The Thirteen Doors of Black House

Lavoie, Laura. The Thirteen Doors of Black House
May 13, 2025 by Union Square Kids
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Maya Murtagh is VERY excited that her parents have agreed to book their week of vacation at the former home of her very favorite horror writer, Agatha Black. She and her parents travel from Vermont to Wisteria, Maine, where they meet up with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. The creepy caretaker, Carlise, shows them around. While Maya is happy to get to hang out with her cousins (Kennedy, 16, twins Riley and Connor, 12, and Tommy, who is six), she's disappointed that she can't get into Augusta Black's writing room. Carlisle informs the group that it is strictly off limits, and the room itself is barricaded behind a glass door. The weather is appropriately gloomy, and when a weary traveler show up, Maya is suspicious. It turns out to be Carlisle's nephew Drew, who works at the local convenience store, and he tells them a bit about the house and Ms. Black, who died at the age of 96. Maya, since she knows all of Black's books, notices that there are doors in the writing room with symbols from the twelve volumes on them, and also notices a ghostly cat prowling about. When the parents go shopping in town, and Kennedy is off with Drew, the remaining children play a game of hide and seek. They almost lose Tommy, and end up lost in the woods, where they are attacked by an owl but also find a large wheel hidden in the ground. They manage to turn it, and when they finally make it back to the house, realize that the wheel managed to open the writing room. Tommy impetuously flings open one of the storms, unleashing a huge storm. The parents are stuck in town, and the children slowly realize that there are stories trapped behind the doors. Trying to find out the secret behind this odd facet of the house, Maya opens the door to the Woman of the Waves. The ghostly figure indicates that there is a secret in a nearby tower, and with the help of Drew and Kennedy, who have come back, the group manages to break into a tower room where Maya finds a thirteenth manuscript, The Case of the Curious Cat. When Carlisle shows up, he is very angry, even using the phrase "You meddling kids!" Family secrets come out, but even Carlisle doesn't know how to close the doors. Will Maya and her cousins be able to close the doors created by the stories and save themselves?

Strengths: A vacation with cousins in a creepy old house and a mystery to solve? Yes, please! This realistically seques from just being a creepy story to having the supernatural elements make perfect sense, and the tie in with the author of a horror series was perfect. I don't want to give away too much, but I am now looking at typewriters a  bit differently! This had a lot of good, scary scenes, but was well paced, with the children thinking about what they needed to do next in between the heart pounding action. Bonus points for having the parents stranded in town instead of killing them, and for providing help from helpful slightly older teens. I even enjoyed the brief story at the end about Augusta finding the typewriter. This looks to be available primarily in paperback, but PermaBound does have a prebind.
Weaknesses: There is a subplot about Maya's fight with her best friend Claudia about a new boy, Noah, who starts working for the school newspaper. Maya even hopes that writing an article about Augusta Blackwood will help her get back in the newspaper and her best friend's good graces, but I didn't find that part of the book very interesting and would rather have had more descriptions of the house. 
What I really think: I wish I still had Nance's 2007 Daemon Hall, which had a similar vibe, but a student lost it long ago. This is a great choice for readers who enjoyed Szpirglas' Book of Screams, and I know there are other titles involving horror writers, but they must be as old as Daemon Hall, because I can't think of the titles. Enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. Has a bit of Bell's Frozen Charlotte feel to it; probably because of the house.