The Door

Marino (Uncrashable Dakota) presents a dark, surrealist tale that doesn’t always make sense, but isn’t necessarily supposed to, either. Twelve-year-old Hannah Silver and her widowed mother live in an old lighthouse; after years of being homeschooled, Hannah is being sent to the local middle school. This would be difficult for any child, but Hannah appears to be deeply schizophrenic. She converses with invisible friends, has invented a “Muffin Language” that no one else knows, and sees elaborate, hallucinatory deathtraps everywhere (Hannah is quickly labeled a “psycho” at school after she starts screaming about a vision of a staircase engulfed in flames). Then Hannah’s mother reveals that they, like generations of their forebears, are Guardians, protectors of a magical door in the lighthouse that leads to “the city of the dead.” After her mother is killed, Hannah travels through the door and becomes trapped in a universe like something out of a Dalí painting. Some readers will find this disjointed, madcap tale too confusing, but those with an appreciation for the strange and absurd will be left with much to dwell on. Ages 8–12. Agent: Elana Roth, Red Tree Literary. (May)