Review: The Doorknob Society

The Doorknob Society
by M.J. Fletcher
Published February 9th, 2012

Chloe Masters’s world changed in a heartbeat - and all she did was touch a doorknob. 
When she was young Chloe’s mother vanished. Wracked by feelings of abandonment and anger she lost herself traveling with her father's magic act, where illusions were part of her everyday life. Yet everything changes when they are pursued by a mysterious man in black out to kill her father. Touching a doorknob activates abilities she never knew she had and she finds herself thrust into a world of ancient societies and secrets.
When her father disappears it is a race against time to find answers before she loses what is left of her family. Now Chloe must choose who to trust, the man who will do anything for her or the one she can’t stop thinking about.

Rating: 3 stars

Can I just say that the whole concept of magical doorknobs, keys, maps, and the secret societies who wield them is just the coolest concept ever????

I can honestly say that I've never read anything like this before, so Kudos to you, M.J. Fletcher!

That being said, this book was very fast-paced throughout its entirety, but it wasn't until the last third of the book that I was very gripped and anxious to find out what happens. The last third of the book had intensity, lots of action, character development, and romantic development, and had the rest of the book been like those last hundred pages, I think the book would have been a lot more gripping.

Not to say the first half of the book wasn't good--it was. Fast-paced and not exactly lacking in action. However, for the most part, during that time, the characters were all rather flat and Chloe, the main character, spending much time talking about how she was broken and how she shouldn't have a relationship and this went on in every chapter!

Chloe was a pretty kick-butt heroine. She was tough and quick-witted and not afraid to stand up for herself and the people she cares about. However, there were times when she kind of got on my nerves. I didn't hate her as a main character, but I didn't love her either. Mostly, though, I admired her spunk.

The inter-character relationships were nice... but not very developed. I didn't really see much chemistry between the characters as they formed friendships and relationships. And when it came to the adults of the novel, for the most part, they behaved rather like children. The big baddies of the story spent the majority of their time yelling immature insults at teenagers.

This book definitely had a lot of potential, and I think it just needed a little bit more editing. What bothered me most while reading this was the flagrant misuse of question marks.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I'm not a grammar nazi, I promise, but it does bother me to see grammatical errors show up again and again in a novel, and it also takes away from the actual reading experience. Let's just say that I used the highlight tool on my nook quite a bit while reading this.

All in all, this book, though, slightly flawed, was a very pleasant read. The world M.J. Fletcher introduced me to was very cool and definitely one-of-a-kind and left me quite intrigued.

*I received a free copy of this book as part of the goodreads ARR program in return for an honest review.