Kamai was warned never to open the black door, but she didn’t listen …

Everyone has a soul. Some are beautiful gardens, others are frightening dungeons. Soulwalkers―like Kamai and her mother―can journey into other people’s souls while they sleep.

But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it.

When Kamai touches the door, it is warm and beating, like it has a pulse. When she puts her ear to it, she hears her own name whispered from the other side. And when tragedy strikes, Kamai does the unthinkable: she opens the door.

A.M. Strickland’s imaginative dark fantasy features court intrigue and romance, a main character coming to terms with her asexuality, and twists and turns as a seductive mystery unfolds that endangers not just Kamai’s own soul, but the entire kingdom …

Out  October, 2019

400 Pages Approx.

MY THOUGHTS:

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

I never realized just how much society needs to compartmentalize people. Which category do they fall into? What is their sexuality? On and on we try to please EVERYONE… and put each and everyone into a slot or category…  It would seem, the only way to be heard, is if you are wearing the correct label and given equal attention as all the rest.  We have blacks, whites, Asians… we have humans. We have asexual bisexual, Christian, Atheists… we have tall, short, fat, thin… we have humans.

This book seems confused. In trying to please everyone, it’s failing to please all… The need for young adult books to address key issues our teenagers face and therefore, will relate to, and throwing all of them into a book seems to win points with publishers?  So is that the new young adult book writing requirements? Throw everything against the wall and see what sticks? Or, should good writing focus on one or two main issues and write about them well?

In trying to appease all, those tidbits addressed in this book are left weak and incomplete. A stronger statement of support would have been made with better research and thus better application of that complete research to more realistic characters. Bottom line, the characters would have been very real and very relatable and I wouldn’t be having this conversation with my readers.

Everything else about the book is fantastic, well-researched and very well-written. However, see what the focus has been about? See what’s hurt this books ratings? I will always return to the advice I once received from a very gifted author, Stephen R. Donaldson… write what you know and know what you write…

I gave this book: