DNF'd at 37%

I just couldn't get into it! I found myself insanely bored, and that's so disappointing because I liked the premise! Can't get into the characters, and my god there's so many of them. I definitely feel in the minority when I say this, but I didn't like this at all. I just couldn't get myself to keep reading no matter how hard I tried. I seriously gave up on this. I'm definitely in the minority, so who knows what others may think about it. I just know that for me, this ain't it chief.

Agh! This was fantastic reading. Just magical enough to twinkle a bit and fully engrossing.

Sure some parts of the plot were obvious, no real twists here. But the fun is in the journey of reading this book. I personally love the story within a story style and it works very well here.

My only mild complaint is that I wish the reader had been treated to more descriptions of the worlds behind various doors. Maybe in a future novel? Would love to have a follow up to this. The ending was perfect but there are many ways this could go on as a series.

I stayed up until 2am on a weeknight reading this as I just couldn't put it down. No regrets.

Writing: 4/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 3.5/5

Great adventure story! Love, betrayal, and a panoply of creatures, cultures, and “magical” objects that leak through Doors: the thin boundaries between our world and innumerable others.

Our heroine is January Scaller, and the time is ~1900. January is a motherless child of indeterminate color who lives with her father’s employer, the kindly and wealthy Mr. Locke. By comparison, January is told she is “quite improper, willful and temerarious” — temerarious quickly becomes her favorite word :-). However, no thing or person is exactly what they seem in this deliciously complex story that weaves together intricate stories across time and multi-world space.

The Doors represent Change — as January’s father explains it: “Doors are change, and change is a dangerous necessity. Doors are revolutions and upheavals, uncertainties and mysteries, axis points around which entire worlds can be turned… Without doors the worlds would grow stagnant, calcified and storyless.” But not everyone is enamored of the “change” the Doors represent, and someone or something is working hard to close them all down, ostensibly to maintain order and bring Progress and Prosperity to our world (but mostly benefiting themselves).

A number of memorable characters step in to help or hinder including: Mr. Locke and his slightly unsettling Archeological Society; Samuel Zappia, January’s only “non-fictional friend;” Jane Irimu, sent from East Africa by way of a predatory Leopard people world by January’s father; and Adelaide Lee Larson “ born of poor luck and poverty and raised by ignorance and solitude,” whose epic love story begins when she meets a ghost boy in an empty field at 15.

Speculative fiction is often used a vehicle for discussing difficult topics through the guise of “other worlds,” and this book is a thinly veiled portrayal of the perception of Change as necessary (liberals) or as something to be feared (conservatives). While I personally favor liberal policies, I don’t appreciate the over simplified and highly stereotyped cabal of rich, white, men that are literally out to rape, pillage, and destroy the happiness and life potential of everyone else. Well-written fiction can feel so real that it is easy for stereotypes like this to be perpetuated without the reader’s conscious awareness. So … great writing and a tremendous girl-power adventure — but a little heavy handed on the definition of the “bad guys” for me.

3.75 stars. Beautifully written historical fantasy full of mystery, magical doorways, and wild, fierce women. Overall very solid, would recommend.

I'll just note that there are two things that stop me from going full on rave mode; one is that it's told as a story-within-a-story, which is a narrative device that I don't particular love. I find that in tends to slow things down, and in this case it felt a bit info dumpy at times, particularly towards the end. But, you know, the fact that I was engaged with it anyways is a real testament to the author's skill!

The other thing is that the end lacked something emotionally for me (part of this is down to the narrative style, as well). I don't want to get into spoiler territory, so I'll just say that I thought there were some missed opportunities when it came to the main character's closest relationships.

But again, overall totally worth a read if you're like me and love magical doorways and feminist tales

This is the book my soul has been waiting for. Harrow has fulfilled every dream I could possibly have for one book. I will be pre-ordering this title and gifting it to all my friends; Thank you, Alix Harrow, for writing the novel of a lifetime.

I really wanted to like this book because it sounded unique and quirky, however I could not finish it. I found it boring and there were too many characters. I didn't like the dual storylines because I couldn't follow each one.
I would have to go back and re-read sections to remind myself of what happened. I would have preferred if the story focused more on the mystery of the doors as opposed to the world behind them. I know many people loved this book and I really wanted to love it as much as they did but unfortunately, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

An absolutely brilliant work - I was hooked from the moment I read the first paragraph and found myself attached to my Kindle almost constantly until I could finish it. The story was gripping, the characters engaging, and I loved the ties to my home state of Kentucky. Before I was even half-way through this book, I immediately got my hands on the author's two previous books.

I think this would be enjoyed most by readers who loved The Bear and The Nightingale, Once Upon A River, or The Rules of Magic.

This story transported me back to the magic of childhood, when abandoned buildings carried wild and magical secrets and it was entirely possible that you had latent supernatural talents that hadn't yet manifested. I was spellbound for hundreds of pages.

I already know I'm going to read this again and again and again.

I hope Alix E. Harrow writes forever! The Ten Thousand Doors of January was one of the most astonishing, refreshing books I have ever read. Hard to believe it's a debut novel.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (5/5 stars) – ARC Review

“She writes a door of blood and silver. The door opens just for her.”

———————————————-

**THIS ARC WAS PROVIDED COURTESY OF Redhook Books via NetGalley IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW**

Future Publication Date: September 10th, 2019

Execution: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Key Descriptors: portal fantasy, prose, oral storytelling, urban fantasy, historical fantasy

Applicable /r/Fantasy Bingo Squares: Vampires, Published in 2019, Title of Four or More Words

Premise: January Scaller is a young girl growing up in the early 1900s. She’s leashed and tamed by a man who thinks of her as just another curio in his collection – but when her father goes missing, she’s forced to confront both her abilities and her past. This is a coming of age novel, a novel about exploring both this world and others, and a novel about lost souls seeking one another out through the ten thousand Doors between worlds.

Review: This book ripped me apart and wrote me back together again. Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel is truly a work of art. I laughed, I cried, and I sat on the edge of my seat in suspense. January’s voice comes through each and every word – first like a gentle rain when her life is filled with upper class stability, and later like a typhoon when she must break away from the chains and preconceived notions holding her back. She wants so badly to be free, but can’t quite tear away without a push.

While the time period is certainly reflected in the prose, do not make the mistake of assuming this book will feel dense or dated. The era floats alongside each passage, gently flavouring the book as a whole. The fourth wall is frequently peeked behind, as January comments on the shapes of letters and what they might be used to communicate. The opening page is one of the best I’ve read –

“When I was seven, I found a door. I suspect I should capitalize that word, so you understand I’m not talking about your garden- or common-variety door that leads reliably white-tiled kitchen or a bedroom closet.

When I was seven, I found a Door. There – look how tall and proud the word stands on the page now, the belly of that D like a black archway leading into white nothing. When you see that word, I imagine a little prickle of familiarity makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”

I’d continue on with the quote, but I think I’d end up retyping out the whole book if I let myself get carried away. The whole thing is lovely with a beautiful oral storytelling vibe to it. The short of it is: this prose would carry you away even if there weren’t an even deeper current of plot gradually building up speed beneath it.

The first third of this novel had me fooled into thinking this would turn out to be a slice of life novel, right up until January’s father failed to come home one day. Julian has been hired as an archeological explorer by a wealthy patron, Mr. Locke, and thus rarely is home to see his daughter. Possessed of an odd red skin tone and covered in black tattoos, he’s quite a notable figure to pass on the street. Although she sees him seldom and views Locke as more of a father figure in her day-to-day life, this doesn’t stop January’s world from crumbling around her when she’s told her father hasn’t sent back a letter in a three months and is presumed to be dead.

Fortunately, however, her father managed to provide her with one last gift before he disappeared: a small book, titled “The Ten Thousand Doors.” And suddenly, with this, the Door January discovered at seven… is no longer just something that was out of a myth, a perhaps misremembered and foggy memory. It is real. And her father is out there somewhere, trapped in another world – and with the help of three companions, her childhood friend, her dog (affectionately named “Bad”), and a protector sent by her father from another world, she is going to find him – no matter how many Doors she must pass through or how many stories she must track down. Unfortunately, she soon realizes that she herself is pursued by the same group who had been following her father – a group dedicated to shutting the Doors and eliminating anyone with knowledge of them.

“Worlds were supposed to be great rambling houses with all the windows thrown open and the wind and summer rain rushing through them, with magic passages in their closets and treasure chests in their attics. . .”

This is certainly a book about journeys as much as it is about destinations, for on her way, January discovers both a first and a true love (though she is perhaps a bit late in recognizing it), the challenges of fending for herself, and what it’s like not to be alone. The romance is a beautiful one – it is slow, it is delicate, and has that brush of the ephemeral that only a young love can have. January has lived a life where everyone she loves is ripped away from her, and the reader, too, must fear a little that this one will not last.

“Maybe,” he said slowly, “maybe I did not make myself clear before, when i said I was on your side. I meant also that would like to be at your side, to go with you into every door and danger, to run with you into your tangled-up future. For” – and a distant part of me was gratified to note that his voice had gone wobbly and strained – “for always, if you like.”

Time – an unreliable, fractious creature since the asylum – now absented itself entirely from the proceedings. It left the two of us floating, weightless, like a pair of dust motes suspended in an afternoon sunlight.”

Ah, darn, I’ve become carried away and included a long quote again – yet can you possibly blame me? In this case, I can only feel that letting the book speak for itself is the best possible review I can give. Seeing the love and the sheer hope melted my heart. At every turn, this book was plucking at my heartstrings. What is the nature of love, you might ask, and what is required of you when you love someone? That, too, is questioned – and is perhaps something that can only be answered when a test to that love arises.

In all the Doors that hides vampires, were-leopards, or frozen wastelands… there is one that will lead to home. Sometimes, even a closed door can be opened once more.


The Ten Thousand Doors of January can be found on Amazon and Goodreads.

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