Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All

I won an ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Historical fiction isn't a genre I gravitate toward, but something about this story had me interested enough to enter to win a copy.

It was fantastic. This is a story about girls, about loss, about love, about trauma, and about life. The balance between the two protagonists, whose stories are carefully interwoven and mirror each other in a lot of ways, is exceptional. The relationships feel real and complicated without being lost in the message Laura Ruby is trying to convey. She shows so many kinds of relationships and emotions. I find that authors often attempt to showcase one kind of relationship, such as terrible parents or wonderful parents, siblings who are best friends or siblings who hate each other, etc. But the relationships in this book hit all those notes, with some evolving throughout the story and others staying consistent. It feels very genuine and true to life, at least from my experiences.

Laura Ruby is a refreshingly subtle writer. That's not to say the issues the characters face are subtle (or even the “villains”), but the stance Ruby takes is clear without smacking the reader over the head with it. There's an obvious right and wrong, with clearly heinous acts and awful people, but we experience those through the emotions of the characters. She makes her characters very human, and they struggle in a realistic way. Their struggle is what the audience is supposed to learn from instead of Ruby spoonfeeding us what to think.

I think Ruby's subtlety as a writer is also demonstrated by her portrayal of female roles. Women could/were expected to fill a variety of fairly rigid societal, professional, and familial roles during the 1940s. It's easy to overlook how thoroughly these roles are represented, explored, and often challenged in this book, and that's because Ruby doesn't wave a flag and call attention to every detail she includes. She doesn't straight up say, “Look at how this person faced this consequence, isn't it awful?!” Instead, she shows the experiences of the characters and lets the audience draw conclusions from them. I very much appreciate that because it feels like she trusts the reader to recognize these things on their own.

I can't recommend this book enough and really hope to see more people pick it up. I'm definitely going to grab a finished copy for myself.