The Saint of Bright Doors

I have complicated feelings about this one. Half of me loved it and half of me was very frustrated with it. I'm giving it a four because I thoroughly enjoyed most of my time reading it, and I think that over time, parts of this book will keep coming back to me.

It has a haunting quality, and the world feels like it could be an alternate version of our own in some ways while at the same time being unlike any world I'd read before, which added to the eeriness and wonder to me. I also thought the approach to the protagonist, Fetter, was very unique and interesting. He was given a clear purpose from childhood, rebelled against it, and was then left in a bit of an existential crisis. He could live freely, but didn't know what to do with himself, and was left feeling content, but also adrift, never knowing if what he was doing was what he should be doing, which felt much more relatable than so many purpose-driven main characters.

Every character within it actually had incredible depth to them, such that I felt like he could have written an entirely different novel for each side character. There was this clear feeling that something big and important was happening for many of the characters, and those things had little if anything to do with Fetter or his story, which was quite a cool way of writing about a world, and again is very relatable. After all, in real life, most people you interact with have their own crazy stuff going on which has nothing to do with you.

Many people in the SFF world are raving about it, and for good reason. It's a very unique fantasy, beautifully written, and I'm very excited to read more from this author. This book was so obviously bursting with amazing stories and ideas, that if anything, I think he could have benefitted from reeling things in a bit.

That's the heart of what frustrated me about this book. There was so much to the world and the characters that I was left feeling like I only understood a quarter of what was going on. That seemed intentional in a way, but I found that it wasn't conducive to wanting to know what would happen to Fetter next. I had only a flimsy grasp on what was going on around Fetter, and it seemed like the story's direction kept changing and meandering without really going anywhere. Also it's kind of mean to have a super cool side story invented, and then just leave it hanging, but that happened a few times.

So if you're a fan of untraditional narratives, this might be a perfect book, but I found it equal parts fun and frustrating. I also found the end very frustrating. I get the stylistic choice for the most part, but I was really hoping for a more satisfying conclusion, I guess.