Review of "The Saint of Bright Doors" by Vajra Chandrasekera
I received an ARC of this book from Tordotcom in exchange for an honest review. This review will not contain any spoilers. This book was not what I expected, mostly for good. The first chapter sets up a classic, if conflicted, Chosen One--so far, so normal. The second chapter is a beautiful single-paragraph time skip--a little more unusual, but still one of my favorite devices (see: The Traitor Baru Cormorant , among others). By the third chapter we have left the mythic tone behind and moved into what feels like a Soviet-era bureaucratic dystopia. Even having been told that this novel was about former Chosen Ones growing up, the tonal shift was striking given that I expected something more in the style of American Gods --myths infusing the modern world with their own styles and sensibilities. Instead, despite names like Fetter and The Perfect and Kind, the rhythms of the story feel closer to the modern world (with subplots about pandemics, refugees, government changes) than to an imag...