Mentioned in my blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2019/12/23/2019-in-review/

DAMN. Oof freaking oof. This book put me in such a trance state I feel like a part of my soul will be forever trapped in that world. It's hard to review it without spoilers but if you like books about souls, gods and goddesses, and dark twisty love, you'll adore this. The general premise is there are people with the power to explore the souls of others in their sleep. There are secret organisations of sex workers (pleasure artists) who are soul-walkers who trade secrets hidden in the souls of their clients. The main character is panromantic demisexual with a trans best friend. There is a whole section devoted to exploring gender and sexuality like in the Genderbread Person chart but fantasy edition using souls and moon phases, which was utterly perfect. The big forbidden love story between two asexual characters ruined me. Just so much love. ( )

Beyond the Black Door is atmospheric, compelling, and original. The heroine is a soul-walker without a soul of her own, tempted into darkness by a mysterious entity that skillfully manipulates her. It's confusingly romantic, with an obviously evil but eminently attractive antagonist/protagonist. Strickland glamorizes the darkness, illustrating how appealing it could be to a young woman without direction who's just lost everything, but her protagonist never quite falls all the way.
The ending is thoroughly satisfying, even if the middle of the book confuses and sags at times.
And thanks to the author and the publisher for giving us a romance with an ace heroine!


I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher for review via Edelweiss. ( )

At times murky and convoluted, this dark fantasy is the story of a girl whose parents never had an emotional connection, a fact she only learns after her mother is murdered. She barely escaped the subsequent fire set by her mother's killers. Who they really were and who was behind that murder and arson are part of her quest for the truth. In the process of dealing with her emotional pain, Kamai does the one thing her late mother told her never to do...Open the black door when going soulwalking. That sets up the equivalent of Pandora's Box and what's behind it creates a situation that seems impossible to fix for much of the book. How she does, or doesn't, coupled with numerous revelations regarding which players are good, or evil, plus a dandy finale make this a fine read. ( )

When I was fifty pages into the book, I didn’t know if I liked it. So I powered through to 100. Still unsure. Hit 200 - still not positive, but I was invested at this point. Now I’ve finished the damn thing and I just genuinely don’t know.

I enjoyed the world building. But it was a lot of world building for just one book that I’m pretty sure is a stand alone. In a “show or tell” approach to writing, there was a ton of telling. For the plot, for the character’s emotions, for all of it.

Also, loved the ace rep. There’s a scene where a priestess uses a moon chart to describe gender and sexuality (both sexual and romantic) that I thought was really well done.

Also, the mythology of the story sort of reminded me of Eli Monpress but I genuinely cannot tell you why. I guess maybe the darkness aspect of it? Or idk. ( )