Review: The Outhouse

Jonathan T Jefferson, The Outhouse, (Kindle, 2025)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223853636-the-outhouse

Not a wardrobe, it’s an outhouse, a magical door into other worlds

Milton’s great-grandfather built the farmhouse in the late 1800s. There was no plumbing. Over the decades, a kitchenette and bathroom was added, and the well was sealed up. They had almost forgotten the old outhouse was still there. Until Milton’s son Madison sought a place of privacy to kiss his girl Katie.

He opened the outhouse door, suspecting this would be no place to kiss a girl, and couldn’t believe his eyes. No lavatory, there was instead a grand vista, the Grand Canyon, a winding river with red rock cliffs. Madison enters the magical world. Coming down the river is a native girl in a canoe. ‘Gam’yu,’ she greets him, and he finds he can speak Hualapai.

When he next opens the magical door, it’s a different place, a lush jungle. A trekking couple informs him they’re on the Inca Trail, on their way to Machu Picchu. At the Sun Gate, he runs to keep up with the tour guide, but the stones are wet and he slips, falling into the abyss. But – he’s back in the outhouse.

The next time, it’s Egypt.

Madison’s brother Harry is squirting water on the outhouse. Madison says, ‘Want to build a cover for the snake pit?’

The snake pit behind the barn. Could it, too, be a magical portal?

It’s probably involved enough for a children’s story, but I really wanted a bit more of a character arc, and I wanted Madison to go into the magical worlds a bit deeper. CS Lewis wrote whole volumes on Narnia, complete with the spiritual development of the children. We weren’t clear on what time period the worlds were. Is he travelling in time as well as space?