Review: The Golden Door (The Three Doors Triology 1) by Emily Rodda

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

The walled city of Weld is under attack from ferocious flying creatures that raid in the night, bringing death and destruction. The Warden calls for Volunteers to find and destroy the Enemy sending invaders, and the heroes of Weld answer the call one by one, never to return. Rye is officially too young to go, but his brothers are among the lost and he must find them. What terrors await him beyond the Wall. 

The Golden Door really would be called a Middle Grade book, but being a fan of Emily Rodda since I read the Deltora Quest series I decided to give it a go. 

What did I like about the book?

• The world building was great. Rodda is great at descriptions. It is so easy to form mental images of the places that Rye goes to. There is depth to the world, as well. We see the City of Weld with it's walls, that in some parts are crumbling, the forest outside the walls and the other towns/cities that they travel through. The descriptions of everything was really vivid. 
• The characters were great. There was such a mix of characters from old to young, good to evil and everything in between, yet you don't lose track of any of the characters. I loved the character interactions. The relationship between Rye and his two brothers were different in many ways. Then there were the relationship with Rye and the adults around him. My favourite relationship was between Rye and Sonia. I loved that Sonia annoyed Rye at the start before a friendship formed that was essential for the rest of the book. The differences in the personalities and characteristics of the people from different areas was also interesting to observe.
• The different creatures and monsters are great. I won't expand on this because I don't want to spoil anything.
• I also loved the little pictures scattered throughout the book of signs and other things. Each one often gave a hint and allowed you to guess what was going on.

What didn't I like about the book?

• It was a simple read. I could guess what was going to come and not much thinking was required from my part. In saying that, it is a book aimed at Middle Graders not 20 year old book lovers, so it is understandable. I just found that the writing was fairly simple as well, but again it is a Middle Grade book.
• I found that it was slow at times. There were parts where either the descriptions or the conversations slowed down the story line, particularly at the start of the book and I almost stopped reading a couple of times because I wasn't getting into the story.

I am glad that I persevered through the start because I did end up enjoying the story. I give this story 3.5/5 stars.

Mel.

Up next: Throwback Thursday.