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A review by michellereadatrix
Through the Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I received a Netgalley ARC. This review is my honest opinion.
Three sisters, the oldest on the cusp of adulthood, are lured into an abandoned house. On some level they never leave, and their connection to one another is damaged.
This is my third Katrina Monroe book, and definitely my favorite. I love that her wheelhouse is the lives of women, their relationship with one another, and this one hit exactly right. Which is ironic since I'm an only child.
The story concerns, among other things, the deaths of family members, one quite young. There's a lot of talk about darkness, and the darkness is a metaphor inner darkness and depression. One of the sisters has OCD. Self-harm is definitely on the menu for multiple characters. Extreme self harm. Gun violence. A pervading sense of guilt and regret.
The timeline alternates between the past and the present day, which is really effective. I know I wanted to step in and, well, help, fix, prevent.
This being a story about sisters, it's also a story about sisterhood. In the very earliest timeline we see them as a close unit. The oldest sister is making a point of hanging out with her other sisters, who are a fair amount younger, and -- well -- she has her reasons. A local boy leads them to an abandoned house. The abandoned house has rooms (that come and go) and they're each attracted to a room. They don't tell one another exactly what their room holds, and their relationships and support system weakens.
As a Buffy fan -- but a Joss Whedon hater -- I think of the lyric in the musical: Understand we'll go hand and hand, but we'll walk alone in fear. Tell me, where do you go from here? And I think about how abusers, even if they don't fracture bones, fracture relationships. They isolate. Because you don't want the person or people you're harming to have defenders and a support system.
This is a different book if the sisters had been able to talk, to share secrets, to shine a light. At a glance, it's the house that separated them, but Katrina Monroe makes clear over the course of the narrative that secrets and unmentionable topics predate the 3 sisters walking into the house.
As the cliche goes, you're only as sick as your secrets.
The house is scary, and the rooms in the house are scary, and I like a scary house. The sisters hallucinate a dead character -- or is it a hallucination -- and trust me that that's creepy. And also a fabulous metaphor.
I'm giving the book 4.75 stars because it was creepy and insightful and I get the impression I'll be thinking about it a fair amount. I enjoyed the previous books by the author, but I think she just became an auto-buy.
Three sisters, the oldest on the cusp of adulthood, are lured into an abandoned house. On some level they never leave, and their connection to one another is damaged.
This is my third Katrina Monroe book, and definitely my favorite. I love that her wheelhouse is the lives of women, their relationship with one another, and this one hit exactly right. Which is ironic since I'm an only child.
The story concerns, among other things, the deaths of family members, one quite young. There's a lot of talk about darkness, and the darkness is a metaphor inner darkness and depression. One of the sisters has OCD. Self-harm is definitely on the menu for multiple characters. Extreme self harm. Gun violence. A pervading sense of guilt and regret.
The timeline alternates between the past and the present day, which is really effective. I know I wanted to step in and, well, help, fix, prevent.
This being a story about sisters, it's also a story about sisterhood. In the very earliest timeline we see them as a close unit. The oldest sister is making a point of hanging out with her other sisters, who are a fair amount younger, and -- well -- she has her reasons. A local boy leads them to an abandoned house. The abandoned house has rooms (that come and go) and they're each attracted to a room. They don't tell one another exactly what their room holds, and their relationships and support system weakens.
As a Buffy fan -- but a Joss Whedon hater -- I think of the lyric in the musical: Understand we'll go hand and hand, but we'll walk alone in fear. Tell me, where do you go from here? And I think about how abusers, even if they don't fracture bones, fracture relationships. They isolate. Because you don't want the person or people you're harming to have defenders and a support system.
This is a different book if the sisters had been able to talk, to share secrets, to shine a light. At a glance, it's the house that separated them, but Katrina Monroe makes clear over the course of the narrative that secrets and unmentionable topics predate the 3 sisters walking into the house.
As the cliche goes, you're only as sick as your secrets.
The house is scary, and the rooms in the house are scary, and I like a scary house. The sisters hallucinate a dead character -- or is it a hallucination -- and trust me that that's creepy. And also a fabulous metaphor.
I'm giving the book 4.75 stars because it was creepy and insightful and I get the impression I'll be thinking about it a fair amount. I enjoyed the previous books by the author, but I think she just became an auto-buy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide