100 Cupboards, Book 1 by N.D. Wilson
I’ve heard great things about the 100 Cupboards series and I’ve previously enjoyed N.D. Wilson’s satirical works. And yet, given the genre and target age range, my posture towards this book was fairly skeptical on the front-end.
I stepped into into it slowly, reading small chunks at a time. Initially, it was an engaging tale but didn’t really suck me in a whole lot. There was always enough to keep me interested, but not really enthralling me. All along, the writing was masterful and the characters interesting. I wouldn’t have expected any less from Wilson. But by the last 20% I was glued to each page! The action really picked up, and I spent an evening finishing it off, totally enthralled. And very much looking forward to the opportunity to read the next in the series.
I won’t tell you much about the tale, other than that I don’t think a young person could read this book and ever look at cupboards and the possibility of hidden doors the same way again. And just maybe, even I wonder whether there are any hidden doors in this old house of mine!
I highly recommend this book for a young (or young at heart) fantasy reader. N.D. Wilson is a great writer and I really look forward to seeing what comes from his pen in the future, as well as surveying what else he has already written.