Author: Rho Weber Mack
Genre: Young Adult coming-of-age
Year Published: 2025
Nerdection Rating:
“Nerdection Must Read”
The Thin Door is a YA coming-of-age slipstream tale where a teen steps through a reality-bending “thin door” and must untangle who she is across two worlds.
Spoiler-free Plot
Fifteen-year-old Ramie is a high-school sophomore living in a version of her life that feels “real” but built on social rules, pressure, and half-truths—so much so that she ends up making a self-protective choice that hurts someone close to her. When she slips through the “thin door,” the story splinters into two intertwined realities: one that keeps tightening around her, and another strange, myth-tinged world—wolves, swallowed grandmothers, and all—where she has to navigate alone and figure out who she is without everyone else’s script. Across both threads, the book follows Ramie’s push toward identity, resilience, and belonging, with an interactive “book-as-toy” feel (prompts, doodle/journal spaces, etc.) that invites the reader into her headspace.
My take on The Thin Door
The interesting thing about doing book reviews is the fact that you think you have seen it all. At some point, you become incapable of being surprised by anything you read. This doesn’t mean that reinventing the wheel is automatically good, but you learn to get the tropes and see them coming after a while. However, with The Thin Door, there is a feeling that you have something unique here.
Rho Mack goes the young adult route, which is a market that has been saturated during the last decade or so. There are a lot of writers who want to make a name for themselves here, and she has proven with this book that she has something quite valuable, which is a distinct book. This is a story with a lot of character and personality, which is a factor that could make a monumental difference in any story.
A good example of this is the structure of The Thin Door. Each chapter is set up almost like a diary entry, with the audience getting to know more and more about the main character, Ramie. You only have to check the words and the structure of the pages to notice that this is a very peculiar approach, but one that works extremely well for this kind of story. It gives you a very honest insight into Ramie’s mind and what she is going through, making the experience all the more enjoyable.
Little by little, you get to understand what the author is going for, although there is no denying that this experimental approach might be difficult for some to embrace. After all, it is not the most accessible of stories. In that regard, this book is meant for people who have a degree of experience reading and are eager to read something that is a bit more peculiar, which is something that may make a difference for that audience.
This could be a potential issue for this book. However, I believe there is also an audience for those who want to try something different.
It’s also worth pointing out that the dialogue and word choice are genuinely fascinating. In some ways, it reminds me of how Stephen King tweaks phrasing and sentence structure for certain characters to create a specific mood. That approach feels especially prevalent here, and it strengthens the distinct voice I mentioned earlier—something I really appreciate.
This book is simply an engaging read if you connect with it. Ramie IS the journey of The Thin Door, and seeing her go through different thoughts is quite touching. This book does seem to convey the feeling of chaotic thoughts and how they shape the way we behave, thus giving us a story that is quite different from a lot in the young adult market.
Overall, The Thin Door was a very pleasing surprise. An experimental and peculiar read that literature fans should definitely try sometime.
About The Author Of The Thin Door
Rhoda Weber Mack’s short stories and creative nonfiction have been anthologized in Ploughshares, Best of Carve, Epiphany, and others. She writes long-form fiction, creative nonfiction, shorts, and flash at a standup desk overlooking the tall pines of northern Idaho. where she is working on a series of linked story projects to The Thin Door, her book-as-toy for teen and the adults who love them. She hikes the backcountry and travels widely in cyberspace.
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