Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales

Doors are a recurring motif in the novel and series, symbolizing transformation and boundaries. Wendell, Emily, and other characters often use enchanted doors to travel between realms; however, doors can move unexpectedly, be hidden or sealed shut by magic, or may even cease to work when left unused. Doors in the novel represent the idea of testing boundaries of all kinds: spatial, temporal, and social. Stepping through a door can be transformative, but the transformation is not always desirable. Within this framework, the door to death represents the riskiest of transitions, one from which return is almost always impossible. At the same time, the door to death is also a symbol of hope, since it builds a bridge or a threshold between the living and the dead. In some cultures, including ancient Nordic practices, door-like structures were erected at funerals to ease the dead’s passage over the critical threshold, as well as to signify the continuum between life and death.

In the novel, the door to death is not a three-dimensional structure but a magical liminal space found in the shadow cast by the dead. This suggests that every deceased Fae’s shadow briefly contains a holding space between dying and living.