A well written dark fantasy

100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson

After his parents are kidnapped, timid Henry York (12yrs) leaves his sheltered Boston life and moves in with his Aunt, Uncle and three cousins in a small-town in Kansas. He is trying to get use to his new life in Kansas when he starts to hear bumps in his walls. (His room is in the attic) Bits of plaster start to fall off and reveal cupboards, 99 cupboards of all different sizes and colors. Henry and his cousin Henrietta start to tear down the plaster and try to figure out what the cupboards are for, some of them you can hear rain, a glowing room, or even people walking back and forth! They are in fact portals to other worlds!

"Most of the cupboards are locked, but there is another mystery waiting in Grandfather's bedroom, which hasn't been opened since he passed away two years ago. Are all of these locked doors somehow connected? More importantly, what wonderful (or terrifying) things lie beyond them...? "


Librarian Katie's Review

The book starts out one way but ends a completely different way. The book begins with Henry getting off the bus and meeting his Aunt and Uncle. His parents have been kidnapped while they were writing a travel book. Henry isn't really close to his parents because they haven't been around, he's been taken care of by nannies and at boarding schools. Henry has been sheltered his whole life and is looking forward to a fresh start. Henry is not a farm child; he's never had soda, thrown a baseball (or owned a ballglove), and he's never used a knife, not even a pocket one. He wants to play baseball and be adventurous on his Aunt and Uncle's farm. This book has a lot of twists and surprisingly spooky parts. Not all of the cupboards lead to good places. The charectars are memorble and very realistic. Wilson's (the author) writing is really superb, he knows how craft the charectars and setting very well. "The paint was scum brown, the sort that normally hides at the bottom of a pond, attractive only to leeches and easily pleased frogs.". I really enjoyed reading this book and found it really fun. The book is suspenseful because there are so many unknown factors about the cupboards. What are they? Who's in them? Why are they in Henry's room? The book kept me on my toes towards the end and I was surprised by the outcome.

I would definitely suggest this book if you like dark fantasy because the cupboards lead you to different portals. At the same time though it's not too much fantasy. I always have trouble with fantasy because there are so many names of people and places and I get lost in the book. It also is a coming to age story in the sense that Henry goes from being a sheltered boy to a an adventurous one. This book has a bit of fantasy, scary parts, baseball, and twists!

I also found out that they are going to be making "100 Cupboards" into a movie!