I didn’t choose The Door By The Staircase intentionally it was just the only Maine Student Book Award that hadn’t been checked out at the school library. Now that I’ve finished it, I’m glad I did!
One of the things I loved about this book was it’s strong imagination woven into the stupendous story and writing. Usually I’m disappointed with many authors hideous ways of tossing around dark magic but Katherine Marsh rose above that level by adding weird magical creatures like the domovoi or Jhar-Petistsa, the magical flaming bird that grants wishes. Or a flying bowl that people can ride in. 🙂
My second “LIKE” about The Door by the Staircase was probably each and every one of the characters. Each and every one of them has some sort of personality unlike other one dimensional heroes in other books. Nope, every character in The Door by the Staircase seems to have some sort of voice that goes above the criteria’s of a book character. Every single line they say is drawn out and worded perfectly like-“Madame Laurie talked in a gibberish tone that one woman described as the “Spirit tongue.” Mary thought it sounded a lot like Pig Latin.” Don’t ask me how Katherine Marsh came up with something so clever. But reading 280 pages of that really improves bad days.
Summary: 10 year old Mary Hayes has grown up in an orphanage of which she hates and is treated brutally. Until the day a mysterious, old Russian woman named Madame Z arrives and requests her adoption. The orphanage manager, Mrs. Boot, is pleased that she can get rid of Mary and therefore lets her go. Once in Madame Z’s home town Mary and her new friend Jacob find out something a little bit strange about the old woman. Something not quite human.
HuckSTARcritic 