Not Null Book Review: The Book of Doors

A book lover’s book

May 19, 2025

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown is a science fiction story about a woman who receives a magical book. It’s a book lover’s book that’s a wild ride with a full cast of interesting characters.

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Why did I read it?

I was looking for my next book to read, and saw this one on a Goodreads challenge list. The description grabbed my attention—it’s science fiction and involves magical books, so how could I not read it?

What’s it about?

Cassie leads a quiet life in New York City working in a bookstore. One day, her favorite customer dies in the store. She now has only the book he was reading when he died to remember him by. But it’s no ordinary book.

She looks through the book and learns that it can make any door every door. Shortly after receiving the book, she’s approached by Drummond Fox, a Scottish librarian who watches over special books.

Drummond tells her the Book of Doors is the most coveted by those aware of the special books’ existence. Soon, Cassie is pursued by various book hunters who want the book and its powers for themselves.

What’s the longer review?

The premise of a magical book is always fun. And Brown put together an entire collection of magical (a.k.a. special) books for this story. In addition to the Book of Doors, there’s a Book of Memories, Book of Shadows, and many more, each with a unique power. Just learning about the different books and how they can be used for good or evil is reason enough to read this story.

In addition to the variety of books, the story has a cast that’s chock full of interesting characters. Cassie has most of the story, and she’s very relatable and likable. Her roommate Izzy is a hoot and brings a feisty energy. Drummond seems like if you happened to meet him in real life knowing nothing about him, you’d just look at him and guess that he was a librarian for magical books. Then there were the book hunters who each brought a distinct personality. While there were a lot of characters, there weren’t so many that it was difficult to keep track of them.

One character stood out to me and still crosses my mind—the woman. She was scary. Like I could feel my shoulders creep up to my ears whenever she showed up. She’s a villain that makes you wonder how the heroes could possibly win.

In addition to the excellent premise and characters, the story itself was well paced. It’s 418 pages to read or 13+ hours to listen, but didn’t feel long. The story kept moving at a good clip and held my interest the entire time.

When listening to the story, I was delighted when time travel came into play. Time travel can get messy fast, but Brown handled it well by quickly establishing the rules that would be followed and sticking to them.

If you’re looking for a story that is entertaining, makes you think, and sticks with you for days after reading it, The Book of Doors is a great option.

Any additional information?

As of writing this review, The Book of Doors is available on Kindle Unlimited.

Also, Gareth Brown has another book titled The Society of Unknowable Objects, and it’s scheduled to be released in 2025. From the description, it sounds like anyone who enjoyed The Book of Doors will want to read it. It’s already on my wish list. 🙂

What did you think?

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