(Advance Listening Copy courtesy of NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult.)

<b> So very, very 5⭐️ — My favorite read of the year.</b>

From the very first moments of this audiobook, I was hooked. The concept of doors appearing that lead to unknown places is wildly creative, and the execution is even better. The prose feels dreamlike, the grief visceral, the world complex and tender and real. I was immediately, deeply invested in Ayanna and her journey.

Yes, this is speculative fiction, but also, in many ways, literary fiction. The kind of story I want to talk at length with others about. The perfect book group book.

It explores spirituality, identity, and the afterlife in such a grounded, intimate way. It’s speculative, but it never loses touch with the deeply personal. I stayed up way too late three nights in a row reading it, and by the end, I was ugly crying.

I don't ever want to presume that I can speak to the Black experience represented here, but I do want to say that Giddings’ writing moved me deeply. Ayanna's voice, as an African-American, as a woman, as a sister, as a friend, as a human with a heart so deeply broken—navigating her grief, her relationships, her college (and then adult) life, her parents, and her quiet revelations— was masterfully penned and handled with care, depth, and authenticity. I’m <I>grateful</I> to have spent time with Ayanna’s story.

<b>🎧 AUDIO-SPECIFIC</b>
Narrator Brittany Bradford is phenomenal. Her voice perfectly matches the tone of the story—there’s a warmth and clarity that makes the prose feel even more vivid. I felt embraced by the sound of her voice, lulled but never put to sleep. The production quality is excellent: crystal clear, well-paced, and immersive. I wouldn’t change a thing.

<b>TL;DR</b> —Read this. Read it right now.

I enjoyed this book from the perspective that it made me think. I did find it frustrating that some things were left unanswered but overall I enjoyed this book.

While I do enjoy books that challenge me and want me to see things from a different perspective, I just couldn't get into this book. I tried it on physical form and then I tried it on audio form. I do not believe in DNFing books so before I got to close, I decided not to finish the book and to not go further in the tour with the book company. In lieu of that, I will simply be basing my rating on the averaging rating on Goodreads and from my reading of her previous work. I apologize for not having the ability to read further. This hardly never happens in my reading, but it's possible that I can come back to this at a later date with a different mindset.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC audiobook. I really enjoyed this book and loved the premise. I was hoping for a bit more speculative fantasy throughout the entire book. The first part really gripped my attention. I couldn’t stop listening! Parts 2 and 3 were really emotional and engrossing, but really missed the fantasy aspect for me. I was just hoping for more. Overall, an enjoyable read, but I was hoping for more of a fantasy vibe throughout.

What would you do if doors suddenly appeared near your home? Would you be interested in opening and going through them or would you just avoid the unknown? Would you study them and hold them in high regard? Or would you ignore them and keep focusing on everyday life? These are some of the questions that Megan Giddings explores in her latest book Meet Me at the Crossroads.

If you are a fan of literary fiction, then check out this speculative work that tells the story of Black midwestern (shoutout to Michigan) twins, Ayanna and Olivia. The doors represent entry to a new dimension, but one filled with beauty and danger. This novel focuses a lot on religion. The twins’s parents are divorced. Their father is in a church that worships the doors and their mother is a traditional Christian. The parent’s religious choice reflect on their upbringing of each daughter since the girls live in separate households with one of their parents. Throughout the book religion and spirituality are a topic of conversation and thought amongst the characters. Black spirituality is also discussed amongst the characters who are Black.

Crossroads also features a found family. Ayanna, the main narrator, feels ostracized by her mother, who favors her sister Olivia. Which I thought was strange since they are identical twins. Ayanna eventually ends up with a found family cobbled together by connections and varied experiences with the doors and Blackness in a predominately white space that they live in. Grief also plays a big factor in uniting the characters.

I thought this was an interesting book that dealt with living your life when you feel guilty after something tragic happens. Giddings weaves family, religion and grief together to create a story that explores the unknown and creates a new space. It will make you think and it will make you ask yourself questions.

The narrator does a good job of bring the main character to life. The nuances she uses makes it easy to differentiate between the different characters.

This book was a mash up of religious fanaticism and sci fi parallel worlds with a dash of humanity. Two twins, raised separately (Sister, Sister vibes except they know each other) in drastically different households. One lives with their mother, is raised in a highly conservative Catholic home, taught that she must remain pious and true. The other raised with their father to be always aware of how she can make the world a better place and to think and always question, in a borderline cult named PathSong that centers around mysterious doors that have appeared across the world, leading to dimensions unknown.

The sisters remain close, despite their home lives being so oppositional. Add on top of that the dynamic favoritism, racism(they are biracial), and adolescent angst and the story kicks off with a whirlwind of emotion and tension. As the twins navigate their separate, often conflicting worlds, the story dives deep into questions of identity, faith, and what it truly means to find your own path.
The plot takes a sharp turn when the sisters enter one of the doors and their lives change forever.

While the premise is pretty intriguing, there were definitely some slow portions.
The parallel worlds offer a good twist, but it's the personal struggles of the sisters, their emotions, and their bond that truly drives the plot.

I have some mixed feelings about this. The concept was a really cool idea and the book itself was also really good. My problem was that this book had a bit to many religious undertone. I am not a against that in a book but as a whole I felt like it really dragged this book down. I wanted a cool sci-fi horror but what I got was a religious sci-fi that just wasn't for me.

This was a really interesting read!!! I was immediately drawn to the story, especially the fantasy aspect with these weird doors opening all over the world. I was a bit sad that the fantasy aspect of the doors were kind of a side plot, so the world building/explorer aspect left me confused and wanting a little bit more. But I can see how the doors really served as choices and temptations of new realities. More than anything, though, I stayed curious throughout the book and found that the emotional depth of the main character and those around her really grounded the story.

Giddings is an incredible writer, so I really enjoyed how she described complex family dynamics and the strong bond between the two sisters early on (though I do wish we got a bit more time with them exploring the door together before the story changes). I enjoyed the shift in the story that explored messages about religion and chosen family. I also loved how Ayanna’s friendships were explored and grew over time in her adulthood. I think I enjoyed the last part of the book the most because it helped tie in one of many powerful aspects of the story; how Ayanna is molded by her community and holds her grief, and those who choose to hold it with her. The last part of the book was gut wrenching and made me realize how badly I was rooting for Ayanna to find the answers she needed.

I will warn you that the pacing in the first part of the book can feel long and slow, but it’s really just setting up Ayanna’s coming of age story, and then later, her adulthood. But if you like emotional stories that feature ghosts + touch on topics like faith, family, grief, and friendship, andddd don’t mind a character driven story that can feel slow/frustrating because the answers aren’t obvious, you’ll enjoy this! 3.8.

I have read this author's previous 2 novels, Lakewood & The Women Could Fly, and loved both. I was very excited to be approved for this, her 3rd novel, as an advance reader. This wasn't at all what I was expecting and I was pleasantly surprised with what was explored.

This functions primarily as a coming of age story. This is about how we are shaped by our community & our parents and how they were in turn shaped by their own community & parents. This has shades of Toni Morrison's Beloved and explores grief in depth. This is only peripherally about the doors. Much like Beloved is only peripherally about a haunted house or a ghost. In many ways Ayanna's journey reminds me of Denver in Beloved. I would say Beloved also crosses genres; it's historical fiction and horror with gothic notes. It's primarily about the generational trauma and pain from slavery still lived out in the descendants of the formerly enslaved. It's a scathing indictment of chattel slavery. It's literature and so it is all of these elements and more. Meet Me at the Crossroads has that same feel, almost literature. This straddles that genre as it does the other genres.

While this could be triggering for a person who is struggling with grief and loss, it is decidedly not trauma or pain 'porn'. Each element of the story, no matter how odd or disjointed it might feel, ultimately figures into the overall narrative. The beginning of this is fascinating and I found myself deeply engrossed in the mystery of the doors. I was a little frustrated when the story begins to focus on the family of Ayanna & Olivia. As the story begin to shift to an exploration of the family, adulthood, grief, and other themes, the tone and pacing shift. It's almost like an extremely long prologue and I found the shift jarring at first. However, I soon settled into Ayanna's coming of age story and I understood the necessity of the long introduction. So if you as a reader are finding the pacing shift confusing, hold on because it picks back up and the story will address your concerns. I am still processing the ending. What a glorious journey though!

This audiobook is narrated by Brittany Bradford. This was as much literature as it was speculative fiction. It's not easy to narrate novels that have subtle elements in them, like this does. Brittany manages to add so much depth to this story. I honestly think it enhances the experience. I also think this novel is an excellent candidate for immersion reading. I think with literature, that immersion reading provides the best experience.

Thank you to Megan Giddings, HarperAudio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Audio for allowing me to listen to an advanced copy of this book

One day seven doors appear, no one knows where they came from or exactly where they go because when they open it is always different. One of these doors opens up in a smallish town in Michigan. Twins Ayanna and Olivia go through the door one day but only Ayanna returns. This is where the story really starts and turns into a story of grief and trauma. A story of four life long friends.

I would say that the is a speculative fiction story more so than a fantasy, the doors are more of a plot device than a main storyline.

Ayanna and Olivia are twin sisters, who live separately due to their parents different religious beliefs. Olivia lives with her mother, a devout Christian, and Ayanna lives with her father, a leader in a “taboo” religion that involves 7 mysterious doors that appear suddenly throughout the world and lead to other worlds. When one of the twins goes missing, we follow the other twin as she navigates life without her best friend, while also navigating managing her grief and the grief of all the adults around her and trying to live a “normal life”.

💭 My Thoughts
This was easily a five star read for me, and out of all of the author’s novels, this one has become my favorite. As a lover of science fiction and speculative fiction, I appreciated the way the author wove in themes of that currently permeate today’s society (i.e. race, gender, religious beliefs, sexuality, capitalism), while also incorporating the doors as an unknown/mysterious element. We don’t learn a lot about the doors throughout the novel and I believe that was the point. Despite how the doors came about, the impact on society and religion were notable, and Ayanna and Olivia were deeply impacted by their appearance. This is where the author primarily focuses, and this is what I enjoyed most! The lessons the surviving twin learns on grief, religion, family, friendships, race, love, queerness, spirituality, etc as she matures into adulthood is the story, not the doors, and I enjoyed every single magical page of it. Having finished the book a week ago, I still find myself thinking of the book and what I took away from certain parts. I plan to re-read again and again! 5 ⭐️

✨One of my favorites quotes✨
“When the soil and rock could not speak of Gold, the spirit sang that your love must not be like a net, letting some of your catch fall through. Your love must be as firm as a clasped fist. If you cannot love like this, you do not know love.”

🙏 Thank you NetGalley, HarperAudio, and Megan Gidding for this free eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date, but my co-host claimed it before me and recommended it instead.

This is too good to be real. I was so into the relationship of the twins, the doors, and their family makeup. Then I fell in love with everything else. It is beautiful and complicated. I loved the ending.
This is ultimately a book about grief and love but there is a lot more to it.
The narration was absolute perfection!

I had to sit with my thoughts about this book for a while before writing out my review. His is high-concept science fiction with a deeply philosophical underpinning. It's meant to push its readers, challenge them, and make them think. This isn’t a beach read. But it is lush, even its darkest moments. The part that didn’t quite pay off for me was the time-framing, but, honestly, an ambitious book like this can go so much more sideways that I’m happy with this one. I wouldn’t at all mind living in this world or knowing most of these people, and that's high praise for literary sci-fi in my book.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

Very interesting premise and beautiful cover. I expected this novel to be more about the doors, but it ended up being too much of a ghost story for me to love it. The author did a good job of presenting the complexities of grief through various characters.

What a stunning portrayal of grief. Giddings delivers a coming-of-age story that raises more questions than it answers in the best way. I especially appreciated the exploration of faith and how it affects familial bonds. And the speculative element was the prefect addition. Loved it.

The author hooks you with an intriguing premise: seven mysterious doors appearing out of nowhere and opening to another world. But rather than taking you on a journey inside the alternate universe, Giddings expands the world around the doors by following how people use faith and fear to cope with uncertainty and loss. This literary exploration is stunning, with prose that forces you to reflect on life and grief, while making you grateful for the communities you build around yourself at different points in life. It was such an interesting depiction of how everyone copes with changes in their lives differently, and a reminder that the people you lose are a lot closer than they seem.

While I appreciated the deep and introspective conversations this book had, I did feel a little disappointed that we didn’t explore the space behind the doors more and Ayanna’s abilities after her experience. I found myself less invested in the side characters introduced in act two, and I wish some of that space could have been filled with more exploration into the doors, although I understand the decision to leave the mystery. I think overall, if you’re looking for a speculative fiction piece about the doors, you will leave slightly disappointed. However, if you’re looking for a reflective, literary, coming of age story with hints of magical realism, this book is just for you. This was a strong introduction to this author for me, and I am excited to check out more of their work in the future.

3.5 stars out of 5 (rounded up)

This was a stunning and evocative speculative fiction book. I found it to be very emotional and thought provoking. I loved the concept of the doors. It’s very heavy in character. I listened to the audiobook and it was wonderful.

Meet Me at the Crossroads starts with an irresistible hook: seven mysterious doors appear around the world, offering an escape, or a trap. The premise is rich, and Megan Giddings writes with lyrical intensity, especially when exploring the bond between twin sisters Ayanna and Olivia. The themes of faith, family, and the limits of love are compelling and timely.

But while the setup pulled me in, the pacing often dragged, and I found myself wanting more clarity and structure in the worldbuilding. The otherworldly realm felt more symbolic than lived-in, and at times that made it hard to stay grounded in the stakes. Olivia and Ayanna’s emotional arcs were powerful, but I wanted to see more complexity in the supporting characters and their motivations.

Still, Giddings has a unique voice and big ideas, and I admire the ambition behind this novel. If you like quiet, introspective speculative fiction with a focus on relationships over action, this might work better for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance of the audiobook!

I was hooked by the premise! Seven mysterious doors showing up around the world? Sign me up. While it ended up being more of a coming-of-age story than the magical adventure I was expecting, I still really enjoyed the emotional depth and thought-provoking themes. Being separated from your sibling wretched at my heartstrings for sure.

The audiobook narration was also really well done and pulled me into the story even more. If you like character-driven stories with a touch of surreal mystery, this is definitely worth a read (or listen!).