SOLVED. Fantasy, YA or New Adult. Protag is a college aged guy who is writing his thesis on video games. Plot involves magical door to another realm that appears on his walk home. Read 2021-2022ish. [s]

[Tatiana]

Further details I remember: male protag is gay.
Supporting character of female friend knits and bakes a lot. She knits something while leading a discussion group on narrative and tropes with the male protag.
Male protag is walking home, passes an alley, and there is a door at the end of the alley that he has never remembered before. He goes to open it, then hesitates, and doesn’t.
The plot had something to do an otherworldly library though, and it is not The Library of the Dead, or The Unwritten Library which I read in search of this book.

[Clara]

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

[Ky]

The link for Clara's suggestion: The Starless Sea.

[Tatiana]

This is it! Thank you!!!!