Beyond the Door

Beyond the Door by Jeffrey Thomas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two men swap tales of terror from opposite sides of a bathroom stall door.

This is the final book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.

I left the choice of my final Kindle Unlimited book to my Booklikes followers. I only got two suggestions so this one got the nod, mostly due to the use of a frame narrative, one of my favorite seldom-used literary devices. Two men get into a dispute in a bathroom and begin telling stories in an effort to top one another. How's that for a unique frame?

Thankfully, the stories aren't nested so things don't get too crazy. The men tell the stories of a haunted house, a carnival of death, a museum of oddities with a flea circus, an insect-loving teacher, and several others.

As the book goes on, the stories become more and more twisted, involving parallel worlds and such. I have to say that if someone tries to talk to me through the bathroom stall door at the train station, I'll probably engage them in a story swapping contest. Three out of five stars.


Final Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $137.82.

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