The Door Before

The Door Before by N.D. Wilson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Door Before, review

I can’t remember the last time I read a book in 24 hours.

Maybe it was the holiday. Or that I hadn’t read a book geared to youth in a long while. The Door Before was a real treat.

A prequel that connects to his 100 Cupboards and Ashtown burials series, N.D. Wilson explores themes of courage in the face of evil, learning about yourself, parenting young people wisely, and more. On the writing side, sometimes the author tries too hard and it shows. But usually his writing is vivid, striking and fresh.

Some themes I found interesting:



Courage in the face of evil

The world is a dangerous place. It’s Author has made it so. Wilson has traced that theme in non-fiction in “Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl.” The evil witch-queen simply steps into our world and wreaks havoc, unbidden and unwanted.

In a world clamoring for safety, especially now during a pandemic, Wilson swims against the tide. Perhaps ways between worlds aren’t inherently evil and wrong, just because it caused a lot of damage that first time. The author definitely leans toward going out and fighting evil, instead of “mitigating risk.”

This isn’t an absolute, of course. Sometimes the good guys retreat, but it’s always to regroup and fight again. We attack the gates of hell, in Jesus’ metaphor, but most of our spiritual energy seems to go to repelling Satan’s attacks. Maybe there should be more to the picture we have of our Christian lives?

Wilson paints the portrait deftly, with the main characters set on mission to go conquer the witch, while side characters offer resistance and objections, but come along in the end. There are echoes there of Jesus going to Jerusalem to die, with Peter objecting.



Learning about yourself

The main character, Hyacinth, discovers she has a secret magical power, and learns to use it on the fly. My interpretation may be simplistic, but magic is usually a metaphor in fantasy for spiritual power generally, and/or a natural talent given to some and not others. In The Door Before it is a bit of both.

It’s important for kids to learn what they can do well, what they enjoy, and how they can be useful in the world. And where those three intersect is the vocational sweet spot. Showing that in a story kids can identify with gives real hope, when they are wondering about their future.



You can’t!

Institutional opposition is a common theme in youth literature. It’s an overdone yawner for me, but maybe that’s because I’m not 17 anymore. Yes, Hyacinth’s secret power of course is forbidden by her social group, the Order of Brennan, but she uses it anyway, and it’s a good thing she does! Wilson on this point inadvertently plays into an individualism he tends to oppose otherwise. He may have a point, though, that the strength of the individual is to fight evil more courageously than an institution can. The Order of Brennan I think may have been RIGHT to have a general policy against opening ways between worlds, but can exceptions be made? Institutions tend not to, even when they should, to be consistent. Wilson may be pointing out true flaws in institutionalism, I just wish he’d swim against the tide here as elsewhere, and point out the flaws of individualism in going off half-cocked, too. The shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia recently may be an example.



Irreconcilable War

Wilson opposes individualism well in showing the true-to-the-Bible war between the seed of the woman and seed of the serpent. One characteristic of that war is that it is inter-generational. Because she was born into the Smith family, her loyalties are with the O of B, against the witch and her ravens, and so on. We are all situated in specific life circumstances without our input: gender, family, religion, geography, etc.

But this is not fatalistic. For one thing, kids need to adopt or reject the view of life they’ve been given and raised in. Wilson shows this well with the parents fighting evil with the kids knowing little about it, at the beginning. But they learn and start to fight, too. For another thing, the author has a couple scenes that show people discerning where the loyalties of others lie, when it’s unclear. The acid test: how do they respond to obvious evil and to clearly good characters? This gives growing kids an excellent tool kit to know how to read new people who come into their lives.



Parenting young people wisely

One subplot is the parents. How much do they tell the kids? When do they release them into the dangerous world? The parents make a mistake or two here, and they belong to a group bigger than the family that points it out to them. That is good. One thing parents tend to do is withhold information when adolescents are crying out for it. Instead we (I’m a parent of 4 teens!) let them figure life out on their own, while we are occupied with other things, to their detriment. Taking the time to explain why we do what we do is important. Else when they hit the world, they are engaging without critical information.

That’s enough for now. The Door Before is packed with good stuff like this.
I recommend it for young and old alike. There is a fair bit of violence described – probably best for 11 or 12 years old on up.



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