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Ren Monroe has spent four long years proving she’s one of the best wizards in her generation, despite her station and lack of wealth. But top marks at Balmerick University will mean nothing if she fails to get recruited into one of the major houses. When fate has Ren crossing paths with Theo Brood, son of one of the major houses, and some scholarship kids at the public waxway portal the day before holidays, a fight breaks out. Tolerating each other in the cramped space doesn’t work well with anyone, and in the chaos, the portal spell malfunctions. All six students are snatched from the safety of the school’s campus and set down in the middle of nowhere. And one of them is dead on arrival.
If anyone can get them through the punishing wilderness with limited magical reserves, it’s Ren. She’s been in survival mode her entire life. But no magic could prepare her for the tangled secrets the rest of the group is harboring … or for what is following them through the dark woods.
A Door in the Dark started off with a depth and complexity of world-building I wasn’t expecting, reminding me of the Scholomance series by Naomi Novak. Readers are shown a glimpse into a world with an elaborate magic system where the rich and the poor are each allocated a certain amount of magic each month, and the classism is clearly witnessed in how each group uses their store of magic.
However, despite being immediately gripping, the story lost me somewhere along the way. Instead of being a murder mystery, this book becomes a thriller. And when the spell goes awry, we’re introduced to a completely different genre altogether — survival thriller fantasy with postapocalyptic-style monsters.
If anything, the genre-mashing technique certainly makes A Door in the Dark stand out among other fantasy stories.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes three uses of moderate langauge and around 25 uses of mild language. Violence can be grim and horrific, leaning into gory. There are countless deaths, blood, and injuries, and a character experiences brief torture. Sexual content includes innuendo, reference to side characters hooking up, and hinting at sexual activity in a previous relationship. Characters are seen drinking and inebriated at a party. Some characters smoke a hallucinogenic drug.
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