Where I Can't Follow

 Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms, 352 pages.

Doors have appeared to people in Blackdamp County, Kentucky for generations. Nobody knows where they go or why exactly they choose the people they do, but it's usually agreed upon that little doors tend to appear to people who are just about at the end of their rope. That certainly makes sense to Maren, who is wandering the woods in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures trying to find her grandmother with dementia after a long day at a pointless job that doesn't pay enough. She spent a lot of time praying for a door after her mother left through one when she was nine and, even though she's much older now, her door (and the idea of leaving all of her problems behind for good) brings her a lot of comfort, even if she swears she'll never take it. But the doors don't wait forever, and soon Maren's door and the people who love her are both pushing her to make a choice, as she decides what kind of future she can live with.

I really liked this one! Blooms is an evocative storyteller, and Blackdamp seemed to grow off the page. Despite that long plot description, this is mostly a very reflective novel, with a very empathetic look at a whole lot of mental health problems both in Maren and the people who have loved her. This novel feels like it uses it's speculative elements to keep it's difficult subject matter at just enough narrative distance to be emotionally safe to handle, and I think it did a great job with that. This is definitely one I would recommend.