I think the best words I can come up with to describe this book are: odd, slightly bewildering, and extremely unsettling. It features tropes I don't usually enjoy: the journey trope and the weird shit for no reason trope, a combo I like to think of as the Alice in Wonderland effect, an effect I'm not generally fond of, but oddly enough, I think it worked very well here.

Perhaps that is partly due to the writing, which is gorgeous: so lush and evocative and descriptive. Everything here was so visual; though there were so many strange and unusual sights, I could see everything so clearly, and all the weirdness was fascinating. I want to know more about all these creepy and borderline horrific realms. I'd love a compendium just on the worldbuilding of Mkalis.

I'm not entirely sure I understood everything that happened, but I think I enjoyed the journey? There were some interesting reveals throughout, but I wish that their resonance had been a little clearer. I feel like I'm still left guessing at how some things fit together. But overall I really enjoyed this; there's something very compelling about this world. The creativity here is delightful.

3.5/5

A fast, weird and short journey through various death worlds in a multiverse. Everyone has a hidden past, everyone plays a secret game in a quest for answers. Interesting ideas but doesn’t make the characters as engaging as the worlds

The cover is what originally drew me to this title and I'm glad it did. This is a mythic type story that does a lot world building and plot in a novella type length of story.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Reading The Border Keeper was a trip. I honestly had no clue what to expect and even while reading I wasn't quite sure where the story was going. 

Imagine the mortal world and the multi-world-verse of gods and demons. And the only thing standing between the two is one woman -- the Border Keeper. Yet, this wasn't her story, though she's the character that I was immediately intrigued by. Instead, our protagonist is Vasethe who asks for the Border Keeper Eris (though she has many names) to help him traverse the realms of Mklais. Which is how I expected the story to go, at first, a journey through mythical lands for achieve some unknown goal. 

Well I was wrong. Sort of. It's complicated.

The Border Keeper addresses the laws of order and justice, power struggles between the strong and weak, vengeance and hate, love and sacrifice. . . all in under 300 pages. It is a journey through the realms of Mkalis (not all 999 of them thankfully) but there's so much more going on in the background that I felt like I should make a timeline or a guide or something to keep it all straight. Each realm has its rules and they're not always explained, and since you're seeing everything from Vasethe's point of view, you only know as much as he does which isn't very much. The whole concept of the book kept me on my toes from start to finish. I literally couldn't put it down!


Even though it was a shorter story than I usually read, I became really invested in Eris as this being who spans time and names and bodies and is just this singular constant in two worlds. Her entire demeanor is that of a woman who's done putting up with petty drama and annoying demands. It's that quiet sort of power, the kind where you just know and it came right off the page. I couldn't get enough. I need more novellas about her many adventures in Mkalis!!

Despite being the point character, I actually wasn't as interested in Vasethe, with the exception of his secrets he keeps close for a portion of the book. And I blame that on curiosity as I tried to puzzle out what the heck was going on in the story overall.

Yet neither character captivated me nearly as much as the world. You're taken from the barren land on the Ahri (mortal) side where the Border Keeper lives, into the realms of Mkalis full of unearthly creatures, gods and demons, crabs with children inside them, moving hallways, and the rules of order to govern each realm as decided by its ruler. For being such a short work of fiction, there was a lot packed into it. It made me want more, either a longer book or a series of novellas because I feel like this only touched on what Hall could create with Ahri and Mkalis.

The Border Keeper blended all the intricate and unusual elements I love in mythology and gave it a story to tell. I devoured this book from start to finish and if you're a fan of uniquely intricate and beautiful fantasy, this is the book for you!

The Border Keeper lives on the border of the land of the dead, mostly alone, mostly untroubled by people and not taking any trouble about them. Vasethe comes to her house and, by virtue of mostly just being annoying enough to keep her attention, eventually goes inside and has the Border Keeper, a woman he calls Eris, take him into the lands of the dead. There's a lot of beauty in this book, and grotesquerie as well, in the descriptions of their journey through Mkalis. There are some interesting worlds that they pass through, with their own very specific rules, and lots of fascinating stuff going on... But.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid this book didn't really work for me. I felt like I never quite knew where it was going, and like I was missing a lot of cues. Maybe I was! Maybe the cues were there and I just wasn't catching hold of them; it's entirely likely. But for me it just never caught hold, and I read the whole thing feeling as if I was skimming off the surface instead of getting involved and really getting interested. It's not that the rules of the story made no sense -- I think it's intentionally prone to taking a left turn and leaving you going, 'wait, what now?' But that didn't work for me, in this instance. It didn't come together for me at all.

Gods, demons, and a twisting journey... Vasethe comes to the Border Keeper’s cottage in hopes of a favor. That she might lead him into the world of spirits to retrieve someone. But there’s so much more to the man and the story than that. This is an eerie and intricate tale wrapped up in a novella sized package. It has amazing world-building, intriguing characters, and everything is more than it seems. I highly recommend Hall’s Tor.com debut.

This weird little twisty novella immediately jumped up to the top of my to read list when I saw someone advertise it on twitter and took my breath away.

It follows a man named Vasethe who journeys to seek help from a woman named Eres who is not what she seems. Cause you see, she is the border keeper the guardian between his world and the 999 realms of Mkalis, where demons and gods wage endless war. With her aid, he crosses over for a purpose which at first is unclear but is soon revealed. Throughout their journey Eres and Vasethe discover things about both each other and the worlds around them which threaten everything they are and they will do anything to fight back and overcome it.

I loved everything about this story from it's lyrical prose to it's theme's of love, war, justice, healing, redemption and peace. I also love how it fiddles with the concept of life and death and brings a truly unique spin to the concept of afterlife. I love how it incorporates elements of different mythologies and how it's seemingly minor details from crab like people, to a homicidal demon ended up being major elements that drew the story together. I love that both characters are trying to overcome their own personal pasts and issues separately yet they grow the most when they tackle them together. That, plus other events taking place within the world, give the story a complexity and rawness that I have seldom seen, and brings it to the next level.

The world building in this is incredible, it's hard to believe it's only 200 pages. Hall does a lot with a small space! I love everything about this story from top to bottom! My only complaint? I wish it were longer! I could read a full length novel, or several in this strange world of realms and demons and war and magic. Pre order today! You won't want to miss this! Kerstin Hall is definately one to watch! 5 out of 5 stars for me! Thank you to @negalley and the publisher for my ARC for review!

Set on the border of the real world (albeit not one we know) and in various alternate realms, the relationship between Eris - or whatever name she's known by - and Sethe ebbs and flows depending on what world they're in and how Eris feels about things. There are rules they must live by in all worlds, usually stated when entering a new realm, and many realms rulers (or claimant) are vying for control of all Mklais with shifting alliances and loyalties. There's also a question of whether the border will be breached, and where those trying to are from. By the end we're not sure exactly who or what Eris and Sethe are, except that they aren't what we were told they were at the start. This is a short read, but not a quick one.

eARC provided by publisher.