Beyond the Ocean Door (Sathi)

Beyond the Ocean Door
Amisha Sathi (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was an ARC I received from LibraryThing. Part of what is posted here will be in my review on their website. I'm confused, though, because their site says the book was published back in December.

Beyond the Ocean Door is a fantasy with an impressive amount of world-building and history before the book even begins. In a secluded valley, the Vale, there is a military organization, the Vow, that keeps the people safe from everything outside of the valley. We're never entirely sure just what's out there. The Vow was founded by legendary telepath Valeria Reed, who trains the telepath students. In the current class of "Rooks", there are only three of them.

Not all telepaths are the same, as there are nine different gifts that they might have, but all can create imaginary worlds called "Veils", which usually look like the regular Vale.

Kallista, who had her memories erased when she was brought to the Vale ten years ago, has the same powers are Valeria, while Maya, who was born in the Vale, has a different ability. Both Maya and Kallista want to leave the Vale because they feel like they are prisoners.

No ocean doors appear until nearly halfway through the novel. It's a door that Kallista discovers in her Veil that seems to lead into some chaotic dimension. We later learn that everyone has an ocean door and it leads into their subconscious, and by entering a telepath can manipulate a person.

I liked the world-building but I thought the book was a little long and dragged in places, but the pace picks up toward the end. And I enjoyed the use of "stories in three acts" to relay flashbacks through an unreliable narrator.

The story is basically over but with all the history, a prequel story about the formation of the Vow and what is beyond the valley could be interesting.

This took me longer to read than I thought it would, and I have to be careful about requesting 500+ page books from Library Thing in the future.