characters are complicated. We do have a clear hero and villain, but most of the characters are neither (or both?). Nuala is the main example of this. For the first half of the book, she seems like a fairly classic villain, but then things start shifting and getting more complicated. She has her reasons for what she's doing, and they don't mesh very well with Cedar's reasons. I can't decide how I feel about her and that's a very good thing.
Five stars! And I can't wait for the rest of the trilogy.
Through the Door is the first book in a trilogy, which is fortunate because I'm not nearly satisfied with my quick journey into its world yet.
The basic plot is that of a single mother (Cedar) raising a daughter (Eden) in Halifax. Eden, it turns out, has some odd abilities that start to show up when she's 6. Odd abilities like being able to open a door to anywhere she wants to go. Her bedroom door becomes a gateway to Egypt, the family cottage, or a Disneyland castle. Cedar is skeptical of such things, but this is in-your-face real magic. Suddenly a lot of family secrets start coming out of the woodwork, turning her worldview upside-down.
I'm still trying to put my finger on the thing that's different about the way Cedar is written, but I think it's this: Cedar is a mother of a young girl written by a mother of young girls. The book touches on family pressures, work/life balance, and the desire to be a great mom with a satisfying career. The conflict between being home with your child and working to pay for that home. The stress of raising a young kid and trying to figure out how to tell your kid that you adore them AND this might not actually be the most awesome chapter of your life. And no matter what, ancient gods be damned, no one's making decisions about your kid without your say-so.
It may be that I'm not used to reading fantasy novels written by women. It almost feels like a mash-up between Neil Gaiman and Alice Munro, which CLEARLY needed to happen.
The other thing I like is that the characters are complicated. We do have a clear hero and villain, but most of the characters are neither (or both?). Nuala is the main example of this. For the first half of the book, she seems like a fairly classic villain, but then things start shifting and getting more complicated. She has her reasons for what she's doing, and they don't mesh very well with Cedar's reasons. I can't decide how I feel about her and that's a very good thing.
Five stars! And I can't wait for the rest of the trilogy.