100 Cupboards is a fantasy novel series by N.D. Wilson. The three books in the original trilogy are 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King. A prequel, The Door Before, was published later.
Henry York's parents went biking through Colombia. Bad idea: They get taken hostage by a rebel group. In order to keep him sane, his nanny sends him off to be with his aunt, uncle, and cousins for a while. They live in a tiny town in Kansas called Henry, and they also have a daughter named Henrietta. (Don't worry, it's not too confusing.) Henry has never been so far from home before. He's never spent so much time outside before, or ridden in the back of a pickup truck, or played baseball. In fact, while he was with his parents, he never got to do much on his own at all.
While sleeping up in his cousins' attic, though, he hears a strange tapping on the walls. The plaster begins to chip away—and behind it, Henry and his cousins find 99 tiny doors. Each one leads to a different place. Each one leads to a different time. And it's only with the help of his grandfather's journal that they can be navigated... not-quite safely.
Henry considers keeping them a secret, but his aunt Dotty and Uncle Frank already know—Frank, all too well. And Henry may have accidentally released an ancient witch hidden behind one of the doors. Now he, his family, and even a few friends set off on a world-hopping adventure not quite of their own volition.
This series contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: At the beginning of each book, there is a reproduction of Henry and Henrietta's grandfather's journal, showing where all those cupboards go.
- Amputation Stops Spread: Discussed and discarded in regards to Henry's spreading burn scar, given that it's on his face.
- Animal Eye Spy: Nimiane is blind and tends to use cats.
- Author Appeal: The emphasis on baseball and the green magic associated with dandelions both seem to have ended up as major aspects of the story just because the author likes them.
- Badass Family: Henry, his father and uncles, his aunt, his brothers and eventually even his cousins, who were raised normally, all take active roles in fighting the villains of the story.
- Batter Up!: Zeke, being a baseball player, puts his bat to the test.
- Baseball Episode: Henry spends one chapter playing baseball in the first book, and the game is often mentioned through the series.
- Big Bad: Nimiane, the Witch-Queen of Endor, whose quest for revenge against Mordecai and his family and attempts to take over the worlds drive the many plot threads of the second two books, along with her Dragons Darius and Coradin.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Anastasia, the youngest of Henry's cousins, who is loud, impulsive and prone to complaining.
- Canis Latinicus: Darius writes in a combination of this trope, terrible spelling, and gibberish.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Anastasia. When she denies this, her sisters are all too happy to bring up all the times she's proven it true (letting a birthday present slip, telling someone else about their private tree fort, etc.)
- The Chains of Commanding: By the third book, Henry is well-aware of this, which is why he is less than enthused to become the Chestnut King's heir.
- Cool Gate: All the cupboards. Especially the 100th, which allows one to actually travel between the doors. Except "Cleave," but that's a given.
- Cool Uncle: Frank; initially in a quiet, but sage way, but then in a more awesome fashion once his past and bailies become clearer. Caleb also applies, being an archer and Friend to All Living Things who's had his share of adventures with Frank and Mordecai and proves to be a dependable ally.
- Corporal Punishment: Mentioned but not elaborated on in the case of Monmouth, who is severely scarred from punishments inflicted during his time as an apprentice wizard, to Hyacinth's horror.
- Devious Daggers: Monmouth seems to have a knife or two on him at all times, and is a Combat Pragmatist who cheerfully admits to being a thief.
- Doorstep Baby: Or rather, cupboard baby. Henry turns out to have been one, having been pushed through a cupboard portal to keep him safe when his father was captured.
- Eye Scream: The author seems to have a thing about this. Nimiane's true eyes are just swollen, red sores, and, in the second book, Henry tries to scratch his own eyes out because he believes he's grown a second pair of eyelids.
- The Fair Folk: The faeren are short and mischievous, closer to pixies or leprechauns, but play this trope straight in other ways, being bound by rules and regulations, loyal to the twin courts of the Queene and the Chestnut King (named Nudd), and very dangerous. Their trapping of Mordecai in a faerie mound borrows heavily from British folklore, and particularly the legend of Robert Kirk, as Mordecai returns when a knife is thrown at Henry's overdue christening. Robert Kirk himself appears in the third novel, having become the titular Chestnut King.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: At the beginning of the story, Henry comes to live with his mother's sister and her family. Then, he learns he's adopted, and has no blood connection to the family he's come to love. Even later, it comes out that Frank is the older brother of Henry's real father, making him and Dotty Henry's aunt and uncle after all.
- Fantastic Slurs: A pair of imperial soldiers use "greenie" for the Green Men. One man also refers to Fat Frank as a "whatsit", but in that case he simply didn't know what a faerie was.
- Fertile Feet: A variation: the Green Men have fertile hands, and can grow their bonded plant by touching the burn scar to earth or wood.
- Fiery Redhead: Anastasia, in a sense. She's described as having brown hair that "looked like it wanted to be red."
- Friend to All Living Things: Variation with Caleb, a Rare Male Example and a Badass Normal. He still fits the trope, though, travelling with a dog and a flock of befriended hawks, and even charms an injured wolf at one point.
- Green Thumb: One of the powers of the Green Men. Mordecai's grape vines are capable of Sealing Evil in a Can.
- Hammer Hilt: Coradin uses the hilt of his sword to knock Henrietta and Zeke unconscious after kidnapping them, and later clubs Monmouth with it during a fight. All three are affected differently: Henrietta suffers no ill effects on waking, Monmouth is unconscious long enough for other characters to worry but recovers with nothing more than a headache, and Zeke develops a severe concussion.
- Happily Adopted: Played with. Although Henry learns his parents adopted him as a foundling, his home life is far from ideal. By contrast, he quickly comes to love life with his aunt and uncle, to the point of not wanting to leave. However, they actually are his blood relatives, and Henry eventually is restored, happily, to his birth parents.
- Also Richard once Frank and Dotty take him in.
- Hero of Another Story: The first book describes how only two people on Earth would recognize the wood on one of the doors; a man living in a run-down Orlando apartment who "very much wanted to believe that most of his childhood had not actually happened" and the widow of a French WWI soldier whose husband came home "with some very strange story and a small sapling in a tin cup." Neither of those characters has a major role, or even appears again, but those hints about their backstories scream of all kinds of adventures.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Henry picks up his new Green Man powers fairly quickly, but has some trouble with growing dandelions where he shouldn't. For instance, on a wall when attempting to spy on a meeting in incorporeal form. Or pinning his arm to the dirt while being chased by wizards.
- Incompletely Trained: Monmouth, a teenage Green Man who's been hiding his powers since they manifested and teaching himself in secret out of stolen books (attracting severe punishment whenever he was caught), and who tends to rely on Devious Daggers rather than his powers in a fight. It's implied he receives some training between the second and third books, learning to infuse green magic into his knives and gaining greater control over the growing aspects of his power.
- In the Back: Uncle Frank ends up in a magical battle between his brother Mordecai and Darius. Frank notes that it's generally considered cowardly but he's going to take every advantage he can get, lies down and pretends to be dead until Darius rides past, then blasts him in the back with a shotgun. It doesn't take.
- Locked in a Freezer: A variation in The Chestnut King, where several of the protagonists are captured by enemy soldiers and chained up in the overheated hold of a slave galley. The heat and smell are portrayed as uncomfortable but not dangerous for most of them, with the exception of Monmouth, who is bound and hung from the ceiling stuffed into a close-woven kelp sack. James notes that due to the heat and dehydration, he will be unlikely to survive the day.
- Look Behind You: Look above you, actually, when Monmouth betrays the other wizards to rescue Henry - he points out the location of the invisible Fat Frank atop the boat's mast and, as they look up, kills two in quick succession.
- Loophole Abuse: How Henry designates Franklin Fat Faerie as his heir. Having been cut off from the mound magic in a disciplinary action, he's "not from among the faeren", and though the ritual stipulates that the outgoing Chestnut King go forth to seek his death, there's nothing to specify how long that should take.
- Also how the faeren of Hylfing got away with trapping Mordecai in a barrow-mound: their agreement stipulated that they couldn't harm him, but sealing him in a can didn't hurt him physically, and given that he was facing dangerous enemies, they were able to argue that the entrapment saved his life.
- Lovable Jock: Zeke Johnson, a local baseball star, good friend to the family and eventual participant in their adventures.
- Made a Slave: Happens to James very briefly in The Chestnut King, when the slave galley he and other hostages are being transported on suffers an accident which injures an odd number of oarsmen and requires rebalancing. This state of affairs only lasts a few hours before Monmouth manages to escape his captivity and release all the rowers with an exceptionally awesome wood-livening spell.
- Magical Seventh Son: The Green Men in general, and Henry in particular. The magic runs on this, with an Always Male specification (the count skips daughters).
- Monmouth and Mordecai also qualify, and Darius is a villainous example.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Hyacinth and Mordecai have nine children (seven boys and two girls), though some are dead by the time the story starts and only four appear in-story: Una, Isa, James and Henry. Mordecai, Frank and Caleb were three out of at least seven.
- Mundane Utility: Henry and Monmouth use the Green Man dreamwalking powers to have a conversation while sitting in the same room, in the hopes that Monmouth's headache won't be present in a dream. It doesn't work, as once Henry notices the bruise isn't there he imagines it back in place and can't get rid of it again.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Frank Willis uses his teeth to bite Monmouth free of Unwilling Suspension in a woven sack, as his hands are tied behind his back. He also bites Monmouth, but that's an accident.
- Older Sidekick: The adult faerie Fat Frank cheerfully serves as sidekick to twelve-year-old protagonist Henry. Henrietta, Zeke and Monmouth also each take on this role, although it's downplayed as all three have only a few years on Henry.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. There's both Uncle Frank (Francis) and the faerie Frank (Franklin). As well as Anastasia (Henry's cousin) and Anastasia (Henry's grandmother), though that's a case of the former definitely being named after the latter. To say nothing of Henry and Henrietta.
- Portal Cut: Henry does this accidentally when he switches the locks to the main cupboard as a wizard is reaching through it after him, cutting off the man's hand. He and Richard decide to return the appendage, and part of Richard's shoe is sliced off as he kicks the hand back through the cupboard.
- Portal to the Past: Some of the cupboard portals seem to work this way (others lead to other worlds entirely). Henrietta is nearly killed when crawling through a random door drops her into the Battle of Actium.
- Power Nullifier: Cloth woven of kelp or cobweb works this way for both green and wizard magic: Fat Frank, Monmouth and Eli are all transported wrapped in cloth sacks at one point or another, and Henry manages to temporarily disable a wizard by covering his face with cobweb fabric.
- Pragmatic Hero: Uncle Frank and Monmouth, while both firmly on the side of the heroes, also have no issues with sneaking around or attacking an enemy In the Back.
- Puberty Superpower: Not explicit but certainly implied in as the approximate age when green men go through the warpspasm. Henry and Darius were both twelve, Monmouth around thirteen, and Mordecai certainly below fifteen. Averted with the Distaff Counterpart version of the power, the manifestation of which apparently doesn't rely on age or birth order.
- Retired Badass: Uncle Frank, at one time a prince from another dimension and ferocious fighter before he came out of a portal to Kansas and met Dotty.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Subverted - it's noted that the wizards do indeed have a common uniform...but it's a neat white suit and brown hooded cloak. Darius comes closer, wearing a long dark cloak and tall "Pilgrim" hat.
- Scars Are Forever: The first bonding of a Green Man to their plant causes a permanent burn scar on the palm of the hand.
- The scars on Henry's face from the dripping of Nimiane's blood are not only permanent, but growing.
- Sealed Evil in Another World: Henrietta, Penelope, Zeke and Anastasia attempt this with Nimiane, pushing her through a randomly-set cupboard to get her out of Kansas. This, of course, backfires, allowing her to take over the stronghold of Carnassus and transform the wizards into her personal attack force.
- The existence of Endor in general is this for Nimroth's undying race...until of course Henry breaches the containment and lets Nimiane, the worst of the bunch, loose.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Mordecai, Henry's father, was trapped in a barrow by the faeren.
- Secret Pet Plot: Richard mentions this as a past event, as he once had a pet hare he kept hidden in his shirt...until his caretakers found out and ordered the cook to put it in his stew.
- Shipped in Shackles: Uncle Frank, Dotty, Penelope, James, Isa and Monmouth are kidnapped by the Emperor's soldiers. Even the regular humans are transported shackled to posts in the hold of the galley they're aboard, and Monmouth is knocked unconscious, bound hand and foot, stuffed into a sack made of kelp to contain his magic and hung from a ceiling beam. With good reason, as it turns out.
- Eli and Fat Frank are also briefly transported in kelp sacks by Caleb and by wizards, respectively.
- Shout-Out: The names Dotty (a nickname for Dorothy) and Frank seem to be referencing L. Frank Baum's famous fantasy about American children traveling to a fantasy world to battle a witch. Also, both stories are set in Kansas.
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Spiritual Successor: It's impossible not to see the heavy influences of the The Chronicles of Narnia on this series. Both share a main theme of children traveling between the real world and a fantasy one, Nimiane the Witch-queen has many similarities to Jadis, the White Witch, and both blend traditional folklore/mythology, original fantasy, and elements of Christian theology. - Steampunk: Byzanthamum, with its smoking factories, steam-powered bicycle carriages and flamboyant fashion, has elements of this.
- Stress Vomit: Early in the series, this is Henry's go-to response to any frightening or painful experience. He gets better eventually.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Henry is noted to greatly resemble his surviving brothers.
- Tap on the Head: A favoured method of the villains (especially Coradin) for containing the heroes. Never causes long-term damage, except for some reason to Zeke, who ends up with a severe concussion. Special mention to Monmouth, who is cracked over the head four or five times throughout the series with various implements, including once by Henry.
- Traumatic Haircut: Henrietta receives one in The Chestnut King, when Coradin captures her and holds her by the hair, forcing Henry to cut her free. She complains about it regularly.
- Tree Vessel: The slave galley Monmouth "livens" the timbers of in the third book keeps growing, transforming overnight into a floating aspen grove. It looks very cool, but is also slow and unwieldy and easily captured by pirates.
- The Worsening Curse Mark: The burn on Henry's face from Nimiane's blood, which is slowly growing to a magical sinkhole and will eventually kill him.
- Your Magic's No Good Here: Downplayed with Endor. The land has been completely drained of life over generations, so the Green Men have nothing to work with but their own life force. Henry has more trouble with this than Mordecai does.
