Okay, now the fun begins.

In the past few weeks or so, Prime Books has sent out a bunch of advance reading copies (ARCs) of my upcoming novel, A Gathering of Doorways, and now that astute (and speedy) readers have received and read the book, the reviews are starting to trickle in. This is so cool.

First there was Rick Kleffel's astute commentary over at The Agony Column that had some cool things to say about the book as a horror novel, but not your average old-fashioned horror novel (thank goodness!).

And now reviewer Matt Staggs has an insightful take on the novel, proving he really got what I was shooting for with the book on the one hand, and also surprising me with some new insights that make a lot of sense on the other. So now I can say, "Yeah, I meant to do that!" when people talk about this part of the book:

“A Gathering of Doorways” is about secrets. Not only does the land itself hold long-hidden secrets, but the people around it do too. As poisoned as the countryside may be it only reflects the corruption of its citizens. Nearly everyone has made some sort of deal with the devil; be it the devil of their own impulses or an actual supernatural force, they’ve compromised themselves in some way, and their families suffer for it. Noah, the youthful victim and later hero of the story, is innocent of such adult conceits and thus the only person qualified to confront the Undercity.

That is quite awesome. Thanks, Matt, for reading and thinking about the book, and then writing this up for everyone to check out. Later!