It’s taken me a few days to write this review whilst I pull my thoughts together. I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley and Orbit in exchange for my honest thoughts.
The cover art is exceptional, the premise sounded quirky fun, and interesting with a dash of fantasy. I wanted to love it so much especially since everyone else seems to!
Sadly I didn’t. I struggled to get in the same flow as the narrator, it was a voice that didn’t really resonate with me, it felt a bit off and the story was slow to get going. For me there was no connection to the characters, that spark that draws you in until something quite late on a certain relationship I wanted to see more of and developed! The writing whilst beautiful and flowery, it was a bit much (too wordy) and distracted from the story being told. (That old saying why use one word when you can use five!).
I digress. The book is about a young girl called January. We see her from a young age growing up as the book progresses. From the start she realises she is different and her place in the world, constantly torned between what she wants to do and what she feels like she must do. She has no mother and her father is constantly absent on expeditions for her guardian, no friends then one day she finds a door that leads elsewhere and……. (no spoilers) but the doors are key to magic, adventure and history.
Set in the early twentieth century, the author does do a good job of highlight social standing and attitudes of that time especially since the protagonist January is of mixed parentage thrust someone she doesn’t belong or that the others want her.
For me what I really loved is the premise of the “doors” whilst here they are physical, there was also allusion that every book is a door to another world just waiting to be explored and lost in.
That said this is my personal thoughts, if you love the premise, magical realism then give this a shot. If nothing else there is a love story that transcends time and worlds.

The premise is super interesting and I reallllly wanted to love this book, however I ended up DNF-ing it simply because I could not keep my attention on it - this is a severe case of me, not the book! I really do believe that readers who like slower-moving books will deffo be enjoying this one.

The writing is beautiful, however I struggled with the pacing and the lack of "happenings" and it would've been far more advantaging if it would've been trimmed up more!

An enchanting portal fantasy novel, this reminded me a little of Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series. I loved it; the slightly flowery language, the characters (I adored (Sin)Bad the dog) and the book within a book storytelling. The pace was reasonably steady and the dual plots converged in a predictable but satisfying way. I'll eagerly read anything else Alix E. Harrow writes.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

Sadly, this wasn't as great as I was hoping it to be :( I really liked the writing, and the fantasy world was intriguing, but it didn't draw me in. It felt like it had an aim and never quite reached it, veering off the plot. So at some point it got a little boring...

This was a light and enjoyable fantasy, of a story within a story and worlds beyond worlds. It was enchanting and magical and had a fairy tale like quality, of quests, adventures and hidden agendas. January herself was a great character, with her own foibles, but also with the kind of hidden strengths and general nouse that makes for a great heroine.

Harrow could write the commentary to an atlas and I would read it. Her words and story are so dreamy and fantastical. They wrap around you and envelope you like a sunny day, a hot chocolate or freshly baked cookies. It is so easy to be pulled into this story and not emerge until hours later. What reader hasn't fantasized about finding hidden doorways into magical worlds and exploring them with their doggy partner in crime.

Recommended for all those who dream (or have found) doorways or portals to other worlds.

Really enjoyed this standalone fantasy novel. Lovely writing style and a fun and compelling story. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

From the stunning cover to the gorgeous words within, the memorable characters to the brilliantly woven tale, this book was absolutely astounding from the first page to the last! If you enjoy Fantasy Fiction that’s got a bit of a difference, or just fancy a change of pace, this is a book that with hook you from the get go and keep you captivated well after the final page is done.
I absolutely ADORED the main Character January, who was such an honest and wonderful mixture of things to make up her personality, she was brave, sarcastic (my favourite kind of character) witty and wonderfully loyal. I tend to find these things make for my very favourite Characters, possibly because my sense of humour runs towards sarcasm most of the time! She was an absolute delight to read about!
The Villain was the perfect counterpoint, he was believably horrid. Cruel and calculated, he certainly wasn’t the kind of person you would want to invite to a tea party, but on the other hand.... yeh perfect. I can’t stand him 🤣🤣
I adored the side stories, all the different tales that wove together perfectly within the story! The story was perfectly paced, far from slow but nor was it fast. Given the kind of story this is, being fast paced would certainly have meant losing a lot of the heart.
The Characters throughout were wonderfully varied on their personalities, and they worked well together. I found myself enjoying each individual for different reasons, and the dog is absolutely brilliant. I want it 😍😍
In general, a brilliant story that will keep you glued to the pages late into the night, one of my favourite Fantasy reads this year, and this is her DEBUT novel! I Can’t WAIT to see what comes next from this Author!

I loved the idea of this book but I found it a little slow and struggled at times. An original idea though and would still read others by this author.

I really enjoyed Alix E. Harrow's Hugo-winning short story, <a href="https://www.apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/">A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies</a>, so I was very interested to read her debut novel, <i>The Ten Thousand Doors of January</i>, which came out this autumn.

<i>The Ten Thousand Doors of January</i> is the story of January Scaller, an awkward, stubborn girl with odd red-brown skin which marks her as a curiosity in turn-of-the-twentieth century America. January's father spends his time travelling the world collecting curiosities for the wealthy businessman Mr Locke, who is almost like a foster father to his employee's daughter. At the age of seven, January finds a Door to another world. At the age of seventeen, she finds a curious book which tells a story of Doors and love and adventure which changes her life for ever.

This was an absolutely delightful book; a clever fantasy with an engaging heroine which weaves its two narratives (January's own, and the book she finds) together so that they become a single, seamless whole, with vivid, beautifully-described secondary worlds, chilling but complex villains and an underlying critique of imperialism and conservatism which warmed my lefty heart. I wasn't entirely convinced by the romance subplot, and I did see a lot of the plot twists coming a long way ahead of January, but overall I loved this, and it turns out that a beautifully-written fantasy about escaping into magical worlds and books was just what I needed in a cold, dark, miserable December.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC for review.

This was not quite the portal fantasy I was expecting, but was instead a really fascinating and engrossing historical novel with a whimsical twist. It tells the story of January, a mixed race girl brought up by her rich foster father, Locke, as her real father travels the globe locating interesting objects and doorways between worlds. When January finds a book called The Ten Thousand Doors, her life takes a turn she never expected. Firstly, I really enjoyed the structure of the narrative, as we alternate between a chapter of January's story and a chapter from the book she discovers. When done well, as it is here, this always makes for a really well paced novel and it expands the action in fascinating ways. I thought that the book dealt with some tough topics with a sensitive touch, which I appreciated, and although I was expecting this to be more fantastical than it was, once I got used to the setting and prose, I really enjoyed the story. There are some fabulous peripheral characters on show here, which was fun, but I did think January faded into the background on occasion, which was a shame. Overall, I thought this was a really well told tale that would appeal to people who like The Night Circus or the Wayward Children series.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A beautiful, unique, emotional read that tugged at my heartstrings and enveloped me entirely. Wow. I felt as though I was living inside this book as I turned each page, and there were so many beautiful lines - from the very first page! - that I felt the need to make note of. The story is so clever and so gorgeous, with subtle twists throughout, and the most perfect ending I could have imagined.

Really enjoyed this book. Imaginative and original, with a fascinating cast of characters. January in particular is a proper traditional ‘heroine’, feisty and likeable, surrounded by loyal friends to cheer on, and dastardly enemies to boo. At the centre of this fantastic story of other worlds is a message about the power of love. Highly recommended.

It has taken me some time to review this story because I’m still not sure about my feelings towards it. I have in my mind a need to revisit it sometime in the future - I enjoyed the beginning but somewhere along the way it lost me. The main character, January, discovers a handwritten book chronicling the adventures of a young farm girl, Adelaide, who discovers a door to another world. From this world walks a boy, Yule Ian. He and Adelaide have a single, remarkable conversation that spins them both off on a life-long adventure. There is exploration of other worlds, there is romance, there is a magical land where the written word has the ability to literally shape the world around it. The whole novel is based around some really interesting ideas, especially the ones surrounding the role of doors, of magic and portal fantasy, but the real story is one where the reader spends most of their time following January as she learns about the portals and the worlds within them as part of a "story within the story" of uncovering family secrets, but then spends very little actual time inside them. We are mostly told, not shown, the fantasy elements of the story and I found this very disappointing.

“It is my hope that this story is your thread, and at the end of it you find a door."

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is one of the best books I’ve read this year—actually, it’s one of the best books I’ve read, full stop. It’s filled with magic and phenomenal writing, with characters you can’t help but love and care about, with doors that lead to ten thousand worlds. It’s a story about stories and I loved every single page.

It sounds like a cliché, but I loved The Ten Thousand Doors of January from the very first sentence on. Alix E. Harrow's prose is one of a kind, so carefully crafted, so beautiful and vivid. She manages to draw the reader into the story effortlessly, and I never wanted to leave. This book feels like a love letter to stories, fairy tales, myths—it's a book inside a book inside a book, really. There are worlds to discover between its pages and I wanted to visit them all!

"You see, doors are many things: fissures and cracks, ways between, mysteries and borders. But more than anything else, doors are change."

Then, of course, we have January Scaller, the protagonist of this story. We watch her grow up over the course of this book: from when she was seven until she reaches adulthood. Although it cannot be said that January's life has ever been easy, she still holds so much love in her heart and so much hope. She’s mixed-race and lives in the early 20th century US—you can imagine that that fact alone hasn’t made life easy for her—so this book very much focuses on that, too. It shows the injustice of the world we live in, and I won't lie, I was so angry sometimes, because I love January and I wanted only the best for her. January truly is a wonderful protagonist: she is brave, but not fearless; instead, she manages to be strong despite the fear, and that is so unbelievably powerful. She has lost so much and she has found it again. She sacrificed a lot. But in the end, she is the kind of person that fixes things—and she can never sit still. And, luckily, she isn't alone.

Because of course, this isn't just January's story. It's also the story of Yule Ian and Adelaide Lee Larson—star-crossed lovers who have found their way to each other, again and again, even with worlds separating them. I love how Alix E. Harrow manages to intertwine the lives of so many different characters; and till the last moment I wondered about the connection between them. I made a few guesses, of course, but I could never have figured out how beautifully everything would come together in the end.

"Because I didn't want to be safe, I suppose. I wanted to be dangerous, to find my own power and write it on the world."

It's also the story of Miss Jane Irimu, a woman with a tragic past but a fierce heart. And it's the story of Samuel Zappia, a boy so deeply in love that it made my heart happy and sad at the same time.

Then, of course, there is the villain. I don't want to reveal his name—you see, he isn't your typical villain. Instead, he doesn’t seem like a villain; he is charming and he has ambitions that seem right to himself, just, even. Maybe, there is a very small part in his heart that is able to actually feel love. He was such an interesting character and certainly the kind of villain I'd like to see more of in books.

I could truly spend an eternity between the pages of this book, visit the ten thousand worlds—and more, if they were to be discovered. Alix E. Harrow writes so beautifully, so detailed, so emotive; I never wanted this book to end. Words cannot explain my love for January and her story; I love all the characters so much, all the different worlds. The way this story shows the different ways people with power can act: how some are selfish and want to keep it for themselves, and how some want to bring power—and magic—into every single world and share it. The themes that were central to The Ten Thousand Doors of January made my heart hurt and heal simultaneously: family, true love, freedom, adventure, injustice, healing. I cried throughout the last chapter and then the epilogue, too—but it was a good kind of crying, the kind that only a story filled to the brim with emotion could possibly accomplish.

Overall, The Ten Thousand Doors of January has it all: the kind of prose that pulls you into the story and refuses to let you go until you read the very last page; the kind of characters that find a place in your heart—that make you laugh and cry; the kind of imagination that makes you think that, maybe, magic exists; and the kind of hope that there really are ten thousand worlds and you can discover every single one of them.

"I hope you will find the cracks in the world and wedge them wider, so the light of other suns shines through; I hope you will keep the world unruly, messy, full of strange magics; I hope you will run through every open Door and tell stories when you return."

(On a last note: for some reason, this book reminded me a lot of Laini Taylor's work. It could be the Adult version of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, with its doors between world, its star-crossed lovers. And it also has a bit of a Strange the Dreamer vibe, with Yule Ian’s love for books, just like Lazlo. This is the biggest compliment coming from me, because I adore Laini Taylor's books endlessly.)

This was just so magical it’s hard to put into words. January is such an amazing main character, she was so witty and sarcastic and I LOVED it! The story telling was so immersive, the world building just sucked you in and I didn’t want to put this book down at all. If you like the Wayward children series you’ll love this book.

A beautiful read with a prise which felt lyrical and a story which drew me to another realm.

January lived with Cornelius Locke while her father went to buy odd stuff for Locke. Stuck in that house, January came across a book which bespoke of locked doors which opened with faith and which would lead to adventures...

My first book by Alix E. Harrow, I was spellbound in the entirety of my journey down this book. Every word revealed the beauty of the writing and the way they were strung together told me the depth of the author's talent. The plot was intriguing and oh so different, it plunged me straight into January's world.

January was intelligent and sarcastic, brave and lonely, with a great sense of humor. I was quite hooked to the emotions she evoked. The pace kept to its steady stream and showed me different realms. Quite an imagination the author had to write this book.

An absolutely captivating book. It took me a few days to write this review as I was too enthralled and words escaped me.

This was a heartfelt and magical read. The writing pulled me through the pages and into the different worlds. It was a real treat. Thank you for approving me! I'm very excited to see what the author has in store next.

To be perfectly honest I haven’t a clue where to start with this review. I’ve sat for ages waiting for the right words to come to me but each time I type something I instantly delete it. It’s not because I didn’t enjoy this book, in fact I loved it and I could probably write an essay about it but I want you to love it just as much as me so I don’t want to spoil one little bit of this magical story. I didn’t read any reviews before hand and went into The Ten Thousand Doors and fell in love.

I’m not sure what it is about this book, maybe it’s the beautiful writing or the powerful and engaging characters or maybe it’s the stunning settings within the story or maybe it’s just everything about this book that made me fall in love with it. It reminded me of the feelings I used to have as a child when I read a book, the feeling of escapism, of believing, the feeling of words wrapping themselves around you and pulling you into the story and everything else, the whole world disappearing as you read.

The story isn’t fast paced but it flows steadily and with each page turned it draws you in more and more. It’s almost like building bricks, you start with one and slowly build them up to reveal a beautiful and satisfying creation and that’s how I felt about this story. It is a beautiful creation and also very unique.

I won’t say too much but with The Ten Thousand Doors you get to read a story within a story (it will make sense when you read it) and I really enjoyed the two narratives, both equally engaging and totally fascinating.

The Ten Thousand Doors is almost like stepping inside a tardis, it doesn’t look too big and in fact it comes in at under 400 pages but oh boy it is so much bigger and absolutely filled to the brim with beautiful words that absolutely absorb you. It’s a story that will stay with me for a very long time and I’m not one to re-read books often but I do believe I will go back to this one again.

If you love reading, if you love a good story and even if fantasy isn’t your usual cup of tea I highly recommend this book. Pick it up, forget about everything that is real in this world and believe, believe in the written word, believe in different worlds and imagine, just imagine there is more out there and enjoy.

I truly enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January and like I said previously this was such a hard review to write without spoiling it. I devoured this book and I’m actually bereft it’s finished, I didn’t want it to end and when I finished the last page I felt so full yet so empty, a real book hangover. I want more (stamps feet).

This is an incredible debut and I am super excited to see where Alix E. Harrow takes us next and hopefully it won’t be too long until I get to enjoy more beautiful and exciting writing from this very talented author.

Can I also just add that I know you should never judge a book by its cover but with this book oh my days, the cover is just as beautiful as the story. I’d frame this and put it in my wall, it’s gorgeous.

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for providing me with a copy for review.

January Scaller, as the ward of Mr Locke, makes a discovery that leads her through magical worlds and teaches her to believe in the impossible.

I fell in love with this book when I first read the description and then fell in love with it all over again when I read the first line. The beautiful writing of this novel builds an incredibly magical story that is totally unique and intriguing. It has one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen and that alone makes me want to seek out a hard copy.

January is a strong heroine and easily holds this story on her shoulders as it follows her throughout her adventures and her life. She is a great character that teaches people to retain their dreams and beliefs throughout their lives, no matter what obstacles they may face or what their circumstances may be.