A review by crusoe
Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

Did not finish book. Stopped at 54%.
I have thoughts... 

First of all, I feel bad, because this was a gift and I always try to finish those. I just had a very difficult time getting through this book because it's very heavy on the ya side of fantasy. 

I like the world, the concept of soulwalking is neat. The gods feel a tad generic but it's serviceable. But I love how nice the prose is, it salvages whatever is happening to the plot, at least a little bit. I also love the representation, especially the ace representation in our main character. There's a nice subplot of her figuring out what she wants. 

I am really frustrated with the plot and our main character, however. There are a lot of interesting plotpoints running at the same time but the unravelling of these points of intrigue loses steam midway through. It made it hard to become invested in the mystery and characters; it very heavily skews towards fantasy ya and a lot of the tropes that follow it. 

Probably would have been a 3-3,5⭐️ had I finished it; it's not bad just bland.