*disclaimer time: NetGalley did give me an eARC of this, however I read and reviewed it first from an ARC I got in a trade so... TL:DR, this is an honest unbiased review*

Agh! This book, my heart! This was devastatingly well written, and, to be quite honest, completely crushing to read on Father's Day when I am alone and familyless.

It's a tale of family, loss, searching, journeys, and ten thousand doors to home. It's heartbreaking and wonderful and features a very good dog named Bad.

Our main character, January, has to deal with a lot of things. Firstly, she's POC in the 1900s. She's also the ward of a very wealthy man, so from the start she is aware that she lives between worlds (though she is not aware how literal that is). Her dad works for the rich man, finding rare artifacts and bringing them back, so January spends most of her time in the manor house, trying to be a good girl (and somewhat succeeding). And then she finds a book.

This book, left just for her in a special box, tells the story of Doors. Doors to other worlds, that is. The information in the book turns January's world inside out (as all good books must do), and she had to go through a lot to make it right again. Traveling through worlds, with mysterious companions, on the run from very bad men.

I really love how this book is narrated. It opens with young January finding a Door, then skips to older January, but the entire thing is written like, well, it's being written (by January, that is). It's her older self jotting down her story, and her POV is so well written and heart breaking at times. She's relatable (in uncommon situations), and she really speaks to the soul inside the reader who longs for adventure, who longs to stumble into other worlds. Her use of imagery, not just to describe the scene, but to portray her words and imaginations and when she tries to bring her readers into her shoes, is quite spectacular (that's why imagery is, you say. Well, this is MORE. She tells her story not just to the eyes, but to the soul and the mind. It strikes a chord within you even if it doesn't make the most sense).

Deep down (and on the surface), this is the story of family. How one is made, lost, and found again. It's going to make you cry and ache (and perhaps increase your heart a few sizes). I adored it, and you will too.

Much like several of the characters in this book, I had been yearning for a very particular experience for quite a while and The Ten Thousand Doors of January is exactly what I have been looking for.

It is a thoroughly modern fairy tale story full of hope, wonderment, darkness, and joy. I won't go into particular detail here as part of the experience is getting to enjoy exploring the book on your own and being wrapped up in the journey.

Alix E. Harrow has conjured up a thoroughly arresting and magically beautiful debut novel whose passages read like poetry, but does not wander into overly flowery language that would have taken me out of every engrossing moment.

For fans of the genre, and the idea of hope and adventure, this is certainly a book you do not want to miss.

Thanks very much to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC, but this is certainly a book I will have to pick up once it hits store shelves.

“Sometimes I feel like there are doors lurking in the creases of every sentence, with periods for knobs and verbs for hinges.”

Imagine being a child again, running through an overgrown field beneath a blue sky. Letting your hands trail through the tops of the wild grains when suddenly
you notice a raggedy blue door standing in the open. Would you open it?

That is exactly how The Ten Thousand Doors of January begins. In the early 1900s following a young deeply imaginative girl named January who mostly lives with Mr. Locke, a billionaire Archeologist. You see, her father works for him but is constantly traveling so January doesn’t see him often which leads to a lot of mischief and exploring. Well as much exploring as she can.

Mr. Lockes mansion is like a labyrinth. A red stone castle at the edge of a lake full of artifacts and mysteries. One day, January stumbles upon a book called The Ten Thousand Doors. A book that states bending physical laws of the universe... is possible.

PORTALS. MAGICAL DOORS. MULTI UNIVERSE. That’s right!

It took ONE PAGE to make me realize that this book was going to steal every bit of my spare time until I devoured it all. It explores the idea that Doors (See how I capitalized it? That’s important) are portals between one world and another. It’s fascinating and unique. I know you’re going to say “but Holly, that’s been done so many times.”

True, BUT NO.

This books stands out so much because the way Alix E. Harrow handled it. The writing gives this odd sense of familiarity. It’s eerie. You so badly want to unravel what in the world is happening. I literally felt myself leaning desperately toward the pages.

The magic in this book was spot on for me and realistic. It delves into the origins of storytelling, using the foundation of history to tell a story that is once familiar and comforting as well as subversive and progressive.

And extremely beautiful.

I can’t praise this book highly enough. I’m desperately trying to string together a combination of words to make YOU pick this up. I just hope I’m successful because it was a life changing experience.

Reader, this book was amazing. I’m not sure this review is going to come out to be anything remotely coherent. It may end up just be me sitting here spouting rainbows and glitter, but I’ll try my best!

This is the story of January Scaller, who is a girl living in Vermont, on the large estate of Cornelius Locke, her guardian, more or less, while her father travels the world to find rare artifacts and collectibles for him.

One day, when she was young, January found a Door, and was sure that it lead to somewhere fantastic, but ended up forgetting about it until she was much older and found a book called The Ten Thousand Doors which tells her that Doors are, in fact, real, and do lead to other worlds. It tells all about the Doors around the world, and some of the other worlds that they lead to, and about the adventures of a girl called Adelaide.

Meanwhile, a group of bad, bad men are going around the world closing those doors for good. And for some reason, they are now after January. Dun Dun Dunnnnn. Shenanigans ensue! Run run run!

This was a phenomenally written tale, that felt a little like falling into a door to a different world itself! It admittedly took me longer than I’d have liked to read it, due to work, and more work, and real life coming to call on me with… actual work, but every time I sat down to read it, it was like escaping into the world of January and her grand adventure.

Part of this book is a kind of book-within-a-book and you’d think that would be a little confusing, but it never is, at all. It was a wonderful piece of writing, getting to experience January reading this book as she read it. As things all started coming together, and were revealed, it was a bit exciting. I had been guessing at things since the beginning, and as they were revealed, if I had guessed something right it wasn’t like ‘oh, I guessed right’ like a disappointing mystery novel that you guess the whodunnit at the beginning, but it was more of a ‘EEEEE! CALLED IT!’ feeling. Exciting! That said, there were still twists that surprised me by coming out of nowhere. This book definitely poked me in the feels a good number of times as well. Sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a more sad way. But all the same, when books make me emote about make believe people, we’re probably looking at a good book. ^_^

The last chapter/Epilogue had me doing some #AwkwardWorkplaceSobbing that I had to explain to the boss. You’ll have to read it to find out for yourself whether it was the good kind or the sad kind. ^_^

So, all told, this was a fantastic novel that I definitely think that I’ll reread (probably via audiobook – this one is narrated by someone actually named January!) in a couple of years to see if I can recapture that feeling of falling into a new world via a book. I opened the door, and inside of it was January!~

Thanks to the author, as well as Redhook/Orbit for the review copy!

This book is absolutely beautiful. And I'm not just talking about the cover. When I pick up a book, <i>this</i> is the type of book I want to read. One with layered characters who seem so, so real, a complex plot, beautiful settings, and a hint of a mystery.

The story in this book is so intricately woven with ten thousands threads that is just one was left hanging, the entire thing would collapse into itself. But none are left hanging, and what's created is a tale of love, treachery, searching, and redemption.

The narrative structure is not one for the faint of heart. It's complex and fluid and turns back on itself, and then leaps and skips. It's masterfully done, and works to maintain a disorienting sense of dizziness, which I think parallels the feeling January has for much of her life.

January is a lovingly drawn character, with uniqueness and faults and heart. At times her feelings were so evident and real, that I felt myself aching for her. It's been a long time since I was so moved by a story, but this one pierced my heart.

I would recommend this book for readers who liked <i>The Thirteenth Tale</i> or <i>Daughter of Smoke & Bone</i>.

This book blew me away! I went in thinking it was just about doors/ doorways to other places or even other worlds, which in and of itself sounded cool enough to pick up. But no, it was soooo much more. It's about family, friends, discovering who you really are, developing self confidence, and adventure. I'm so glad I picked this up at expo, and I can't recommend this enough now. It's the kind of story that will live on in your mind for years to come. The characters are complex but relatable and the story was well developed. At one point, it was a story within a story, which may sound confusing, but it worked wonderfully. I wanted to go gallivanting up remote mountains finding this absurdly strange Doors.
There were several passages I loved, but this one was probably my fave:
"Door, he told her, 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. They are the beginnings and endings of every true story, the passages between that lead to adventures and madness and- here he smiled- even love. Without doors the worlds would grow stagnant, calcified, storyless."
Yes, we need doors, or as our MC January points out, Doors with a capital to show its importance and separateness from a regular door.
I hope you all add this to your TBR and move up to the top of your list, you won't regret it.

I would really like to thank Redhook books for sending me a NetGalley widget to read and review this book. Otherwise, I probably would have missed this gem of a book. It is so different from the normal genres that I read. They do say its good to read outside your comfort zone and this book definitely falls into that category. This book is extremely well written. The writing is so descriptive that you can just imagine the story as she is telling it. It is very hard to believe that this is a debut novel. There is just so much in this book – its historical fiction, fantasy and magical realism. What’s not to love about it! I enjoyed the story although it did take me quite a bit longer to read. This is the type of book that you will want to take your time reading as the writing is so intricate and detailed that you won’t want to miss anything. An added bonus is the simply stunning cover. I highly recommend it and give this book 4.5 stars. The cover however gets 10 stars!

This book has a wonderful atmospheric writing style and an excellent historic landscape. However I was expecting it to be a portal fantasy novel and it turned out to be more of magical realism. I would definitely recommend it to customers looking for historic fiction/magical realism but the writing style is fantastic, but ultimately the plot wasn't the right fit for me personally.

This isn't the type of novel I normally find myself drawn to but when I read it, it truly amazed me. Harrow formats the world in such a way that we immediately sympathize with his protagonist, January. We immediately want to know why her father leaves her and why her surrogate father seems so cold.

Additionally, I felt as though January was a kindred spirit and applaud Alix E. Harrow for using a protagonist and narrator who cannot be forced into one box. She is in a world of her own and that influences the way she sees her world. No one believes a little girl who experiences the magical and for the first few chapters I was constantly wishing that her father would come and believe her or that something would change, that she wouldn't bend and allow herself to become one of those boring "ladies" that her surrogate father wants her to become. And I was not disappointed.

I want to go on and on about this novel but I can't even trust myself to not give spoilers so I will just say this, when you pick it up, you will refuse to put it down.

Thank you for allowing me a preview of this title. I was unable to finish. I just couldn't get into it. I pushed to make it to the 20% mark and still just didn't care. It was beautifully written but just not my cup of tea.

Gorgeous writing and a superb story!

January Scaller is a young girl in search of her place in this world in the early 1900s. For as long as she can remember, January has never quite fit in this world and though she enjoys the freedoms of her unusual life with a wealthy benefactor while her father explores far off places, she has always felt a longing for something else; adventure, family, a sense of belonging somewhere. As a young child, she discovers an old rickety door in the ruins of a building which leads to another place; another world that smells of salty ocean and promise. When the door is destroyed, she spends the next ten or so years of her life looking for more doors, despite her benefactor not seeming to believe her 'wild stories'. Then she finds a curious book that tells the story of a pair of lovers from different worlds and stories about more doors to other worlds. When her father goes missing, she's not only determined to find him, but willing to go to any lengths and unravel the mystery of the doors.

Extremely satisfying read! I would love to read further adventures of January and see all of the places and things she discovers.

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to review this ARC.

98 points, 5 STARS!

I knew from early on that The Ten Thousand Doors of January was going to be one of my favourites. From the very beginning, I knew this was going to have that special something that make good books great. And it did. It had so much of that special something. I will remember this book for a long, long time. It is special. It is amazing. It is mine (in the I will forever hold this close sort of way. I wish this was actually my book that I wrote.)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January borrows from a lot of subgenres and tropes. And they are all my favourite ones. It is a portal magical realism story, set in the early twentieth century. And it does everything perfectly. Plus the prose! Oh the prose is delightful. I don't typically bring up prose, because I don't typically feel like it is something I notice, but it matters this time. The prose is one of the most amazing parts of the book. It takes an already amazing book and makes it transcendent. It is reminiscent of the time period, and it is just so, so beautiful:

Quote: "In March 1908 I was thirteen, which is such an intensely awkward and self-absorbed age that I remember almost nothing about that year except that I grew four inches and Wilda made me start wearing a terrible wire contraption over my breasts. My father was on a steamer heading to the South Pole, and all his letters smelled of ice and bird shit; Mr. Locke was hosting a greasy group of Texas oilmen in the east wing of Locke House and had ordered me to stay out of their way; I was just about as lonely and wretched as any thirteen-year-old has ever been, which is very lonely and wretched indeed."

I love the main character, January Scaller. She is sure enough in herself in the face of a lot of outside pressures. She is spoiled, but she doesn't realise it until everything goes wrong. The Ten Thousand Books of January is her story. Her story of discovering who she is. Her discovery of what the world is really like. And it is her discovery how things aren't always as they appear.

The kind of person January is, that inescapable determination to be who she is, leads directly in the type of book The Ten Thousand Doors of January is. It has a light tone in the face of hardship. This broke my heart, because January is so good and kind, and she keeps close to her despite everything. I had a lot of fear while reading that I just couldn't shake. January is so young and she has so many things to learn. Midway through the book, I had a bolt of realisation run through me and I basically ran around my room flailing for a bit. That is how invested I was in this. There are many twists and turns this book takes the reader through, because you just don't know how it is going to end until you get there. 

Plus, there is a book January reads throughout this book. It has even more amazing characters in a fantastical setting. I love this book, despite how brief it feels. It is part scientific. Which means there are footnotes, which instantly makes this entire experience all the better. Yet it is also a story. An adorable, adorable story.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is just so good. I want to reread it already, and I just finished it a first time. I feel absolutely privileged to have read this in my lifetime. Absolutely wonderful.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Alix E. Harrow, Redhook, and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to review this copy!

This is a book to drown in.

January Scaller is precocious, adventurous, and sheltered, qualities that serve her poorly in the mansion of her father's robber-baron employer Mr. Locke, in an early 20th century America that looks down on those who aren't the 'right' color. And January most definitely isn't white . . . though what ethnicity she and her father actually are isn't quite obvious to anyone, for reasons that are (but shouldn't be) a mystery. She's seven years old when she discovers her first Door, one of many mysterious and magical gateways scattered in the secret places of this world, and steps through it to another world---and she's much older when the mysteries of the Doors, and her own family's past, crash down upon her life.

How many ways can I say how much I adored this book? The prose is lush, inventive, addicting . . . I found myself reading it as slowly as I could, savoring each perfect sentence, each effortlessly stunning turn of phrase. I was literally angry at the idea that this book would eventually end.

This is the sort of book that I just want to hand out to strangers. Possibly throw at them. Alix E. Harrow is going straight to the top of my auto-buy list, and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next.

A superb debut, and highly, highly recommended.

A huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely stunning and a strong candidate for the best book of 2019 for me, Ten Thousand Doors of January combines gorgeous prose with equally compelling characters and story. It's a book about books, a story about stories that hooked me in the first paragraph. It couldn't be more my type if it tried.

January Scaller is a mixed-race girl growing up in 1900s America. Her father is often absent, so she lives with his employer, the wealthy and influential Mr. Locke, a member of a secretive archeological society. She's provided for beyond what her father could ever have managed, but horribly lonely and longing for freedom. Then one day her father fails to return...

The story of a young woman who struggles against the restrictions and prejudices of the society of her era and against people who want to chain her and mold her into someone more proper is a familiar one, but for me it works every single time. Though that's not all there is to it, either. There are Doors and adventure and revelations and friends found along the way. It somehow manages to evoke both comforting familiarity and feel fresh and new. If there's anything I could compare to, it would be Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children, but longer and less didactic.

The writing style is the main star of the book. It's achingly beautiful, gorgeous enough to make me highlight almost every paragraph in some sections, yet very easy to read. The atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a knife - I don't think I've ever encountered a book that instills a sense of wistful nostalgia and yearning quite as well. I found that a lot of modern fantasy is missing the sense of wonder, but this has brought it back in full force.

If anything, I wish we got to spend more time exploring various other worlds. The conclusion is satisfying (it also made me tear up a bit but in a good way I swear) and the length felt just about right for the story, don't get me wrong, but the concept is so interesting I couldn't get enough. 

Enjoyment: 5/5
Execution: 5/5

Recommended to: fans of the Wayward Children novella series, suckers for prose, those who like story-within-a-story structure and books about stories, anyone looking for unique, character-focused books
Not recommended to: this is slower and more "literary" so if you prefer action and excitement or defined magic, you're gonna have a bad time

The whole idea behind this book honestly felt so magical that I knew I had to get my hands on it. Right off the back the reader gets pulled into this worlds filled with such lyrical writing. The writing itself is fantastic and the reader can't help but fall in love with January and see the world through her eyes.

The details that are put into this book makes it so easy to imagine it perfectly. Because the writing itself is so magical, there are moments where everything does feel like magic even when there isn't anything otherworldly happening. The only thing is with such a book that is very influenced by the way the writing is lyrical, it's a slow read. At least for me. It never felt slow when I was reading it, but then I would take a break and notice I really hadn't read all that much.

I think that in itself just shows how much work went into this book. It was interesting I wanted to know more about the characters the further in I got.

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

3 1/2 stars.

First off, this book was BEAUTIFULLY written. I probably could have highlighted an A+ simile on every page, and so it was delightful to read. The plot is a portal fantasy somewhat similar to Seanan McGuire's Wayward children series; there are many different Doors to other worlds where people and things sometimes slip through. This appeals strongly to all the imaginative parts of me that long for other worlds and secret doorways, and the child inside of me was wide eyed and grabby hands at the idea. It's a book that celebrates the power of writing and creating, a book that insists that magic exists, and I love that.

I really wanted to give this book a higher rating and almost bumped it to 4 stars, but for me it was missing that 'wow' factor. The ideas about the Doors and the other worlds they contain was definitely the strongest element, but it wasn't enough to hammer home a five star rating. The characters, while lovely and diverse, felt a bit underdeveloped and rushed. Emotional scenes felt forced rather than natural (especially January and Samuel), and it felt pretty obvious who the villain was from the beginning. I would love a sequel with more world-hopping and exploration. Still, definitely a fun read! Fans of the Wayward Children series ought to be entertained, or anyone who's daydreamed about escaping to other worlds.