When Fetter was born, his mother tore his shadow from him and raised him to become the perfect assassin to be used against his sainted father who exiled them. Twenty years later, he's a young man now and attends group therapy with fellow unchosen.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera paints a strange tale of myth, feuding gods, and revolution that left me with mixed feelings.

The opening pages are absolutely magical and feel like a timeless high fantasy, and I wish it had stayed that way because the more the story progressed, the more confused I became at the worldbuilding. We're given names of fictional cities and continents and yet the story uses colloquial English phrases like "spam folder" and "crowdfunding" that don't seem to fit with the rest of the setting.

Now, there is urban fantasy like American Gods that skillfully tackle the subject of faith in the old gods vs modernity and technology, but in the case of The Saint of Bright Doors, the story doesn't manage to to seamlessly mesh the two in a way that's believable.

Nope. Hated it, sorry. The writing was long winded, convoluted and confusing. There were sentences that were 80-100 words long and always about boring things like filing out forms. Feter as a protagonist was endlessly frustrating, lacked any agency and any character development happened off page. He simply went along with what happened and whatever plan the people around him wanted him to do. It's not even like he was fighting for someone else, even when he agreed to help he was so half hearted about it. He could never make up his mind or do anything with any passion or agency. It was so frustrating. And while a character like this, who is searching for a purpose could work, the poor writing really let Fetter down. Fetter as a character fell flat.

This is obviously a political satire of modern (well 80s to present) about Sri Lankan society, government and politics. While I found trying to figure out the real world refrences entertaining it wasn't a great satire if you just put the same events and just change the names. The author, while not a good writer is certainly brave to so openly critisize the current environment of ethic supremacy and religious fanatasim, government corruption etc. it doesn't really blend well with the story.
I also worry about readers who aren't sri lankan. Will they understand the refrences? Will they know who Perfect and Kind and Fetter are refrences to? Will they understand the commentary? I found the story strange and confusing and I probably knew 80% of what characters and events were based on. What about a reader who knows none of that? This must be completely indecipherable nonsense.

My main issue was how hard to follow this story was. It's hard to explain, but there was a lot going on but it wasn't coherent or compelling. Things were just happening but it felt like we weren't going anywhere. The novel lacked direction or a clear through line. Characters plans/intensions were purposely hidden from the reader which made their actions hard to follow.

Also there were too many mentions of Fetter's penis and nipples. I don't mind sex scenes in novels but he got aroused at the most random and inappropriate moments. The only proper sex scene was described in the stranges and oddly grotesque way.
Also, the sudden change in pov character 92% of the way into the novel (and shifting from third person perspective to first person perspective) was jarring and confusing.

The ending was contrived, disappointing and not worth the suffering I experienced to get to it.

I wasn't entirely sure that I was going to end up liking this book but it grew on me. I found the premise creative and interesting, the scope though may have been more than one book could cover and develop, as there were aspects that felt vague and infinished. This was a very ambitious debut that maybe would have been better served as a duology. The bright doors, which were what drew me to this book stayed closed except for close to the end, only hinting at the worlds that were possible behind them. Fetter being shadowless and what that could mean for him was something I also felt that the author could have spent more time on.

I enjoyed how Chandrasekera shaped his fantasy world in the image of our own, how colonization, religion, and politics were euphemized to create a strange and familiar landscape. As all whose lands have a history of constantly and consistently being colonized throughout history and even today can and will recognize, there are practical and elemental ways in which colonizers utilize our very existence against us, how they observe and learn our ways only to then twist them and use them to enslave and shackle.

I genuinely think that this would be better as two books, as there is still so much more that could be done in terms of character exposition and further world-building.

In THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS, Fetter is raised to kill. His world is full of cults, devils, anti-gods, and secrets, and his mother has trained him to cut down his sainted father who abandoned them. When his mother deems him ready to take on his mission, Fetter escapes into the world and leaves his mother and destiny behind. He makes a new home for himself in Luriat, a city known for its Bright Doors. The doors are tied to the novel’s central mystery, and as Fetter learns the truth about the doors, he learns the truth about his world.

This is an intriguing book that reads like a myth. Vajra Chandrasekera’s beautiful prose contains several layers of mystery and explores themes of destiny, violence, revolutions, divinity and loss. Through Fetter, the author subverts typical fantasy tropes while also following them, especially in regard to being the chosen one. Fetter’s journey is full of strife as he fights against his destiny, and his humanity is on full display as he grapples with his choices. He’s driven by his upbringing but also by his love for his friends and desire for a different world. He’s a messy and broken character living in a broken world, and his struggles and choices feel real. This is an interesting contrast—despite everything Fetter is capable of, he’s vulnerable and shows weakness throughout the novel. Fetter is a deeply human character in a strange and complex fantasy world, and that was my favourite aspect of this story.

I’m still unpacking my feelings about this book and I think I’ll have to reread it before I can fully appreciate it. There are a lot of interesting concepts and moving parts and I’ll be thinking about Fetter for a long time. Chandrasekera’s prose is what kept me hooked and I look forward to reading more from him. This book is out now; my thanks to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC.

The offspring of various messiahs, not chosen to follow in their parents' paths, find themselves involved in messiah-related research, art, and politics. I didn't really enjoy this, and I think that if I hadn't been reading it in order to review it, I wouldn't have finished it. There are interesting ideas, but they weren't always well developed, and the characters weren't interesting, although some of them were better-developed than the ideas. I know this is gretting rave reviews, but I can't add mine to them--I was mostly bored.

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

The writing style is unique but was difficult for me to follow and relate to. I read several of the beginning chapters and was able to see Fetter’s shadow pinned down and his first kill, but I did not feel drawn to Fetter or the direction the story was taking. So, I did what I usually do and skipped to the end to see if there was a reason for me to keep reading – sorrily there didn’t seem to be. If the beginning and ending don’t grab me, I usually read a bit in the middle, as I did with this book, and at that point threw in the towel deciding to move on to another book. I decided that this story was not for me at this time but as has happened in the past, it might be perfect to read at some point in the future.

I do believe that there will be others who love this tale and some who will feel as I did when they begin to read and that is as it should be. Each author will find an audience and this book will, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

1-2 Stars

The first section of the story starts with a young boy getting his shadow torn off him and ends with prison. The second section is the young man trying to not kill his father.

The story is fantastical and lyrical, in the first section. The second feels darker and gritty, in a good way.

The plot builds nicely until the fantastical is explained, oh, that's why there's a story group for failed messiah's, I was a little impressed Chandrasekera managed to pull that off.

Overall, highly recommend

While it was the stunning cover that first drew my attention, it was the idea of a doomed destiny, divine revolution, cults, and supernatural doors which absolutely hooked me. The Saint of Bright Doors brings together so many different themes and ideas that my mind was whirring. Thanks to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I probably don't need to restate my love for Sci-Fi & Fantasy here, but I do want to point out that they're genres I feel very comfortable and at home in. These are the genres I go to for intelligent escapism and to have my mind expanded. A lot of the fantasy I read growing up was based on European history, but in recent years I've made an active effort to go beyond that into African, Japanese, and Chinese history and culture through fantasy. I'd say I'm pretty comfortable with the genre and its conventions and yet I was in no way prepared for The Saint of Bright Doors. What Chandrasekera does with these genres, with their tropes, with their world-building, it all honestly blew me away. I don't think this is necessarily the easiest of books to get into, because it hops around a bit and doesn't necessarily explain all the elements of its world. You're dropped into Luriat and have to figure out where you're at and what's going on. For those readers who are just getting into it, I can only recommend perseverance. Reading this novel was a very rewarding experience for me and opened my eyes to a more experimental way of writing and reading fantasy.

Fetter was born to kill his father. At birth, his mother removed his shadow and trained him to murder. While the prologue explains all this, the novel really starts with an adult Fetter in Luriat. He has left that world behind, he thinks, and is now happy to just be, in the small way he is capable to. In Luriat Fetter has found a group of "almost chosens" who meet weekly for group therapy as well as a partner. Luriat is an odd city, though. On the one hand it provides free housing and stipends to immigrants, but on the other hand it is full of warring legal courts, competing cults, and the threat of plagues and pogroms against immigrants. While Fetter thinks he may have turned his back on his fate, fate has a way of returning. With the potential arrival of a god, a year of plague returning, and news about his mother, Fetter is becoming trapped in various webs and the conclusion threatens to be explosive. The Saint of Bright Doors is a novel about so many different things. It's about destiny and fate, about how our parents shape us, about violence, revolution, immigration, bureaucracy, racism/race theory, and so much more. And I haven't even mentioned the Bright Doors yet! I've found it really hard to summarise this novel for anyone I've spoken to about it because it is at once very complex and yet a simple story I wouldn't want to spoil.

Vajra Chandrasekera has honestly done something amazing in The Saint of Bright Doors. It is a mix between Urban Fantasy and High Fantasy, which has both emails and mobile phones as well as anti-gods and divine powers. It is a story of a Chosen one being "unchosen" and nonetheless finding themselves on a path of destiny. It is a story about the violence committed against immigrants and the directed violence necessary for revolution. It is not an easy read, in part because Chandrasekera used words I had to Google, like haecceity, but also because Chandrasekera expects you to follow him. The Saint of Bright Doors feels based on South Asian history and culture, while also bringing modern politics into the mix. The narrative moves between realistic depictions and almost dream-like scenes and the transitions aren't always super clear. There is a sense of disorientation to a lot of the novel, as if we're almost as lost as Fetter in this world. Having been an immigrant for most of my life and having tried to make sense of bureaucracy and my own role in things, all while having the benefit of being white, a lot of this disorientation made sense to me, but I can imagine that for some readers it is off-putting. While I couldn't necessarily follow Chandrasekera everywhere he maybe wanted me to, The Saint of Bright Doors is an incredibly thrilling read and one which I know will absolutely reward rereads in the future.

I was absolutely sucked into The Saint of Bright Doors from the very beginning. There is so much going on, so many different themes at play, that it's easy to get a little lost, but Chandrasekera always brought me back. I might have more lucid thoughts at a later point, but for now all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for the copy in exchange for an honest review. I did not finish and left off at 10% of the way through. I really couldn't get into the writing style at all. :(

I really wanted to like this Sci-fi fantasy novel but I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It's an adult novel but it read like a YA. Some parts of the writing were quite interesting and drew me in, but I wasn't excited by any of the events and it wasn't enough to keep me interested since the characters felt flat.

I was caught offguard by how unique and intense this book was right from the first page, and was swept away immediately. I was all in from that opening sentence, and when I said so in an IG story, I received feedback from a few other people/ARC reviewers that I was in for an amazing read. I love how you're dropped into this fantasy world, which is magical but also has some modern similarities that feel surprising, and trusted to keep up as things move along. The story is visceral and tactile in places, contemplative in others, with political intrigue and intertwining subplots that come together beautifully. It was so unique, imaginative, and well executed, and the writing itself is beautiful, in style and form. I loved having this as an ebook because I highlighted so much to look back on later! I could see this book being polarizing, because it has a somewhat surreal feel sometimes, and the worldbuilding requires the reader's attention to keep up; however this is my favorite type of worldbuilding (other examples: Rivers Solomon, Yoon Ha Lee, Tamsyn Muir, Ann Leckie) and it was done skillfully.

The Saint of Bright Doors manages to be both one of a kind, and also the exact kind of book I love :) I will absolutely read more by Vajra Chandrasekera.

I adored the writing. It was incredibly engaging, and the way it spoke about important contemporary topics without making it seem too political was amazing. Fetter was a character who was enjoyable to follow - the idea of your entire life (until that moment) leading to one thing you were told you had to do worked well in the book.

This book had some nice surprises, as it does not always go the path I expected it to follow. At times, I was not entirely sure why we should care about what I was reading. However, overall, I think it was fine - all books have bits that drag out for just a bit too long.

I enjoyed the world-building - the connection of things we know and recognize from our world being incorporated into a fantastical world worked well to explain certain plot points, I’d say, although I can see why it might be different for others - taking them out of the world so carefully built and back into ours.

This book is able to put so much, in so little - it is so concise and avoids being too descriptive about the fantastical elements. I really enjoyed the ending, as again, it was not really what I had expected at all. At this point, I think having read many fantasy books that seem to follow a particular line, this was a fun stand-alone outlier.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC!

The Saint of Bright Doors is a stand alone debut South Asian fantasy book with immersive world-building and queer characters.

We follow Fetter, a boy whose shadow was ripped from him at birth by his mother. She is raising him as an assassin who will one day kill his father. However, Fetter deviates from his mother's plans and settles in a town called Luriat, where he becomes enamored with the mystical bright doors.

The Saint of Bright Doors immediately pulled me in. Fetter's character is caught between his own desires and the responsibilities set to him by his mother. I found him to be a compelling and relatable character.
The story blends elements of realism and magic. It was be disorienting at times.

Unfortunately my reading experience of The Saint of Bright Doors was okay at best. I found certain parts of the plot riveting while other parts dragged on. The moments where I was bored felt endless.

I can see this book being divisive in the book community. People who really like it will love it , others will find it intriguing but have issues with the pacing , while a third group may just completely hate it. You will know a few chapters in which group you fall into.

Overall The Saint of Bright Doors is a clever book from a great new voice in fantasy. I would definitely pick up other books by Chandrasekera in the future.

I have not started reading this e-ARC yet, but I was sent a physical copy of this, and I cannot wait to read that instead.

Thank you, Tor, for giving me a physical copy!

3.5✰ // there were many elements i enjoyed in The Saint of Bright Doors. i really appreciated the detailed and in-depth world building that Chandrasekera developed and i also thought that the fantasy elements were very well written. however, some aspects of the book’s overall flow seemed a bit disjointed to me. perhaps, if the book had been edited to create a more sinuous flow in the storyline, then i may have felt more engaged earlier in the text.

thank you so much to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think I can give this one an accurate star rating, to be completely honest. I loved it. I didn't love it. And I almost DNFed it numerous times. I think that someone has to be in the exact right mood for this to resonate and I wish that I'd met this novel during one of those moods.

This is an extremely ambitious and utterly surreal novel with a fascinating premise. Fetter, one of the almost-chosen ones, is left floundering in the wake of being raised by his mother with the singular purpose of killing his father, the leader of a highly visible cult/religion. After escaping his rural hometown, Fetter finds himself in the city of Luriat, where everything is more than it seems and finds himself in group therapy. Devils and the divine mingle in this story about mysterious doors and what happens to those whose purpose leaves them behind.

This was a fever dream of a book. At times, delightful and yet utterly nonsensical. The author tackles generational trauma and other complex relationship dynamics. The novel's strengths lie in its ambitious premise and thought-provoking commentary on politics, caste, race, and religion. The prose is rich and vivid, with great quotes that capture the essence of the story.

However, the book can also be pretentious and challenging to navigate. The message can get lost amidst the dense prose, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The Saint of Bright Doors is a novel that requires patience and careful reading to fully appreciate its meaning and metaphor. It is best savored in small doses, allowing readers to delve into its bewildering and enigmatic world.

Overall, The Saint of Bright Doors is a modern classic that pushes the boundaries of storytelling, but it may not appeal to readers looking for a straightforward narrative. It offers a unique reading experience that rewards those who are willing to embrace its strangeness and explore its hidden depths.

I wanted to love this book but constantly has wavering feelings throughout the story. Some parts were very intriguing and others were very slow and uninteresting to me.

What a trip this was. For anybody who has been missing China Miéville's particular style of politically-driven speculative work, here comes Vajra Chandrasekera. A world that feels very much like our own (computers, dating apps, cities and sectarian violence and bureaucracy) smashes into a fictional one in ways I don't know I've ever seen before, and I found it so freaking refreshing the entire time. Fetter is a complicated and wonderfully human main character, despite being the assassin-trained son of a possibly-messianic cult leader and lacking a shadow to boot. The book expands into an uneasy liminal space as it goes on, moving the reader from something that feels like what they know into something altogether stranger, and it ends with a head-turner and a half. It's a thoroughly impressive debut, bold and bright and wonderful as a door that is no longer a door.

When Fetter is born, his mother uses a nail to tear away his shadow and the shadow of his umbilical cord to strangle it. She then trains him as an assassin whose ultimate purpose is to exact revenge on his absent father who is one of many messiahs who roam the lands.

Fetter finally goes to find his way in the world, trying to live a life free of his childhood influence and his bloody teenage years.

In a new city, he finds himself entangled with groups who are fighting against a fascist government, those who represent the government and those who are trying to find answers to the mysterious bright doors that appear throughout the city.

The Saint of the Bright doors is an ethereal urban fantasy that takes the reader on a mind-boggling journey. Along the way it contemplates the intersection of fascism, racism and religion. It wrestles with how to understand and fight these dark forces. In the end, there are no clear or easy answers, but the reader (or at least this reader) can’t help but grapple with the questions that are raised, not only throughout the book but in the day-to-day reality if our own world.

Expertly crafted and constantly surprising, The Saint of Bright Doors is one my favorite books I’ve read this year.

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

It’s been quite some time since I read a story that pushed me to the edge of my comprehension. It’s been a few hours since I wrapped up The Saint of Bright Doors, and frankly, I’m still pondering what it is that I just experienced.

I was drawn to this book based on the description as well as a knowledge that stories focused on the Indian and Asian communities are typically lush in the descriptions of the everyday, all while building in pieces of the religion and mythology that are woven throughout the culture. In that sense, The Saint of Bright Doors does not disappoint. The details about the main characters, including our main focus, Fetter, are vivid and imaginative. The boroughs of the cities and sections of the islands are bright and dark at the same moment, as the culture is promoted while the pending plague and regime change looms like a tsunami in the background.

Maybe this says more about my structure as a reader, but I’m still struggling with what type of book I just read. Is it fantasy? Possibly, with world-building and mythology. Is it allegorical? Also possible, since there’s a journey and god-like creatures. Is it non-fiction? Is it fiction? I think the distraction of not knowing what the book intended to be made it a difficult read for me. I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to be following the journey of Fetter, or if I was supposed to be translating the Mother and Father into a warning a la a morality play.

There are many bright spots in this book but in so many ways, I wanted the author to focus more on specific pieces. Hej and the relationship. The Bright Doors, including the one our main character was assigned. His powers.

This may warrant a re-read on my part but for now, I’m going to give it a 3 rating.

A big thank you to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced e-book reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.