Books About Magical Portals

Books About Magical Portals

This article relates to Meet Me at the Crossroads

In Megan Giddings' novel Meet Me at the Crossroads, magical doors appear around the world, offering an entry into another dimension. The modern portal fantasy genre, where a magical entryway leads to another world, dates back to classic works like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Alice in Wonderland. But as novelist and critic Alice Nuttall points out, portal fantasies "arguably predate the novel form itself; legends about travels between the Nine Realms in Viking mythology, or journeys to the land of fairies in Celtic myths, could be viewed as early portal fantasies." Where exactly the magical portal transports the characters is left up to the author, which has led to a huge variety of innovative stories. Here are some worth checking out:

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (2017)
In this book, as in Meet Me at the Crossroads, unexplained magical doors appear. But in this case they lead not to another world, but to other parts of our own. They're used as an underground escape method by desperate refugees, who eagerly step through not knowing where they'll end up. This single speculative element allows for an original presentation of the plight of refugees.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (2019)
A mysterious doorway at a masquerade party leads graduate student Zachary to a hidden library deep below the earth's surface. As he explores others' stories in this magical realm, he is better able to discern his own life's direction. This book has earned acclaim for its beautiful, atmospheric prose.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (2020)
Kara is newly divorced and has moved back in with family, where she becomes obsessed with a secret bunker she finds in her uncle's home. But the bunker is even more curious than meets the eye—it holds portals to different worlds. This is a horror story featuring fearsome creatures, so thrill-seeking readers will find it right up their alley.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (2019)
A young woman living at the beginning of the twentieth century discovers an intriguing book about doors that lead to other worlds. When she discovers that her own life story is interconnected with the story in the book, she realizes these magical doors must actually exist and embarks on an adventure to find them.

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao (2025)
One unassuming building in the backstreets of Tokyo is just an ordinary ramen shop—or at least, that's how it appears to most people. For a special few, it transforms into a supernatural pawn shop where people can sell their biggest regrets. When the shop's new proprietor arrives to find its most precious acquisition has been stolen, she must travel through a mystical world to try to find it.

Portal fantasies offer a unique blend of contemporary and speculative storytelling. It's a genre that keeps one foot planted in our world, and the other in a more spectacular one. With this unique and appealing blend, it's no wonder they have stood the test of time.

Filed under Reading Lists

This article relates to Meet Me at the Crossroads. It first ran in the June 18, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.