Tomes of Spellcasting--The Door Through Washington Square

Tomes of Spellcasting

Welcome to the land of mystery, where the impossible is possible, and the improbable the reality. Join me as I investigate worlds filled with magic and meet the souls that wield this wondrous powers.

W A R N I N G !

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.

That said, on to the review!

Title: The Door Through Washington Square
Author: Elaine Bergstrom
Publisher: Ace Books
Format: Paperback
Copyright Date: 1998

Dierdre MacCallum reluctantly answers to familial obligations and attends her great-grandmother as the old woman prepares to die. But in returning to Grandmum's home she reopens a door that has been shut for many, many years. This is no ordinary door, for it was created through the magick and mysticism of her Grandmum and one Aleister Crowley, infamous practitioner of dark arts. Its purpose? To allow Grandmum to avert certain tragedies and reshape the world by tampering with time itself. But Grandmum learns that the price of such changes--an unclear but unnerving awareness that something is not as it should be--cannot be avoided, and the events of the past can only be altered and postponed, not undone entirely. For Dierdre, however, this door to the past holds one last opportunity for true love. But the price to be paid...is it worth it? In trying to save her beloved Noah, will Dierdre instead doom him to death...or worse?

The Door Through Washington Square isn't a fantasy so much as it is a dark fantasy. Magic is heavily involved, but it isn't the swords and sorcery king of magic that usually appears on this page. I'd suppose it's more mysticism than anything else, but in another day and age...in the early 1900s...I guess it would be called magic after all.

As much as I liked this novel, I found the continual paradox of time travel and changing history to be confusing and distracting. Part of it is because the notion of alternate realities kept popping into my head, especially when characters who were supposed to have died actually lived, yet somehow were aware that they should be dead but aren't. On the other hand, the romantic in me thoroughly enjoyed Dierdre's finding of true love in another era and doing all she could to hold on to it. That made all the paradoxes worth enduring.

The Door Through Washington Square might be considered a piece of historical fantasy, but I'm inclined against that classification. Oh, a word to the wise: if you're squeamish about reading anything relating to lust, wanton sex, and sadomasochism, you'd better think twice about reading this novel. Not that these things appear constantly, but they do appear, and it isn't necessarily gratuitous, either. You've been warned!

Rating: Thumbs up! Can a door from the future to the past swing both ways?

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This page posted May 1, 2002.

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