Review by Kelly Jarvis: Behind the Door by M.S. Berry

Behind the Door by M. S. Berry is a contemporary and psychological reworking of Bluebeard that will have readers on the edge of their seats! When Anna, a student finishing her PhD in folklore and fairy tales takes a house-sitting position in a sleepy English town, she finds herself thrust into a real-world fairy tale narrative. Her mysterious employer, Ryan Boswell, offers Anna a quiet space to finish her thesis in return for light work in his book shop and care of his house and cats (named after Hamlet’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), but he demands no one enters the bedroom on the second floor of the home. Although the house is beautiful, something is off from the beginning, and Anna quickly develops an intimate relationship with a local landscaper to distract herself from the strange shadows and noises that manifest in her imagination. The plot is kicked into high gear when Anna’s sister Alice, who is visiting from Toronto, goes missing just as the owner of the house announces his early return. Characters like a suspicious old woman and a thin man who regularly paces in the field behind the home add layers of Gothic color to Berry’s Bluebeard tale.

Although I did have a little trouble believing a student of folklore would display what felt like a limited understanding of Perrault’s Bluebeard, and although I wished Berry, who introduces her main character as a Brothers Grimm aficionado, would have included some nods to The Fitcher’s Bird, the tense pacing and movement of Behind the Door had me hooked from the beginning! The chapters and sentences are purposefully terse and concise, creating an atmosphere of exhilaration which kept me turning pages well into the night. I struggled with some of the decisions the protagonist made, but I was always excited to keep reading and learn how her decisions would impact the course of the story. Behind the Door is a thriller that explores the fine line between privacy and secrecy, between love and stalking, and between passion and violence, but the setting provides a cozy feel that readers of English mysteries will recognize and adore. Divided into three sections (The Beginning, The Middle, and The End) to replicate what Anna understands as fairy tale structure, this novel is an addictive escape that immerses readers in a spooky house and a dusty bookshop, forcing them to consider how the repeated patterns of fairy tales reflect and impact the patterns of real human life.

Anna’s initial conclusion that Bluebeard teaches wives to be obedient is finally and meaningfully reversed by her commentary at the novel’s end, and the book’s assertion that “you can’t go back in time when it comes to knowledge” lends profound contemplation to the varied interpretations of the fairy tale. If you love Bluebeard and you are looking for a fun read that will sweep you away to a sleepy but mysterious English countryside town, pick up a copy of this book and learn what lies behind the door! I couldn’t put it down!

You can find it here.

Kelly Jarvis teaches writing and literature at Central Connecticut State University and works as the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine and a Recurring Columnist for Eternal Haunted Summer. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, Blue Heron Review, Corvid Queen, Enchanted Conversation, Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly, Mothers of Enchantment, The Chamber Magazine, and The Magic of Us. Her debut novella, Selkie Moon, was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2025-2026 Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship.

Visit Kelly online at kellyjarviswriter.com.