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Meet Me at the Crossroads
From the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, a dazzling novel about two brilliant sisters and what happens to their undeniable bond when a mysterious and possibly perilous new world beckons.
On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.
Ayanna and Olivia, two Black Midwestern teens—and twin sisters—have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? And when one of them goes missing, will the other find solace of her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?
Megan Giddings brings her customarily brilliant and eye-opening powers of storytelling to give us a story that dazzles the senses and bewitches the mind. Meet Me at the Crossroads is an unforgettable novel about faith, love, and family from one of today’s most exciting and surprising young writers.
On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger.
Ayanna and Olivia, two Black Midwestern teens—and twin sisters—have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? And when one of them goes missing, will the other find solace of her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend?
Megan Giddings brings her customarily brilliant and eye-opening powers of storytelling to give us a story that dazzles the senses and bewitches the mind. Meet Me at the Crossroads is an unforgettable novel about faith, love, and family from one of today’s most exciting and surprising young writers.
315 pages, Hardcover
First published June 3, 2025
270 people are currently reading
20865 people want to read
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January 20, 2025oooh I just know I'm gonna eat this up
April 4, 2025
I came for a speculative portal fantasy that's more on the emotional side, but I got a meandering ghost story that didn't really focus on anything, and I wasn't vibing with that. I was pretty invested in the first 20% or so, when the story was still about these seven random doors that suddenly appeared across the globe and lead to someplace unknown. I liked how this phenomenon was explored through the perspective of a family, first a glimpse into the life of the parents and later switching to the daughters' experiences with the doors. And it was interesting how the daughters, Ayanna and Olivia, were identical twins with very different lives and different opinions on the whole door situation – one is wary of them, and for the other they are a religion. I was really looking forward to exploring the doors, because they were described as all kinds of weird: some open to pretty landscapes that might be heaven, through some you can hear the voices of dead people, some make people straight up explode. But the book never goes there. After the first part, the story only follows Ayanna as an adult who is handling grief and is figuratively and literally haunted by spirits. That might sound good, but the book was now only about her everyday life, and that wasn't cutting it for me. I think this will work very much for people who often read literary fiction, but I was hoping for way more on the fantastical / speculative side of this story. I also had some problems with the writing style. It's not exactly flowery, but it's also not straightforward and it uses a lot of words for very little happening. Not my thing, but I can see many readers liking this book.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Amistad for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Amistad for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.
January 16, 2025
ARC for review. To be published June 3, 2025.
3.5 stars. I really wish I could leave the rating at exactly this.
One day seven doors appear in various locations around the world (I love the fact that only three are found, at least immediately, because four are in remote locations. That sounds about right. It’s a wide world out there. In fact, maybe there are twenty doors because a bunch of them are underwater and are never seen. That’s my idea and I’m trademarking it immediately and right here!). Where did the doors come from and what are they? Naturally, if there’s a mysterious door that pops up out of the ether, someone (really multiple someones) is just gonna have to go through it, right? So soon it becomes clear there is potential danger behind the doors.
Teenage twins Ayanna and Olivia are raised separately, one by their dad, whose family worships the Michigan door (in a real religion, no less. They live by the door.) The other is reared by her mother. The sisters have very different relationships with the door.
This was an interesting book. I loved the premise, and I liked the story. I really had no idea what was going to happen. If there’s description appeals in any way you’ll probably like it, as long as you aren’t expecting hard sf…you don’t get that at all. This is more about relationships between people. I read LAKEWOOD by this author and really enjoyed that too.
3.5 stars. I really wish I could leave the rating at exactly this.
One day seven doors appear in various locations around the world (I love the fact that only three are found, at least immediately, because four are in remote locations. That sounds about right. It’s a wide world out there. In fact, maybe there are twenty doors because a bunch of them are underwater and are never seen. That’s my idea and I’m trademarking it immediately and right here!). Where did the doors come from and what are they? Naturally, if there’s a mysterious door that pops up out of the ether, someone (really multiple someones) is just gonna have to go through it, right? So soon it becomes clear there is potential danger behind the doors.
Teenage twins Ayanna and Olivia are raised separately, one by their dad, whose family worships the Michigan door (in a real religion, no less. They live by the door.) The other is reared by her mother. The sisters have very different relationships with the door.
This was an interesting book. I loved the premise, and I liked the story. I really had no idea what was going to happen. If there’s description appeals in any way you’ll probably like it, as long as you aren’t expecting hard sf…you don’t get that at all. This is more about relationships between people. I read LAKEWOOD by this author and really enjoyed that too.
October 1, 2025
firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!
this is my first novel by megan giddings and i had heard good things about her writing, but i don’t necessarily think this was the book for me. i will check out her backlist though!
meet me at the crossroads is a speculative fiction novel revolving around seven doors that mysteriously appear across the world, leading to massive spiritual, political, and religious speculation. there was a vast amount of socio-political, religious, and race commentary in this book.
this is my first novel by megan giddings and i had heard good things about her writing, but i don’t necessarily think this was the book for me. i will check out her backlist though!
meet me at the crossroads is a speculative fiction novel revolving around seven doors that mysteriously appear across the world, leading to massive spiritual, political, and religious speculation. there was a vast amount of socio-political, religious, and race commentary in this book.
June 12, 2025
Probably better if you don't read the premise. The book quickly forgets about its own setting in favour of meandering about our main character's rather one note life. I do understand that grief, especially losing a twin, is all consuming, but god did she have nothing else going for her.
All the characters in this book feel incredibly flat, which is a shame for something meant to be literary. Nothing really happens, and I have nothing to say about it. I don't feel the writing style was strong enough to carry the lack of plot, personally.
All the characters in this book feel incredibly flat, which is a shame for something meant to be literary. Nothing really happens, and I have nothing to say about it. I don't feel the writing style was strong enough to carry the lack of plot, personally.
March 30, 2025
Sometimes, the best stories start with impossible things. In Megan Giddings' latest novel, seven mysterious doors appear one summer morning in the Midwest. But the real story isn't about the doors—it's about two sisters who see them differently.
Ayanna and Olivia are twins, the kind who finish each other's sentences and share the same dreams—or at least they used to. When strange portals show up, promising passage to another world, their reactions crack their relationship wide open. One sees opportunity, the other sees danger, and suddenly, their unshakeable bond isn't so unshakeable anymore.
Giddings, whose Lakewood made waves as one of 2020's best books, knows how to mess with your head in the best possible way. She turns the familiar world of cornfields and summer heat into something eerie and electric. The doors aren't just doors – they're choices, beliefs, the moments that define us. And watching these sisters navigate their new reality feels like watching a tightrope walk. You can't look away, even when you want to.
The beauty of this book lies in its refusal to give easy answers. Like the best portal fantasies, it's less about what's on the other side and more about what makes us want to look. Giddings plays with faith, doubt, and the price of curiosity in ways that'll keep you up at night, turning pages and maybe checking your closets for doorways to elsewhere.
Fair warning: if you need your stories wrapped up in neat bows, this one might drive you crazy. But if you love books that stick with you, that make you question what you'd do if seven impossible doors appeared in your life – this is your next read.
4.5/5 stars - A spellbinding story about the choices that bring us together and tear us apart.
Ayanna and Olivia are twins, the kind who finish each other's sentences and share the same dreams—or at least they used to. When strange portals show up, promising passage to another world, their reactions crack their relationship wide open. One sees opportunity, the other sees danger, and suddenly, their unshakeable bond isn't so unshakeable anymore.
Giddings, whose Lakewood made waves as one of 2020's best books, knows how to mess with your head in the best possible way. She turns the familiar world of cornfields and summer heat into something eerie and electric. The doors aren't just doors – they're choices, beliefs, the moments that define us. And watching these sisters navigate their new reality feels like watching a tightrope walk. You can't look away, even when you want to.
The beauty of this book lies in its refusal to give easy answers. Like the best portal fantasies, it's less about what's on the other side and more about what makes us want to look. Giddings plays with faith, doubt, and the price of curiosity in ways that'll keep you up at night, turning pages and maybe checking your closets for doorways to elsewhere.
Fair warning: if you need your stories wrapped up in neat bows, this one might drive you crazy. But if you love books that stick with you, that make you question what you'd do if seven impossible doors appeared in your life – this is your next read.
4.5/5 stars - A spellbinding story about the choices that bring us together and tear us apart.
June 16, 2025
Megan Giddings has crafted something extraordinary in Meet Me at the Crossroads—a novel that dances between the speculative and the deeply human, where seven mysterious doors serve not merely as portals to another world, but as mirrors reflecting our most fundamental desires and fears. This is a story that understands grief as both destroyer and creator, examining how loss reshapes not just our understanding of love, but our very perception of reality itself.
The premise is deceptively simple: seven doors appear across the world, leading to what appears to be paradise. Yet Giddings knows that paradise is always conditional, always dangerous. When identical twins Ayanna and Olivia—two Black teenagers from the Midwest—encounter one such door in their rural soybean fields, the narrative becomes a meditation on the spaces between worlds, between sisters, between faith and doubt.
The Architecture of Sisterhood
What distinguishes this novel from other speculative fiction exploring interdimensional travel is Giddings' unwavering focus on the relationship between Ayanna and Olivia. These are not interchangeable twins but fully realized individuals whose similarities only highlight their fundamental differences. Ayanna, raised in the Church of the Blue Doors (later called Pathsong), approaches the mysterious portals with the reverence of someone whose faith has always included room for the impossible. Olivia, more conventionally religious and deeply cautious, embodies the kind of grounded skepticism that keeps us tethered to familiar ground.
Giddings writes their dynamic with remarkable nuance, avoiding the trap of making one sister "the believer" and the other "the skeptic." Instead, both girls carry complex relationships with faith, with mystery, and with each other. Their conversations crackle with the kind of affection and tension that only exists between people who love each other completely while remaining fundamentally unknowable to one another.
The author's background shines through in these intimate moments—having established herself with Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, Giddings demonstrates a masterful understanding of how to ground fantastical elements in deeply recognizable human emotions. The sisters' midnight conversations, their shared love of soccer and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, their different approaches to their mother's expectations—these details create a foundation so solid that when the supernatural intrudes, it feels not jarring but inevitable.
Through the Looking Glass
When the sisters finally cross through their door—Ayanna first, then Olivia chasing after her in a moment of pure protective instinct—the novel transforms into something even more haunting. The otherworld Giddings creates is neither utopia nor dystopia but something more unsettling: a place that seems to respond to the deepest needs and fears of those who enter it.
The meadows with their perpetual blue sky and golden paths become a landscape of memory and longing. Here, among the long navy grass and floating lights, the dead speak and wander in eternal procession toward silver mountains. Giddings' description of this realm reads like a fever dream painted in shades of blue—beautiful and terrible in equal measure.
But it's in the aftermath of this crossing that the novel truly finds its voice. When Ayanna returns alone, clutching only scraps of her sister's dress, the story becomes a profound exploration of survivor's guilt, complicated grief, and the way trauma reshapes our relationship with the world around us.
The Burden of Sight
The novel's second act follows Ayanna through college, where she struggles with depression, forms new relationships, and grapples with an unwanted gift: the ability to see and communicate with spirits. This development could have felt gimmicky in less capable hands, but Giddings treats Ayanna's newfound sight as both blessing and curse, a constant reminder of loss that cannot be ignored or compartmentalized.
The relationships Ayanna forms—particularly with Jane, her fierce and emotionally unavailable best friend, and Felix, a gentle creative writing student carrying his own trauma—feel authentic and lived-in. These connections serve as lifelines for someone drowning in grief, but they also highlight the isolation that comes with carrying knowledge others cannot accept or understand.
Giddings excels at writing the small moments that define relationships: Jane's provocative t-shirts that spell out "I EAT WHAT I FUCK," Felix's black nail polish and tender way of helping Ayanna untangle leaves from her hair, the way friends circle around pain without always knowing how to name it. These details accumulate into a portrait of young adulthood that feels both specific and universal.
Faith at the Margins
One of the novel's greatest strengths is its treatment of faith as something complex and evolving rather than fixed and dogmatic. Ayanna's upbringing in Pathsong—a religion built around curiosity, wonder, and the acceptance of uncertainty—provides a framework for understanding the inexplicable without demanding simple answers.
The church's tenets—service, curiosity, kindness, wonder, observation, listening, and courage—read like a manifesto for how to live thoughtfully in an uncertain world. When Ayanna encounters faith healers, academic researchers, and others trying to understand or exploit the doors' power, her grounding in this tradition allows her to navigate between credulous acceptance and cynical dismissal.
Giddings weaves throughout the narrative a mythology that spans from dinosaur times to the present, suggesting the doors have always been with us, appearing at moments of transition and transformation. This deep history gives weight to the present-day events while avoiding the trap of making the sisters' experience feel uniquely chosen or special.
The Price of Knowledge
As Ayanna becomes involved with Professor Collins' research into the doors and their aftermath, the novel examines the ethics of studying tragedy and the way institutions can exploit personal trauma for academic or financial gain. The presence of wealthy donors seeking to monetize resurrection adds a layer of social critique that feels particularly relevant to our current moment.
The research scenes—with their Ouija boards, spirit communication attempts, and careful documentation of supernatural phenomena—walk a careful line between taking the supernatural seriously and acknowledging the human tendency to find patterns where none exist. Giddings neither dismisses Ayanna's experiences as hallucination nor presents them as unquestionable truth, instead allowing them to exist in the ambiguous space where grief and transcendence meet.
Love as Penance
The novel's final movement brings all its themes together in a meditation on love as both gift and burden. When the doors begin appearing again, Ayanna faces an impossible choice: safety in the known world or the terrible possibility of reunion with her sister. Her decision to return, despite the protests of those who love her, feels both heartbreaking and inevitable.
The ending, with its promise that "love, with all its intertwined loss, was her penance," offers no easy resolution but something more valuable: an acceptance that love requires us to remain open to pain, to continue choosing connection despite the certainty of loss.
Minor Turbulence
While the novel succeeds admirably in most of its ambitions, there are moments where the pacing falters slightly. The middle section, following Ayanna through her college years, occasionally feels less urgent than the sections dealing directly with the doors and their aftermath. Some of the academic research scenes, while thematically important, slow the narrative momentum.
Additionally, while the mythology surrounding the doors is richly imagined, there are moments where the exposition feels slightly heavy-handed, pulling readers out of the immediate emotional experience. The novel works best when it trusts readers to understand the supernatural elements through character experience rather than explanation.
Final Verdict
Meet Me at the Crossroads is that rare novel that manages to be both deeply personal and expansively imaginative, grounding its supernatural elements in emotions so recognizable they feel like shared memories. Giddings has created a work that honors the complexity of grief while suggesting that love—even love shadowed by loss—remains our most powerful tool for understanding both ourselves and the mystery of existence.
This is a novel that will stay with readers long after the final page, not because it provides easy answers but because it asks the right questions: How do we love in the face of inevitable loss? What do we owe the dead? How do we distinguish between vision and hallucination, between faith and desperation? In asking these questions with such grace and intelligence, Giddings has created something genuinely special—a novel that expands our understanding of what speculative fiction can accomplish when it refuses to choose between wonder and truth.
The premise is deceptively simple: seven doors appear across the world, leading to what appears to be paradise. Yet Giddings knows that paradise is always conditional, always dangerous. When identical twins Ayanna and Olivia—two Black teenagers from the Midwest—encounter one such door in their rural soybean fields, the narrative becomes a meditation on the spaces between worlds, between sisters, between faith and doubt.
The Architecture of Sisterhood
What distinguishes this novel from other speculative fiction exploring interdimensional travel is Giddings' unwavering focus on the relationship between Ayanna and Olivia. These are not interchangeable twins but fully realized individuals whose similarities only highlight their fundamental differences. Ayanna, raised in the Church of the Blue Doors (later called Pathsong), approaches the mysterious portals with the reverence of someone whose faith has always included room for the impossible. Olivia, more conventionally religious and deeply cautious, embodies the kind of grounded skepticism that keeps us tethered to familiar ground.
Giddings writes their dynamic with remarkable nuance, avoiding the trap of making one sister "the believer" and the other "the skeptic." Instead, both girls carry complex relationships with faith, with mystery, and with each other. Their conversations crackle with the kind of affection and tension that only exists between people who love each other completely while remaining fundamentally unknowable to one another.
The author's background shines through in these intimate moments—having established herself with Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, Giddings demonstrates a masterful understanding of how to ground fantastical elements in deeply recognizable human emotions. The sisters' midnight conversations, their shared love of soccer and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, their different approaches to their mother's expectations—these details create a foundation so solid that when the supernatural intrudes, it feels not jarring but inevitable.
Through the Looking Glass
When the sisters finally cross through their door—Ayanna first, then Olivia chasing after her in a moment of pure protective instinct—the novel transforms into something even more haunting. The otherworld Giddings creates is neither utopia nor dystopia but something more unsettling: a place that seems to respond to the deepest needs and fears of those who enter it.
The meadows with their perpetual blue sky and golden paths become a landscape of memory and longing. Here, among the long navy grass and floating lights, the dead speak and wander in eternal procession toward silver mountains. Giddings' description of this realm reads like a fever dream painted in shades of blue—beautiful and terrible in equal measure.
But it's in the aftermath of this crossing that the novel truly finds its voice. When Ayanna returns alone, clutching only scraps of her sister's dress, the story becomes a profound exploration of survivor's guilt, complicated grief, and the way trauma reshapes our relationship with the world around us.
The Burden of Sight
The novel's second act follows Ayanna through college, where she struggles with depression, forms new relationships, and grapples with an unwanted gift: the ability to see and communicate with spirits. This development could have felt gimmicky in less capable hands, but Giddings treats Ayanna's newfound sight as both blessing and curse, a constant reminder of loss that cannot be ignored or compartmentalized.
The relationships Ayanna forms—particularly with Jane, her fierce and emotionally unavailable best friend, and Felix, a gentle creative writing student carrying his own trauma—feel authentic and lived-in. These connections serve as lifelines for someone drowning in grief, but they also highlight the isolation that comes with carrying knowledge others cannot accept or understand.
Giddings excels at writing the small moments that define relationships: Jane's provocative t-shirts that spell out "I EAT WHAT I FUCK," Felix's black nail polish and tender way of helping Ayanna untangle leaves from her hair, the way friends circle around pain without always knowing how to name it. These details accumulate into a portrait of young adulthood that feels both specific and universal.
Faith at the Margins
One of the novel's greatest strengths is its treatment of faith as something complex and evolving rather than fixed and dogmatic. Ayanna's upbringing in Pathsong—a religion built around curiosity, wonder, and the acceptance of uncertainty—provides a framework for understanding the inexplicable without demanding simple answers.
The church's tenets—service, curiosity, kindness, wonder, observation, listening, and courage—read like a manifesto for how to live thoughtfully in an uncertain world. When Ayanna encounters faith healers, academic researchers, and others trying to understand or exploit the doors' power, her grounding in this tradition allows her to navigate between credulous acceptance and cynical dismissal.
Giddings weaves throughout the narrative a mythology that spans from dinosaur times to the present, suggesting the doors have always been with us, appearing at moments of transition and transformation. This deep history gives weight to the present-day events while avoiding the trap of making the sisters' experience feel uniquely chosen or special.
The Price of Knowledge
As Ayanna becomes involved with Professor Collins' research into the doors and their aftermath, the novel examines the ethics of studying tragedy and the way institutions can exploit personal trauma for academic or financial gain. The presence of wealthy donors seeking to monetize resurrection adds a layer of social critique that feels particularly relevant to our current moment.
The research scenes—with their Ouija boards, spirit communication attempts, and careful documentation of supernatural phenomena—walk a careful line between taking the supernatural seriously and acknowledging the human tendency to find patterns where none exist. Giddings neither dismisses Ayanna's experiences as hallucination nor presents them as unquestionable truth, instead allowing them to exist in the ambiguous space where grief and transcendence meet.
Love as Penance
The novel's final movement brings all its themes together in a meditation on love as both gift and burden. When the doors begin appearing again, Ayanna faces an impossible choice: safety in the known world or the terrible possibility of reunion with her sister. Her decision to return, despite the protests of those who love her, feels both heartbreaking and inevitable.
The ending, with its promise that "love, with all its intertwined loss, was her penance," offers no easy resolution but something more valuable: an acceptance that love requires us to remain open to pain, to continue choosing connection despite the certainty of loss.
Minor Turbulence
While the novel succeeds admirably in most of its ambitions, there are moments where the pacing falters slightly. The middle section, following Ayanna through her college years, occasionally feels less urgent than the sections dealing directly with the doors and their aftermath. Some of the academic research scenes, while thematically important, slow the narrative momentum.
Additionally, while the mythology surrounding the doors is richly imagined, there are moments where the exposition feels slightly heavy-handed, pulling readers out of the immediate emotional experience. The novel works best when it trusts readers to understand the supernatural elements through character experience rather than explanation.
Final Verdict
Meet Me at the Crossroads is that rare novel that manages to be both deeply personal and expansively imaginative, grounding its supernatural elements in emotions so recognizable they feel like shared memories. Giddings has created a work that honors the complexity of grief while suggesting that love—even love shadowed by loss—remains our most powerful tool for understanding both ourselves and the mystery of existence.
This is a novel that will stay with readers long after the final page, not because it provides easy answers but because it asks the right questions: How do we love in the face of inevitable loss? What do we owe the dead? How do we distinguish between vision and hallucination, between faith and desperation? In asking these questions with such grace and intelligence, Giddings has created something genuinely special—a novel that expands our understanding of what speculative fiction can accomplish when it refuses to choose between wonder and truth.
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November 16, 2025
Megan Giddings just writes speculative literary fiction in a way that makes me sit up and say "YES PLEASE."
Not really what I thought it was going to be (when I read crossroads I thought witchiness) but a gorgeous journey (a sobbing saunter might be a better explanation) through grief and death and survivorship and religious trauma.
If you enjoyed The Saint of Bright Doors, The Women Could Fly and I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, I think you'll enjoy this one.
Not really what I thought it was going to be (when I read crossroads I thought witchiness) but a gorgeous journey (a sobbing saunter might be a better explanation) through grief and death and survivorship and religious trauma.
If you enjoyed The Saint of Bright Doors, The Women Could Fly and I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, I think you'll enjoy this one.
March 11, 2025
This book was both mesmerizing and heartbreaking. Ayanna’s story gripped me from the start—her twin sister, Olivia, disappears through one of the seven mysterious doors that suddenly appear across the world, and Ayanna is left behind, drowning in guilt. Why was it Olivia who vanished and not her? Her mother blames her, her father pulls away, and Ayanna is left to navigate the emptiness that Olivia’s absence creates.
But the world isn’t as empty as it seems. Ayanna begins to see ghosts, shadows of the past that blur the line between reality and something else entirely. As she searches for answers, both about Olivia’s disappearance and the doors themselves, she is forced to confront her grief, her family’s unraveling, and the unsettling presence of spirits only she can see.
Giddings’ writing is haunting and deeply emotional, blending the surreal with raw human pain. This book isn’t just about the mystery of the doors—it’s about loss, love, and learning to live with ghosts, both real and metaphorical.
Thanks to Netgalley and Amistad for the ARC and opportunity to provide an honest review.
But the world isn’t as empty as it seems. Ayanna begins to see ghosts, shadows of the past that blur the line between reality and something else entirely. As she searches for answers, both about Olivia’s disappearance and the doors themselves, she is forced to confront her grief, her family’s unraveling, and the unsettling presence of spirits only she can see.
Giddings’ writing is haunting and deeply emotional, blending the surreal with raw human pain. This book isn’t just about the mystery of the doors—it’s about loss, love, and learning to live with ghosts, both real and metaphorical.
Thanks to Netgalley and Amistad for the ARC and opportunity to provide an honest review.
July 24, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
Meet Me at the Crossroads.
I can't be the only one who thought of the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony song, "The Crossroads" when I saw the title.
Naturally, from the title and premise, I thought it was about mysterious doors that led to another world.
Instead, the narrative is all over the place, rambling about religion, living your life, grief, family, relationships, sisters.
It's confusing and I was confused.
I read for fun, to enjoy, to experience, and though some of the comments made in the novel was interesting, I couldn't figure out the point of the plot.
What about the doors? Where did they come from?
All the potential in using the doors as a springboard for life and love, beliefs and spirituality was wasted on Ayanna and her life after losing her twin, Olivia.
Are the doors good? Evil? Neutral? Whatever you want it to be?
The narrative charts Ayanna's life before and after the doors appear and her loss, how she copes and doesn't, her ability to see ghosts and how she deals and will deal with the aftermath.
I didn't dislike Ayanna but I didn't like her either; the narrative was just hard to follow and figure out.
It wasn't about the doors or the relationship between the twins. It wasn't about Ayanna's family.
What is the story really about?
I couldn't help but feel all the religious discussions was a not so subtle way of the author pushing her personal agenda.
I can't be the only one who thought of the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony song, "The Crossroads" when I saw the title.
Naturally, from the title and premise, I thought it was about mysterious doors that led to another world.
Instead, the narrative is all over the place, rambling about religion, living your life, grief, family, relationships, sisters.
It's confusing and I was confused.
I read for fun, to enjoy, to experience, and though some of the comments made in the novel was interesting, I couldn't figure out the point of the plot.
What about the doors? Where did they come from?
All the potential in using the doors as a springboard for life and love, beliefs and spirituality was wasted on Ayanna and her life after losing her twin, Olivia.
Are the doors good? Evil? Neutral? Whatever you want it to be?
The narrative charts Ayanna's life before and after the doors appear and her loss, how she copes and doesn't, her ability to see ghosts and how she deals and will deal with the aftermath.
I didn't dislike Ayanna but I didn't like her either; the narrative was just hard to follow and figure out.
It wasn't about the doors or the relationship between the twins. It wasn't about Ayanna's family.
What is the story really about?
I couldn't help but feel all the religious discussions was a not so subtle way of the author pushing her personal agenda.
August 20, 2025
astonishing and beautiful. slow, meandering, and captivating. delicate preaching has never gone down so easy, and a grief journey has never felt so accessible to me. a last line that stopped me in my tracks and will hold me for a very long time.
September 12, 2025
This just wasn't what I was looking for based on the synopsis. The premise was unique and promising, but it ended up being more of a character study than speculative fiction.
July 14, 2025
A poignant tale of grief, love, and sisterhood.
What happens when the fantastical collides with the intimately human? Megan Giddings’ „Meet Me at the Crossroads“ takes this question and weaves it into a moving, atmospheric tale of grief, love, and the irrevocable ties between sisters.
All over the world, strange, shimmering doors begin to appear - gateways to unknown, otherworldly realms. Some see them as escape routes, others as invitations. For twin sisters Ayanna and Olivia, stepping through one of these doors is, for one of them, a leap of faith, for the other an act of impulse and desperation. But when only Ayanna returns, she is forced to reckon not only with what she experienced on the other side, but also with the unraveling of her already fractured family and with her own survivor's guilt. What follows is a journey through memory, guilt, and the jagged terrain of healing, as Ayanna navigates a world that suddenly feels even more unfamiliar than the one she left behind.
At its heart, „Meet Me at the Crossroads“ is literary fiction cloaked in the shimmer of magical realism and exquisite storytelling at its best - a beautifully written exploration of the enduring complexity of sibling bonds and the quiet devastation of loss. Giddings’ prose is lyrical and emotionally astute, with a keen eye for the unspoken. The doors themselves are an elegant and powerful metaphor, serving as both a plot device and an existential question: What does it mean to leave, to return, or to choose neither? The speculative elements are handled with subtlety; it’s less about world-hopping adventures and more about the internal landscapes we carry within us. Thus, while the novel’s premise suggests fantasy or science fiction, readers expecting genre conventions may be surprised. This is not a tale of epic quests or sprawling world-building. Instead, Giddings uses the uncanny sparingly but impactfully, anchoring the story in emotional realism. The speculative serves to illuminate the psychological and emotional stakes rather than distract from them.
This is a novel for readers who crave depth over spectacle, and for anyone who has ever mourned a loved one, lost a version of themselves, or wished they could step through a door to something - anything - different.
Many thanks to Amistad and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.
"Meet Me at the Crossroads" was published on June 3, 2025, and is available now.
"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors." - Jim Morrison
What happens when the fantastical collides with the intimately human? Megan Giddings’ „Meet Me at the Crossroads“ takes this question and weaves it into a moving, atmospheric tale of grief, love, and the irrevocable ties between sisters.
All over the world, strange, shimmering doors begin to appear - gateways to unknown, otherworldly realms. Some see them as escape routes, others as invitations. For twin sisters Ayanna and Olivia, stepping through one of these doors is, for one of them, a leap of faith, for the other an act of impulse and desperation. But when only Ayanna returns, she is forced to reckon not only with what she experienced on the other side, but also with the unraveling of her already fractured family and with her own survivor's guilt. What follows is a journey through memory, guilt, and the jagged terrain of healing, as Ayanna navigates a world that suddenly feels even more unfamiliar than the one she left behind.
At its heart, „Meet Me at the Crossroads“ is literary fiction cloaked in the shimmer of magical realism and exquisite storytelling at its best - a beautifully written exploration of the enduring complexity of sibling bonds and the quiet devastation of loss. Giddings’ prose is lyrical and emotionally astute, with a keen eye for the unspoken. The doors themselves are an elegant and powerful metaphor, serving as both a plot device and an existential question: What does it mean to leave, to return, or to choose neither? The speculative elements are handled with subtlety; it’s less about world-hopping adventures and more about the internal landscapes we carry within us. Thus, while the novel’s premise suggests fantasy or science fiction, readers expecting genre conventions may be surprised. This is not a tale of epic quests or sprawling world-building. Instead, Giddings uses the uncanny sparingly but impactfully, anchoring the story in emotional realism. The speculative serves to illuminate the psychological and emotional stakes rather than distract from them.
This is a novel for readers who crave depth over spectacle, and for anyone who has ever mourned a loved one, lost a version of themselves, or wished they could step through a door to something - anything - different.
Many thanks to Amistad and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.
"Meet Me at the Crossroads" was published on June 3, 2025, and is available now.
June 16, 2025
Giddings presents her sci-fi story about twin sisters, Ayanna and Olivia, in three parts.
In part one, we encounter magical doors that appear in spacetime, and those who attempt to enter them never know what may happen to them or where they may be transported to. Some folks die upon entry; others leave and return with unusual gifts. Raised by one separated parent each, Ayanna and Olivia grow up religious—one in the Church of the Blue Doors, aka Path Song (aka maybe a cult, as presented in the novel), and the other in the Roman Catholic Church, respectively. Together, the adolescent girls sneak to the door in Michigan and walk in.
In part two, Ayanna goes to college, and the story follows a coming-of-age shape with the protagonist’s unique challenge of returning from the door without her twin. As Ayanna works through the grief of losing Olivia, she also learns to ignore the spirits she sees all around her—a new skill acquired since crossing the threshold. She doesn’t believe Olivia is dead, so she anxiously waits for the doors to appear again.
In part three, 13 years pass, and Ayanna dedicates her life to mediumship. As a proxy for spirits, she cons her guilty-laden subjects by suggesting they atone for their sin and the sins of their ancestors through supporting social justice causes. Unexpectedly, a door materializes again, and though Ayanna doesn’t enter it, Olivia’s spirit visits Ayanna, urging her sister to shake off the guilt and live her life to the fullest.
It surprised me that Giddings intensely explores religious ideas and spiritual themes. This prevalence, especially religion, made me wonder whether or not I’d get through Meet Me at the Crossroads. Fictitious organized religion is fine as such, but Giddings’s presentation of it did not interest me. Yet the author’s decision to write a campus story in part two drew me into the story, and I appreciated the all Black cast. The question of why Olivia did not return from the door remains unclear to me.
I rate Giddings’s atypical seester story 2.5 stars.
In part one, we encounter magical doors that appear in spacetime, and those who attempt to enter them never know what may happen to them or where they may be transported to. Some folks die upon entry; others leave and return with unusual gifts. Raised by one separated parent each, Ayanna and Olivia grow up religious—one in the Church of the Blue Doors, aka Path Song (aka maybe a cult, as presented in the novel), and the other in the Roman Catholic Church, respectively. Together, the adolescent girls sneak to the door in Michigan and walk in.
In part two, Ayanna goes to college, and the story follows a coming-of-age shape with the protagonist’s unique challenge of returning from the door without her twin. As Ayanna works through the grief of losing Olivia, she also learns to ignore the spirits she sees all around her—a new skill acquired since crossing the threshold. She doesn’t believe Olivia is dead, so she anxiously waits for the doors to appear again.
In part three, 13 years pass, and Ayanna dedicates her life to mediumship. As a proxy for spirits, she cons her guilty-laden subjects by suggesting they atone for their sin and the sins of their ancestors through supporting social justice causes. Unexpectedly, a door materializes again, and though Ayanna doesn’t enter it, Olivia’s spirit visits Ayanna, urging her sister to shake off the guilt and live her life to the fullest.
It surprised me that Giddings intensely explores religious ideas and spiritual themes. This prevalence, especially religion, made me wonder whether or not I’d get through Meet Me at the Crossroads. Fictitious organized religion is fine as such, but Giddings’s presentation of it did not interest me. Yet the author’s decision to write a campus story in part two drew me into the story, and I appreciated the all Black cast. The question of why Olivia did not return from the door remains unclear to me.
I rate Giddings’s atypical seester story 2.5 stars.
November 5, 2025
Too bad. The premise of this book is really really interesting and the first chapter was super exciting, the kind of chapter that makes you want to keep reading.
But in the end, I just couldn’t enjoy this book at all. The writing style is actually really good, I admit I liked that a lot. But it just didn’t meet my expectations. Turns out, these doors lead people to create some cult or something like that, and I didn’t expect that at all because the synopsis didn’t mention it. I don’t know, I just don’t like stories that talk about stuffs like that. The story also felt like a coming of age one. It follows Ayanna from when she’s a child until she grows up, all mixed with strange beliefs about those doors.
That part really brought me down tbh. I was hoping for more sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery. Not ... cult. So in the end, I just didn’t care anymore. I’m giving it 2 stars.
But in the end, I just couldn’t enjoy this book at all. The writing style is actually really good, I admit I liked that a lot. But it just didn’t meet my expectations. Turns out, these doors lead people to create some cult or something like that, and I didn’t expect that at all because the synopsis didn’t mention it. I don’t know, I just don’t like stories that talk about stuffs like that. The story also felt like a coming of age one. It follows Ayanna from when she’s a child until she grows up, all mixed with strange beliefs about those doors.
That part really brought me down tbh. I was hoping for more sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery. Not ... cult. So in the end, I just didn’t care anymore. I’m giving it 2 stars.
June 6, 2025
I have read this author's previous 2 novels, Lakewood & The Women Could Fly, and loved both. I was very excited to be approved for this, her 3rd novel, as an advance reader. This wasn't at all what I was expecting and I was pleasantly surprised with what was explored.
This functions primarily as a coming of age story. This is about how we are shaped by our community & our parents and how they were in turn shaped by their own community & parents. This has shades of Toni Morrison's Beloved and explores grief in depth. This is only peripherally about the doors. Much like Beloved is only peripherally about a haunted house or a ghost. In many ways Ayanna's journey reminds me of Denver in Beloved. I would say Beloved also crosses genres; it's historical fiction and horror with gothic notes. It's primarily about the generational trauma and pain from slavery still lived out in the descendants of the formerly enslaved. It's a scathing indictment of chattel slavery. It's literature and so it is all of these elements and more. Meet Me at the Crossroads has that same feel, almost literature. This straddles that genre as it does the other genres.
While this could be triggering for a person who is struggling with grief and loss, it is decidedly not trauma or pain 'porn'. Each element of the story, no matter how odd or disjointed it might feel, ultimately figures into the overall narrative. The beginning of this is fascinating and I found myself deeply engrossed in the mystery of the doors. I was a little frustrated when the story begins to focus on the family of Ayanna & Olivia. As the story begin to shift to an exploration of the family, adulthood, grief, and other themes, the tone and pacing shift. It's almost like an extremely long prologue and I found the shift jarring at first. However, I soon settled into Ayanna's coming of age story and I understood the necessity of the long introduction. So if you as a reader are finding the pacing shift confusing, hold on because it picks back up and the story will address your concerns. I am still processing the ending. What a glorious journey though!
This audiobook is narrated by Brittany Bradford. This was as much literature as it was speculative fiction. It's not easy to narrate novels that have subtle elements in them, like this does. Brittany manages to add so much depth to this story. I honestly think it enhances the experience. I also think this novel is an excellent candidate for immersion reading. I think with literature, that immersion reading provides the best experience.
Thank you to Megan Giddings, HarperAudio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.
This functions primarily as a coming of age story. This is about how we are shaped by our community & our parents and how they were in turn shaped by their own community & parents. This has shades of Toni Morrison's Beloved and explores grief in depth. This is only peripherally about the doors. Much like Beloved is only peripherally about a haunted house or a ghost. In many ways Ayanna's journey reminds me of Denver in Beloved. I would say Beloved also crosses genres; it's historical fiction and horror with gothic notes. It's primarily about the generational trauma and pain from slavery still lived out in the descendants of the formerly enslaved. It's a scathing indictment of chattel slavery. It's literature and so it is all of these elements and more. Meet Me at the Crossroads has that same feel, almost literature. This straddles that genre as it does the other genres.
While this could be triggering for a person who is struggling with grief and loss, it is decidedly not trauma or pain 'porn'. Each element of the story, no matter how odd or disjointed it might feel, ultimately figures into the overall narrative. The beginning of this is fascinating and I found myself deeply engrossed in the mystery of the doors. I was a little frustrated when the story begins to focus on the family of Ayanna & Olivia. As the story begin to shift to an exploration of the family, adulthood, grief, and other themes, the tone and pacing shift. It's almost like an extremely long prologue and I found the shift jarring at first. However, I soon settled into Ayanna's coming of age story and I understood the necessity of the long introduction. So if you as a reader are finding the pacing shift confusing, hold on because it picks back up and the story will address your concerns. I am still processing the ending. What a glorious journey though!
This audiobook is narrated by Brittany Bradford. This was as much literature as it was speculative fiction. It's not easy to narrate novels that have subtle elements in them, like this does. Brittany manages to add so much depth to this story. I honestly think it enhances the experience. I also think this novel is an excellent candidate for immersion reading. I think with literature, that immersion reading provides the best experience.
Thank you to Megan Giddings, HarperAudio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.
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September 13, 2025DNF @ 35%
Sad to DNF this one because I liked Lakewood so much, but for me this was an ambitious book that tried to do something different, and it didn't really work out. I felt like the narrative was jumping all over the place without any rhyme or reason, and the longer the book went on, the more it lost me. I really liked some parts of this so I almost just kept reading anyway, but I know it's not going to do it for me in the end, so I'm cutting my losses now.
Sad to DNF this one because I liked Lakewood so much, but for me this was an ambitious book that tried to do something different, and it didn't really work out. I felt like the narrative was jumping all over the place without any rhyme or reason, and the longer the book went on, the more it lost me. I really liked some parts of this so I almost just kept reading anyway, but I know it's not going to do it for me in the end, so I'm cutting my losses now.
May 11, 2025
I received this book as an ARC for a review. It was a very interesting book! I expected there to be more magical elements, but it’s mostly a coming of age story with a little bit of magic. I appreciated reading about Ayanna’s journey dealing with grief, forming lasting friendships, and leaving her childhood religion. It’s a moving human story layered with a bit of magic.
On an unassuming day, seven doors suddenly appear all over the world. At first, they don’t open, but once they do, they seem to lead to another universe or dimension.
Ayanna and her twin sister, Olivia, are split between their divorced parents, each living with one parent. Ayanna lives with their father, who is part of a religion devoted to the local door, while Olivia lives with their mother, a devout Catholic who is against worship of the doors.
As the girls near adulthood, Olivia goes missing. Ayanna is lost without her sister and tries to make sense of the world around her without her other half and best friend. She hopes Olivia returns, but as time moves on, the possibility seems less and less likely.
This is a beautiful coming of age story surrounding the mystery of the doors. I expected the focus of the book to be the doors, they are portals to another universe after all. But the focus is on Ayanna as she grows up and comes to terms with the loss of her sister and family. I related to her confusion while coming of age and navigating college, and I can’t imagine doing all of that while also missing your twin. Ayanna never gives up hope that she’ll one day see her sister again. This is an awesome story about grief, love, and finding your place in the world. Get your copy on June 3, 2025.
On an unassuming day, seven doors suddenly appear all over the world. At first, they don’t open, but once they do, they seem to lead to another universe or dimension.
Ayanna and her twin sister, Olivia, are split between their divorced parents, each living with one parent. Ayanna lives with their father, who is part of a religion devoted to the local door, while Olivia lives with their mother, a devout Catholic who is against worship of the doors.
As the girls near adulthood, Olivia goes missing. Ayanna is lost without her sister and tries to make sense of the world around her without her other half and best friend. She hopes Olivia returns, but as time moves on, the possibility seems less and less likely.
This is a beautiful coming of age story surrounding the mystery of the doors. I expected the focus of the book to be the doors, they are portals to another universe after all. But the focus is on Ayanna as she grows up and comes to terms with the loss of her sister and family. I related to her confusion while coming of age and navigating college, and I can’t imagine doing all of that while also missing your twin. Ayanna never gives up hope that she’ll one day see her sister again. This is an awesome story about grief, love, and finding your place in the world. Get your copy on June 3, 2025.
June 7, 2025
Special thanks to the author, @amistadbooks, & @hearourvoicestours for my gifted copy‼️
Delivering a mind-bending speculative fiction novel that ventures into faith, religion, love, loss, and grief. Giddings presents readers with a rare premise that’s both intriguing and thought provoking but feels just a little bit off.
The heart of the novel surrounds the appearance of seven mysterious doors that lead to other worlds. These dimensions appear welcoming with its unique beauty and magical resources but what truly lies beyond the unknown is danger. Twin sisters Ayanna and Olivia would soon find out what’s on the other side of those doors. Leaving one sister lost forever and the other drowning in grief.
Olivia and Ayanna were very different to be twins. With each of them growing up in different households their complex traits and upbringing make it hard for them to connect. Olivia was only present briefly and of the twins she seemed the most normal. Ayanna’s upbringing resulted in her having this weird mysterious personality just think of Carrie. And with her being a central figure in the plot the book has this strange uncanny feeling the entire time.
But the book posed two questions for me: Why was there a culture of door worshippers? What causes people to be so drawn to the unknown?
Once Olivia disappears Ayanna is driven by faith that her sister will return yet she struggles the entire time holding on to that belief. It’s also evident that them entering the portal attached something spiritually to Ayanna when she returned. The relationship with her parents is practically nonexistent. It’s evident in her mother’s behavior that she wished it was her instead.
Overall, the book was like nothing I’ve ever read before. Giddings has a unique writing style that’s very detailed but also leaves something to ponder on if that makes sense. Delving deep into the fate of family, the consequences of curiosity, the struggle to find meaning, human nature, accepting faith, and self-identity if you’re a fan of Megan Giddings prior work you’ll enjoy this book‼️
Delivering a mind-bending speculative fiction novel that ventures into faith, religion, love, loss, and grief. Giddings presents readers with a rare premise that’s both intriguing and thought provoking but feels just a little bit off.
The heart of the novel surrounds the appearance of seven mysterious doors that lead to other worlds. These dimensions appear welcoming with its unique beauty and magical resources but what truly lies beyond the unknown is danger. Twin sisters Ayanna and Olivia would soon find out what’s on the other side of those doors. Leaving one sister lost forever and the other drowning in grief.
Olivia and Ayanna were very different to be twins. With each of them growing up in different households their complex traits and upbringing make it hard for them to connect. Olivia was only present briefly and of the twins she seemed the most normal. Ayanna’s upbringing resulted in her having this weird mysterious personality just think of Carrie. And with her being a central figure in the plot the book has this strange uncanny feeling the entire time.
But the book posed two questions for me: Why was there a culture of door worshippers? What causes people to be so drawn to the unknown?
Once Olivia disappears Ayanna is driven by faith that her sister will return yet she struggles the entire time holding on to that belief. It’s also evident that them entering the portal attached something spiritually to Ayanna when she returned. The relationship with her parents is practically nonexistent. It’s evident in her mother’s behavior that she wished it was her instead.
Overall, the book was like nothing I’ve ever read before. Giddings has a unique writing style that’s very detailed but also leaves something to ponder on if that makes sense. Delving deep into the fate of family, the consequences of curiosity, the struggle to find meaning, human nature, accepting faith, and self-identity if you’re a fan of Megan Giddings prior work you’ll enjoy this book‼️
July 31, 2025
tell me why the first 1/4 of this was really interesting and then it seemed like the author abandoned the manuscript for a decade before deciding to pick it back up with only a vague memory of what she had already written. the last 3/4 brought a boring cast of brand new characters, overwrought sentimentality and positively No Plot worth caring about. pmo
August 8, 2025
Doors pop up - just a few in certain countries and they aren't all found at once. They can't be shot, forced open, burned or in anyway hurt or damaged. But sometimes - sometimes - the door opens. And if you are near, you can hear and see things on the other side: voices of loved ones that have passed, a yellow path, flowers, mountains.
There are so many things that pop up around these doors. Religions, that believe the door leads to heaven, other people that believe its a door to hell, others who think it's all a hoax. Our story is about 2 twin sisters who, with divorced parents, each live with a different parent. One twin is chosen by the new religion and church to stay close to the door and be there when it opens to hear it and be present, a seer who reports back what she sees. The other twin, stays with mom and is raised Catholic. They still see each other, not as often as they did when their parents and their beliefs and ideas are shaped by their experiences, even though they still try to find common ground togehter.
I really liked this idea of the doors. I liked how the author made them feel pretty realistic - that society would have such different ideas about it. I did want a little more about the doors and the world and a little less about the sister's internal struggles but I understood that the story was about the sisters.
As the story turned to the story of grief and being haunted, I was moved but a little less invested. But the story is compelling, the idea fantastical and so curious, and exploring grief was sad and touching.
There are so many things that pop up around these doors. Religions, that believe the door leads to heaven, other people that believe its a door to hell, others who think it's all a hoax. Our story is about 2 twin sisters who, with divorced parents, each live with a different parent. One twin is chosen by the new religion and church to stay close to the door and be there when it opens to hear it and be present, a seer who reports back what she sees. The other twin, stays with mom and is raised Catholic. They still see each other, not as often as they did when their parents and their beliefs and ideas are shaped by their experiences, even though they still try to find common ground togehter.
I really liked this idea of the doors. I liked how the author made them feel pretty realistic - that society would have such different ideas about it. I did want a little more about the doors and the world and a little less about the sister's internal struggles but I understood that the story was about the sisters.
As the story turned to the story of grief and being haunted, I was moved but a little less invested. But the story is compelling, the idea fantastical and so curious, and exploring grief was sad and touching.
December 6, 2025
This one ticked a lot of boxes for me, and made me cry. It’s sticking with me.
The premise here (mysterious doors appearing on the earth) is not what’s being explored, so if that’s what you’re reading for (answers) you’ll be frustrated. But it’s an excellent context to establish a world where trauma, grief, and family can be explored.
There’s a way souls continue to search after an unexpected loss that defies the logic of survival; grief’s tides pulling us into and out of our own selves over and over again. And that experience—the experience of that loss and how it is felt and experienced in the body—is at the core of this novel.
The premise here (mysterious doors appearing on the earth) is not what’s being explored, so if that’s what you’re reading for (answers) you’ll be frustrated. But it’s an excellent context to establish a world where trauma, grief, and family can be explored.
There’s a way souls continue to search after an unexpected loss that defies the logic of survival; grief’s tides pulling us into and out of our own selves over and over again. And that experience—the experience of that loss and how it is felt and experienced in the body—is at the core of this novel.
October 22, 2025
I really enjoyed this book because I loved the concept. I feel like Giddings is pretty spot on with all of the different societal reactions to this global scenario. There were a few parts of the plot that missed for me, so that’s why I took a star away. However, overall, I loved the concept, but feel like there were a couple of places to flesh out the plot a little more fully.
November 22, 2025
This is everything
November 27, 2025
3.75 ⭐️ I wish this book had leaned into more of its fantasy elements as it ultimately felt more literary fiction but I still found it compelling, particularly the description of the doors.
Want to read
August 31, 2025I’ve tried to read this twice now because it seems like the kind of book I would enjoy, but it keeps falling flat so I’m giving up. Life is too short.
June 26, 2025
This book was a mash up of religious fanaticism and sci fi parallel worlds with a dash of humanity. Two twins, raised separately (Sister, Sister vibes except they know each other) in drastically different households. One lives with their mother, is raised in a highly conservative Catholic home, taught that she must remain pious and true. The other raised with their father to be always aware of how she can make the world a better place and to think and always question, in a borderline cult named PathSong that centers around mysterious doors that have appeared across the world, leading to dimensions unknown.
The sisters remain close, despite their home lives being so oppositional. Add on top of that the dynamic favoritism, racism(they are biracial), and adolescent angst and the story kicks off with a whirlwind of emotion and tension. As the twins navigate their separate, often conflicting worlds, the story dives deep into questions of identity, faith, and what it truly means to find your own path.
The plot takes a sharp turn when the sisters enter one of the doors and their lives change forever.
While the premise is pretty intriguing, there were definitely some slow portions.
The parallel worlds offer a good twist, but it's the personal struggles of the sisters, their emotions, and their bond that truly drives the plot.
The sisters remain close, despite their home lives being so oppositional. Add on top of that the dynamic favoritism, racism(they are biracial), and adolescent angst and the story kicks off with a whirlwind of emotion and tension. As the twins navigate their separate, often conflicting worlds, the story dives deep into questions of identity, faith, and what it truly means to find your own path.
The plot takes a sharp turn when the sisters enter one of the doors and their lives change forever.
While the premise is pretty intriguing, there were definitely some slow portions.
The parallel worlds offer a good twist, but it's the personal struggles of the sisters, their emotions, and their bond that truly drives the plot.
June 9, 2025
This is my first book that I have read by Megan Giddings and I am blown away by this book. This is a speculative fiction book where we are introduced to seven doors that have randomly appeared. With these doors bring curiosity and wonder. And so the story takes place in Michigan where meet to twins: Ayanna, who wants to make the world a better place and thinks about the lives of others. Then we meet Olivia that follows the rules, does what she is told, and more focus on appearances along with popularity. The twins grew up in separate households where Ayana chose to be with her dad and Olivia with her mom. When I was reading this it was clear that their mom was not a huge fan of Ayanna and that truly made me feel sad. But Ayanna looked at it from a different point of view of how she was fortunate to live with her dad instead of her mom. But as you more about the twins you feel the love that they had for one another. Though one day after venturing in one of the mysterious doors Olivia did not return with Ayanna. After this point we are learning more about Ayanna and her spirituality and the way she looks at life. This book has me thinking about life and how spending time with your loved ones are precious. This is a great book and I feel like everyone should read it.
June 5, 2025
This novel and the author's writing style was very interesting. Besides Ayanna and her immediate family, we encounter a host of other characters as they go through many contradictory experiences of life and in turn their relationship with God and the religions they subscribe to. There were many hard-hitting and interesting points made about our human relationship and appreciation for life itself. I strongly believe that this is a book that needs to be re-read over the years to fully grasp its fullness. The existential nature of the experiences of the characters was very interesting to observe as they came alive throughout the different timelines this story is told in. Themes of grief, love, family bonds, and self-awareness are very strong and sometimes included at unexpected points.
July 19, 2025
Don't you just love a bait-and-switch? Excellent mystery, an intriguing premise, great worldbuilding. The first third was absolutely perfect to get you invested ... only for that to be essentially dumped and forgotten for a standard coming of age story that might have been fine on its own, but was a huge letdown after such a build-up. They mentioned the doors occasionally after Part 1 but they were in the background to this generic slog of a story. I don't know if the author started with the doors, had no idea where it was going, and shifted to something easier, or if she wrote something bland and thought, "Hm I need a hook to draw people in..."
Either way, both parts of the book suffered incredibly from jumping the rails so completely.
Either way, both parts of the book suffered incredibly from jumping the rails so completely.
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