Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me. I found it to be very boring and I just couldn’t get into it.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book because of all the political-ness of it. It just felt over done and unnecessary. It felt like ever other sentence was bringing up the 2020 election or isolation that just didn’t tie in well with the plot.

I'll be honest this book wasn't it for me. I found the flashbacks to be too much and not necessary to the story. I thought in the beginning there would be more magical realism but there wasn't. It probably would have been better if that had been left out and it was more about what a young girl experienced during the covid pandemic after graduating high school.

This book is like spending an extended amount of time with a close friend, reminiscing about past lives and future realities.

Wilhelmina is one of those lucky teens who entered high school during the 2016 elections and graduated in 2020, so her high school years were in the shadow of a Trump presidency and ushered out with a stressful election during the COVID 19 pandemic, and that's where the book takes root and blooms into a character-driven look at life, grief, politics, and understanding how we fit into all of that. All of that with a dash of magic.

Since it is so heavily focused on the pandemic and politics during that time, it might be "too soon" for some readers, but for others, it will be like a reflection on how we got to where we are now. The story is slow and feels more like reliving memories than reading a book with a heavy plot and exciting scenes. It's a rainy day with a cozy blanket an a beverage of the perfect temperature. It's not a fast-paced, edge of your seat thriller. And for that exact reason, I adore this book and will recommend it to everyone.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. #ThereIsaDoorinthisDarkness #NetGalley

I need to start this review with saying I think it’s too soon to be immersing myself in books/movies/television that is based around the pandemic. I understand for some writing/creating based on that will heal them, but I read to escape and the pandemic isn’t a place I want to escape to. That being said I liked this book even if I had a hard time reading it. This was definitely a book I put down often and if it wasn’t one I’d found on BookishFirst I may not have finished it. I liked the magical realism in this book. I liked the characters even if the lack of communication between Wilhelmina and her friends was painful. I loved James and his push to talk about what was happening. I didn’t love the combination of the election and pandemic. Those things sucked beyond all words and I don’t need the reminders. The writing was good, but I thought the flashbacks were too long and there were too many mentions of the election. While I loved that he was referred to as the Monster I didn’t think he needed quite so many pages dedicated to him and his hissy fits. I think I would enjoy other things by this author more and maybe I would have enjoyed this book in a few years. I gave it 3.5 stars and rounded up since I think it might have been more of a me problem.

Shouting from the rooftops that this book is peak magical realism, and Cashore has put just the right amount of both here.
I understand the critiques saying that this book is too rooted in 2020, but I think that enough time has passed to remember what the nation went through. This book was more hopeful than I anticipated, and while parts of it were sad, the book as a whole was not a sad book.

This book made me cry for basically the entire second half.

As someone who lost their grandmother recently it made me reflect on the legacy I was left from my own grandmother - while it was nothing so magical as Wilhelmina's, I was left something to do, an identity, a torch to carry on. The kindness and love I got from my grandmother was a gift and a responsibility - to share the warmth from her for others.

Reading this book made me reflect on that. This book was very character driven, low on plot, but I did find myself pushed along by wanting Wilhelmina to confront her grief and isolation.

This book really illuminated the way that grief, isolation, and anxiety can interact in ways that aren't always apparent. Grief can make you feel anxious in ways that aren't one-to-one connected to the source of your grief, and vice versa. It's hard to tease apart those threads, that ouroboros of painful emotions. It's important to try, and it's especially important to communicate that effort to your loved ones - and that's the part that Wilhelmina struggles with so much, as do we all in our late teens and early adulthood.

All in all this book could have used slightly less politics (especially since the intended audience is going to be somewhat removed from that era, I don't see it aging well) and that's coming from a deeply leftist person. No stars deducted for it though, because everything else shined so, so much.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for an early copy of this book. This book just wasn’t for me. I found the plot a bit confusing and the jumping from flashbacks to present day hard to keep track of as well. I also, thought this was wayyyy too political for me and for a YA book. COVID and COVID related protocols were frequently mentioned and the 2020 presidential election was a huge part of the plot. Not really what I prefer to read in my books and not the escape from reality I typically look for.

I was drawn to the concept here, but just could not get into this story. I'm not a fan of dystopian tales and that's how this felt - even though it was set in the past. I just couldn't connect with the characters or fall into the world being presented. There was a lot of anger - which I get, but I am just not ready to revisit those scared, angry feelings again at this point in time. This wasn't a good fit for me - at least, not now.

This is a hard book to rate. On the one hand, it’s packed full of so many hard but important conversations and topics (specifically geared at kids who missed out on big milestones during the quarantine period of COVID, or oldest daughters, or people grieving, or people feeling isolated, or people struggling to come to grips with how many people can support fascism/bigotry/etc), but on the other hand it’s pretty light on forward momentum/plot/pacing.

The book takes place during the longest week of my life (and I’m sure any marginalized person in America would agree with that assessment): election week 2020. But it also takes place over the course of a young girl’s lifetime as she grows up and encounters many things that she struggles to understand. It touches on hard topics: cancer, abuse, depression, grief, anxiety, pandemic anxiety, pandemic isolation, pandemic depression, messy election feelings, racism, sexism, homophobia, fatphobia.

This is an important book because it doesn’t shy from those messy quarantine feelings; most books either barely acknowledge the pandemic or pretend it didn’t happen entirely. This is the first book I’ve read that really dug into it - particularly the isolation and anxiety aspects.

But, again, the book is plot-lite. It took a long time to get through because there wasn’t really a driving force. And it’s depressing; I think a lot of people (myself included) have unprocessed feelings about those quarantine years, which would make a book like this very difficult to read. And I think that makes it doubly important for the kids who make up the target audience: young people who were in school during this time, who had to sacrifice their normal in a totally irretrievable way as milestones passed them by unacknowledged.

The blurb for the book is extremely accurate. Class of 2020 Wilhelmina Hart must navigate not only the trauma of the Trump and Covid years, but deal with the grief of her most beloved aunt. With health issues aggravated by stress and depression, Wilhelmina is cooped up with parents, younger siblings and her two remaining aunts, deferring college til after the pandemic and helping her family instead as much as possible. Her best friends are living together to join forces for their younger siblings, and the enforced distance from the two of them while they are together also weighs on her. But then the odd happenings begin, and they always seem to occur around James Fang, who luckily also experiences the weirdness (which reassures her friends who were wondering if she was completely losing it).
This is very much a character driven novel, gradually drawing the reader deeper and deeper into Wilhelmina's mind frame and the many characters' fully developed personalities. These are very real people with deep and complex emotions. The slight touch of magic is the fairy dust of hope, keeping her going while confusing her dreadfully, until she can work out her grief and begin anew. There is a very strong political element - how could there not be? - so someone is bound to be offended. Wilhelmina and her friends and family's attitudes are real and believably expressed whether you agree with them or not. Even fictional characters are allowed to have personal opinions and feelings, and some will find this even refreshing.
Wilhelmina and her family and friends will stick around with you for a long time. Parts were a little slow, but it was well worth it. I felt her pain, so finding a way out of the mire was a truly rewarding experience. Highly recommended.

From a shocking presidential election to the a pandemic, one high school girl will experience loss, growth, and a bit of magic. Wilhemina Hart experiences so much during her highschool years, from a shocking presidential election of 2020 to experiencing the pandemic, and then the loss of her family member. She is dealing with grief, stress, and just trying to get by. When she begins to see mysterious things, it might lead her to something magical. I loved the author's previous work but this one just did not work for me. The story felt so so bland and like reading someone's mundane dairy entries, and not in a fun "lets keep reading" way. I definitely think that this is for a specific type of person to read and that was not me. The characters are meant to be quirky and fun, and while I do magical realism it just felt contrived in this rather than charming and fun.

Release Date: June 11,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Dutton Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

In a time that isn’t so far away and events that feel most surreal, this story was captivating. I really enjoy a magical element in a story and love it even more when it seems plausible.

Kristin Cashore is such a fantastic writer that she can make me read and appreciate a book with a subject that I really, really didn't want to read about. This book is set during COVID in the lead-up to the 2020 election. There's more politics than I like in my fiction, and I don't particularly enjoy reliving the lockdown time period, but Cashore can apparently spin a compelling story in any context, and I'll be there for it. Wilhelmina should be starting college, but instead she's sharing her small house with her parents, two younger siblings, and two elderly aunts during the COVID lockdown. She's grieving the loss of a third aunt, Frankie, and the physical separation from her two best friends, who are in a bubble together. This book is tinged with fantastical elements in a really lovely way, and Cashore alternates the present with stories from Wil's past, giving her character depth and context. I think, because of the subject matter, that this won't be a book for everyone, but I found myself really enjoying it almost in spite of myself. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, and Dutton Books for Young Readers for a digital review copy.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book. all opinions are my own.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it! I'd recommend it.

Wilhelmina faces a multitude of challenges: mourning the loss of a beloved aunt, the looming election's potential to reshape the nation, and being excluded from her two closest friends' quarantine pod during the early COVID-19 restrictions. With college on hold, she navigates the cramped quarters of an overcrowded apartment, dealing with distracted parents, younger siblings, and great-aunts, all while anxiously awaiting the 2020 election results.

For readers who grew up with online schooling, social distancing, and pandemic precautions, Wilhelmina's struggles may strike a chord. She wrestles with the claustrophobic nature of home life and a deepening sense of isolation. Amidst this, Cashore weaves hints of magic into her story, through visions, avian messengers, and mysterious messages from the sky. These mystical elements guide her towards an unexpected connection with a kind stranger at a local donut shop, sparking a fragile hope for resilience and the possibility of finding her place in the world.

Despite her heavy burdens, the enchanting memories of summers spent with her three aunts linger, suggesting a path forward illuminated by new light and potential for Wilhelmina's journey ahead.

There Is a Door in this Darkness made me understand why the Graceling realm books hit me so hard: Kristin Cashore is a complete master of human emotion and experiences.

I cannot begin to describe the ways this book touched on my own personal experiences and struggles of the pandemic era. There are too many ways to count. It perfectly captures the isolating loneliness, the family tension, and the terrifying political climate of the time. It also manages to talk about the quiet grief that follows loss far longer than you think it should. At the same time, it highlights the simple magic in everyday life and relationships.

A female main character experiencing all these things while also dealing with chronic pain and an unexplained magic is compelling. I feel like the power of this book is in the experiences that parallel so many of our own rather than in a huge plot conflict.

I felt seen, understood, and validated by an author who doesn’t even know I exist. That is powerful writing.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance title. All opinions contained in this review are my own.

I like Kristin Cashore's writing and I enjoyed this one too. I liked the story and the characters and had a hard time putting it down.

I have enjoyed Cashore's books in the past, but this one was not for me. It seemed to be an attempt to write out the trauma of the 2016 election and ensuing pandemic in fictional form, but the magical realism felt contrived rather than charmingly quirky, and I could not warm to the characters.

This was a great coming of age story set during the 2016 presidency, 2020 covid pandemic and 2020 election. While very enjoyable, I feel as if this book was just a bit too political. While I don’t disagree with the political viewpoints in the book, it was just too much. I guess I just didn’t want to have to relive it all again, especially with the next election about to be a repeat of that one.

But aside from that, I really did enjoy the story. The relationship Wil has with her great aunts was so sweet and lovely. The sadness she goes through after losing one, and the desolation she feels being separated from her dearest friends because of the pandemic made you feel for her, as we all suffered through the same. But woven through all that was the joy she was finding getting to know James.

This book has a few fantasy elements, despite being a contemporary story. An enjoyable and easy to read YA book.

Thank you to Penguin House and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.