Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: A Door in the Dark

Author: Scott Reintgen

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Diversity: POC coded characters

Recommended For...: young adult readers, fantasy, thriller, survival horror, dark fantasy, magic

Publication Date: March 28, 2023

Genre: YA Fantasy

Age Relevance: 16+ (death, parental death, classism, grief, romance, alcohol consumption, child abuse, drugs, drug use, religion, gore, cursing, torture, violence)

Explanation of Above: There is some violence and blood gore shown in this book. There is death and parental death shown and mentioned along with grief. There is one scene with torture shown. There are discussions of classism and prejudice. There are drugs mentioned and shown, some slight drug use, and alcohol consumption by the main cast of characters. There is some romance shown. Religion is mentioned. There is some cursing.

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Pages: 368

Synopsis: Ren Monroe has spent four years proving she’s one of the best wizards in her generation. But top marks at Balmerick University will mean nothing if she fails to get recruited into one of the major houses. Enter Theo Brood. If being rich were a sin, he’d already be halfway to hell. After a failed and disastrous party trick, fate has the two of them crossing paths at the public waxway portal the day before holidays—Theo’s punishment is to travel home with the scholarship kids. Which doesn’t sit well with any of them.

A fight breaks out. In the chaos, the portal spell malfunctions. All six students are snatched from the safety of the school’s campus and set down in the middle of nowhere. And one of them is dead on arrival.

If anyone can get them through the punishing wilderness with limited magical reserves it’s Ren. She’s been in survival mode her entire life. But no magic could prepare her for the tangled secrets the rest of the group is harboring, or for what’s following them through the dark woods…

Review: Overall, I thought this was an interesting read. The book revolves around our MC who is a student at this school and there is some classism at play, especially since she’s a lower class. During an event in which her and a handful of other students are in a classroom, a big burst of magic happens and they’re sent through a portal to the wilderness. The book focuses primarily on their struggles to survive. Throughout the book I compared this to Lord of the Flies or Hatchet but with magic and in a way I was right. We see characters fall to this being that is inhabiting another dead body of a student and their fight to survive in this harsh wilderness. The book even shows the outcome of the events and what the survivors are dealt by the end. Overall, I thought this was a interesting take and I loved how the author used D&D like magic instead of regular literature magic, meaning they kinda have “spell slots” and so much magic they can use instead of just unlimited abilities. I also liked how this was very different than other magical fantasy books I’ve read. In my opinion, this would be an excellent HP alternative read.

However, I did feel like the book was really hard to get into. There’s a bit of an info dump in the beginning and it’s a little difficult to understand at first. I also felt like the pacing was a bit too slow in places and the ending was a bit too long for my liking.

Verdict: It was very interesting and different than other fantasy reads.