In the endless sea of new releases, Ten Thousand Doors stands out as a literary accomplishment to rival even its greatest peers.

With a story spanning many years and worlds, I found myself falling more and more in love with this novel with every page.

The characters run the gamut of personalities, from strong and determined to meek and easily influenced. My favourite would probably have to be Locke as he takes on the role of caretaker and villain so very well.

The tale of January takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster, at times it caused tears, others incited a feeling of overwhelming joy. January searching for her place between worlds takes this period narrative to a whole other level.

I did however come to points throughout where this beautiful tale felt a little disjointed. The skipping between time periods was a little confusing in parts with some details seeming unimportant but later becoming pivotal to the story.

Overall it was a relatively enjoyable and enthralling read.

Despite its beautiful cover, The Ten Thousand Doors of January left me generally underwhelmed, fell pretty flat to me. There was something missing, something discordant, offkey - too many F sharps as my favourite eleven-year-old boy would say, or maybe too many E flats. The pace is uneven, emphasis where there should be none, rush when there should be more depth, especially towards the ending. I liked, but didn't love, reading it. It was enjoyable, I'd recommend it, but it didn't enchant me. With echoes of The Secret Garden, The Night Circus, The Time Traveller's Wife, I'd have wanted something that flew off the page, transported me through its ten thousand doors; instead I got an enjoyable read, slightly too wordy and slow for me at times, but filled with interesting metaphors and great characters. The world building and scene-setting is good, the prose is adept and convincing, but didn't quite flow for me as well as it could have done. I also struggled with the split narrative - this is my problem rather than the book's as I'm not a big fan of them and often find them to give me a disjointed feeling, unless they're particularly seamless. Indeed, if it had been just January's section I think this book would have worked far better for me - the other section, the Ten Thousand Doors section, was written in a slightly dryer style; reflective of the time in which the book is set, a struggle for me to get into. It's a shame that I didn't like it more and I can't completely put my finger on why. I think lots of people will love it, others will feel as I did. I think it depends what you're looking for in a book; I think if this one had had less promise for me - I've been desperate to read it for months - then I'd have liked it more. But to reiterate, I did like it, I just didn't love it. It's a good book, but not, for me, a great one.

I’m not sure what genre or indeed how I can describe The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

On the one hand it was the story of January, her childhood under the guardianship of a Mr Locke and the discovery of her parents past. On the other hand it was a magical journey where you expected mythical monsters from the Greek myths and legends to jump out at you from the pages.

The storytelling was magnificently sumptuous, the Doors January and her parents discovered, travelled through, the lands and the people they encountered were tinged with magic and wonder. You felt yourself transported to an alternate world that you didn’t want to leave.

I loved January, from the innocent little girl to the strong and brave woman she became she was a refreshing change in the world of female novel characters. She didn’t seem to fit the normal stereotypes, not the gungho female heroine with the brute force as she forged her way to the truth. Instead her quest was rooted in literature, in the books sneaked to her by her friend Samuel and ultimately the book written by her father. Ir was her wonderment at the stories and the images they conjured in her mind that so entranced, that made you hope that she had that happy ending.

If The Ten Thousand Doors of January was full of magic it also had an underlying feeling of an evil presence lurking beneath its surface, the chilling Mr Havemeyer, intent in thwarting January at every opportunity, Brattlebro, the asylum, that tried to restrain her, all gave the novel an extra frisson of excitement and menace.

It was a novel that enthralled, held you spellbound and firmly in its grip as you followed January’s journey and a novel that I would highly recommend if you want to lose yourself in a wonderful magical world.

A beautifully whimsical book with hard truths and important lessons. On the older side of YA this was a brilliant read, with hints and sprinkles of magic, yet delving into more serious topics, this was a great book for any magic lover.

Wow! This book grabbed hold of me and didn’t let me go until the very end!

January lives with the wealthy Mr Locke who looks after her whilst her father is away working. One day, whilst looking through the collections belonging to Mr Locke, she makes a discovery that changes everything.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I haven’t read a book that has captured my imagination like this for a long time. I started to dream about it, so much so that I had to pick it back up the next day!

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have!

I was provided a free e-book by NetGalley.

Thanks to the publisher via Net Galley for a complimentary ARC of this book in return for an honest review. In the case of this book however I really wanted to be reading a hard copy so I could flip backwards and forwards with January through her doors rather than reading in a straight electronic line. January of the title starts the book as a child under the guardianship of the wealthy Mr Locke, a collector of interesting artefacts from around the world. He employs January's father to travel the globe searching out the rare and intriguing. This aspect of the story alone raises issues of theft from other cultures by the privileged class, along with questions of parenting, love and loyalty. This is only one aspect of this intriguing book. Initially I wasn't sure where the tale was going but I was soon gripped as January started to find doors to other worlds and to question everything she had hitherto taken for granted. This book abounds with strong female characters and a fabulously faithful canine companion. I look forward to rereading in hard copy and will certainly recommend this widely.

Let us address the elephant in the room first: this book’s design is incredibly beautiful and I’m so thrilled to be able to say that the contents, in my opinion, match the exterior. Alix E. Harrow’s debut is beautiful, adventurous, and compelling; there was an undefinable, spell-binding quality that had me practically inhaling this book, it was only the fact I was on holiday with family that stopped me from consuming it greedily in one sitting, to be honest. Set in New England, at the turn of the twentieth century, The Ten Thousand Doors of January tells the story of January Scaller, a plucky child and later strong young woman with an insatiable curiosity for doors, books, and the adventures lurking behind both. January’s father is forever off on far-flung adventures on behalf of his employer, Mr Locke, the mysterious and wealthy man who acts as January’s guardian in his absence, giving her a comfortable home in his sprawling house and introducing her to the sort of society that surrounds a man of his stature.

I didn’t quite expect this book to have such a serious socio-political message underneath it all. As well as pointing to heavy topics of migration, belonging, and not quite fitting into the culture which you are inhabiting (January is biracial and experiences the discrimination associated to her skin colour whilst also being afforded the privileges of status that being Mr Locke’s ward brings) the book also addresses the idea of colonialism and imperialism and the tendency of imperial nations (or figures) to conquer and then claim artefacts and treasures as their own. At several moments in this story, January’s guardian, Mr Locke, collects rare antiques (of a sort) and the novel doesn’t shy away from discussing the problematic aspects to this sort of “acquisition” which was historically undertaken by very wealthy men who wanted rare objects for their own collections which were then used as a marker of their desired social status. The society of such gentlemen that Mr Locke is part of also seems to treat January herself as something of a curiosity, and her upbringing and education is figured as something of a “civilising experiment” by such men. I appreciated that the novel grappled with this historical undercurrent because I wasn’t necessarily expecting it to explore such issues and found myself pleasantly surprised that it took the time to do so in such a brutally honest way.

As well as having swashbuckling adventure and moments of tension, the story also had a really genuine heart underneath it all and a soft humour that had be smiling throughout. The narrative voice was witty and easily likeable and it certainly helps readers to immediately empathise with, and root for, the protagonist, the eponymous January Scaller. January is built in the familiar moulds of adventurous heroines from childhood stories, she’s Alice searching for Wonderland, she’s Lucy discovering Narnia, she’s Lyra clambering over the rooftops of Jordan College, and this element not only made me feel strangely nostalgic for all of those stories I loved when I was younger but also made me feel as though I knew January already. As she grows and matures and sees more of the world (both the good and the bad), a reader can’t help but go along her journey with her, especially as her own story and the story contained within the mysterious book The Ten Thousand Doors intertwine.

In conclusion, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is absolutely a book lover’s dream – it is a love letter to magical doors, to unexpected adventure, to the power of words, to the way storytelling can transport you in time and place to far-flung lands and experiences both so foreign to (and yet somehow still rooted in) your own life. For anyone who still hopes to find a little bit of the fantastical in everyday life, for the dreamers who always wanted to stumble into Narnia, this book will be a pure delight.

I loved the opening chapters and was convinced this was about to become an all time favourite, then it started to slow and i got about halfway and moved on to something else. I may go back to it and i definitely love the magically inclined, playful descriptive style, but it just sagged a bit in the middle for me.

January Scaller finds her first Door when she’s seven years old. It leads to somewhere far from her cosseted life as the foster daughter of a rich man. Little girls grow up and learn not to believe in the impossible. But then a strange book appears, just as January’s real father vanishes, and January sets out to discover the truth about Doors. One of the best fantasy books of 2019, this is a must for fans of Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman.

Living as the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, January Scaller is as much of a rare curiosity as the many rare treasures that fill his mansion. January spends much of her life alone and lonely with her father off searching for new treasures for Mr. Locke and the New England Archaeological Society. When she finds a strange book that tells a story of mysterious doors that lead to dangerous and exotic places her life starts to change with every turn of the page.

I absolutely love The Thousand Doors of January. I was really very pleasantly surprised to discover that this was a debut novel. Harrow has crafted an excellent story within a story that carefully unfolds as January reads the book - The Ten Thousand Doors. It took me a while to realise what was happening and how the story is interwoven with January's life. I don't want to say too much and ruin the surprise.

In my opinion Harrow mastered the three essential components of a good book - characterisation, setting, and plot. I found January completely believable as the lonely young girl who wanders the halls of Locke's mansion desperate for her father's attention. Despite having a companion and a pet January is very much on her own and even more so when her father fails to return from one of his missions abroad. This 'aloneness' and loneliness is a prevalent theme throughout. Harrow uses multiple settings for her story - everywhere from a luxurious mansion, to a desolate farm in the midwest to a multitude of exotic and dangerous 'other' worlds. Harrow writing is descriptive enough that you can feel the hot wind on your cheek or smell the perfumed air yet she does this without being verbose. Now about the plot. As I mentioned earlier there is a story within a story and this is the same with the plot. There are two main dimensions to the plot - one is a love story or the search for love and the other is about overcoming the odds. I know this sounds very vague but I don't want to accidentally give anything away by describing too much of what happens.

The Thousand Doors of January is a great book that had me gripped from page 1 all the way to the end. It has easily made it into my top 5 books of the year....and the year isn't over yet. I am also pretty sure that it will make it into my top 20 fave books ever! All these accolades and Harrow is new author. Imagine what is going to come next for Harrow! I can hardly wait.

I am not a fan of purple prose, language so flowery that it takes a paragraph to describe what can be said in a sentence. I wanted to enjoy this book the premise is amazing and the interlinked stories are incredibly clever. Just not for me but please if you can bear the writing pick this up.

I really really wanted to love this book, mainly because it has the most stunning cover I’ve seen this year! From the synopsis it sounds like a beautiful novel that I honestly couldn’t wait to try. I spent a week trying, and failing to be interested in the characters and I really struggled with the ‘book in a book’ format.

So unfortunately I didn’t finish this one. I got to halfway or should I say I pushed to halfway as I’d read a couple of comments about this being a slow start but I didn’t feel that it had picked up by this point.

This is nothing against the writing, I think Harrow is a lover of words and that really shows in her descriptive text but sometimes beautiful language doesn’t make up for a whimsy storyline.

I will say that I might go back to this one. Maybe my mind isn’t in the right place so I’ll have a break, read some fantasy magical books and come back to it at a later date.

It’s taken me an unforgivably long time to write a full review this book because every time I began, I would panic that I would not be able to find sufficient words to convey the extent of my love for this beautiful, luminous story. It is, hands down, the best thing I’ve read this year and I want to run around pressing copies of it into the hands of everyone I know.

From the first page I knew we were on to something good. You know how some writers hit that sweet spot for you? That place where their tone of voice, their style, their essential writing quality just so perfectly melds with the way you like a story to be told? That happened immediately and I was charmed. This is all the more remarkable because the narrative structure is tricky- there’s a whole story within a story, which takes careful telling. And the underlying premise here of characters jumping through Door (with a capital D) portals into other worlds could have, in less able hands, come across as trite or cheesy. Not so here. The author Alix E. Harrow skilfully builds both world and the protagonist, January Scaller is multi-faceted, intriguing and unique. She is, as the author describes her, something “in-between” and as it turns out, that is both literal in the world-jumping sense and in terms of her character and appearance. But here’s the thing- despite being something quite different to the norm and regardless of any special latent talents in navigating Doors, January is no special snowflake. Her struggles seem real and her outcomes feel earned. It’s true that there are points in the story when she does do some completely idiotic things but in Harrow’s tale this feels more like character progression than simple plot device.

In addition there’s a wonderful – and at times heart wrenching- love story running through the book. I won’t say too much about this in order not to spoil it but I just loved these two characters and the challenges they faced. Again this side plot is managed without being too heavy handed and as it unfolded I was genuinely surprised at how various strands of the overall story were explained and how it all came together.

One thing I must mention is that there is an incident briefly involving violence/abuse of an animal, which some might find upsetting. This is my only criticism- I read all manner of disturbing stuff without being too shocked but in this case I feel it was somewhat unnecessary and it detracted rather than added to the story. Apart from that there are some wonderfully creepy villains and a few chilling moments of thrilling peril and dread.

Finally I give a special nod to the ending- so many authors deliver a wonderful tale for so many pages and then fail to stick the landing. I thought the conclusion of the book was perfect and I felt completely satisfied afterwards. I won’t ask for a sequel because I feel the resolution was solid just as it was but it’s fair to say I am now a massive fan of Alix E. Harrow and would happily read anything else she may write.

Es innegable una tendencia actual en la fantasía a algo que podríamos llamar «literatura de portales». Me parece que esta tendencia empezó hace unos años con la trilogía The Magicians de Lev Grossman y sus viajes a Fillory, pero seguramente alguien con más conocimientos que yo podría indicar otro inicio. El caso es que los portales han vuelto a nuestras vidas y parece que para quedarse. Ahí tenemos a Seanan McGuire y su exitosa serie Wayward Child o la propia autora de esta novela, Alix E. Harrow, ganadora del premio Hugo por otro relato de puertas mágicas.


The Ten Thousand Doors of January tiene un gusto a fantasía clásica que resulta muy agradable para el lector más veterano, que se encuentra con lugares que no conoce pero que le recuerdan a otros por los que si ha transitado. En este sentido, la autora es muy hábil dejándonos entrever otros mundos pero sin definirlos apenas, solo dando unas pequeñas pinceladas de lo que podríamos encontrarnos allí. En los mundos en los que se va desarrollando la historia sí que hay más descripciones y ahí es donde la autora saca a relucir todo su arsenal de comparaciones y estilos. Me ha fascinado la prosa que utiliza, capaz de decir mucho con pocas palabras. Creo que este es uno de los puntos más destacables de la obra, el placer estético de la lectura.

El hecho de que la protagonista sea una persona de color también es importante, en parte por el desarrollo de la historia en sí, pero principalmente como alegato antirracista. El momento temporal en que se sitúa, a principios del siglo XX, también ayuda a que este factor incremente su importancia, y cubre de un velo misterioso las investigaciones que se llevan a cabo para encontrar nuevas puertas, porque en aquella época el mundo no estaba tan precisamente cartografiado como ahora. Un acierto, otro más, de la autora.

Creo que la historia de amor que se va descubriendo a través de cartas y otras referencias también es un pilar importante en la novela. Un amor que ocurre casi por casualidad pero que es capaz de afrontar las más terribles adversidades y complots para llegar a buen puerto también es algo que quedará en nuestra memoria tras haber leído el libro.

Quizá el punto más flojo del libro sean los enemigos, que parecen terribles en primera instancia pero que acaban deshaciéndose con una facilidad pasmosa para lo que se podría esperar de los miembros de una sociedad secreta dedicados a la conservación del status quo.

Creo que The Ten Thousand Doors of January es un libro del que se va a hablar mucho a lo largo de los próximos meses y no me extrañaría verlo en alguna lista de nominados para el año próximo.

January was never ordinary to begin with. Living in a house filled with every possible strange artifact from all corners of the world, she is used to strange and exotic things. But January is an exotic being, herself. At least, that's what her father's boss believes. January doesn't want to be just that anymore, though. And a strange book will help her with just that.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a beautifully story, narrated even more beautifully. It's one of those books you could imagine as a story told around a campfire in the evening. Alix Harrow has done a wonderful work, both in the character creation (you can't help but adore January, with all her stubborn and beautiful traits) and the language she uses. The story comes alive, and it's equal parts a fantasy world, a historical fiction, and life lessons given in literature form.

It;s hard to explain this story in detail. And, in all honesty, it's not a story that should be explained; but one that should be experienced. A recommended read, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is the perfect example of a well-written story.

January Schaller is a rather lonely little girl who loves to explore her guardian's large house while waiting for her father to come home from his worldly adventures. January's life changes when one day she finds a door, and discovers that there are secret pathways to different worlds. But her discovery soon turns to a life and death journey as a terrible society determined to destroy the doors come after January and everything she holds dear.

This book is a really weird, yet lovely, mix between Every Heart a Doorway, the Chronicles of Narnia and the doors from Monsters Inc. I really wanted to love it, and there were parts of it I definitely did. I also am not 100% sure what age range this book falls into, I thought YA at first but there were parts that read more adult.

The writing in this was definitely really good, and I definitely felt like Alix E Harrow knew the world she was writing, and she knew her characters. I loved that January was a biracial character, and though she grew up in luxury she was not immune to the treatment she received sometimes just because of her skin colour. And I appreciated that she saw the other side of the class divide as well when she was journeying without her riches and the protection of Mr Locke.

I'm not sure what it was with me with this book, but it took me a lot longer than I thought for me to really start getting into the story and feeling anyway a connection with any of the characters. It even, shock, gasp, horror, took me a while to love Bad! The dog!

I really wish we saw a bit more of some of the side characters in this book - Samuel and particularly Jane were both interesting but I felt they were at times, forgotten about. I loved Jane's story and would honestly love a novella or even a novel just about her and her land of leopard women, so cool. January's parents were both the tropey sad, slightly pathetic figures and I honestly didn't much care for them that much.

When it came to January reading the story, I kept finding myself really uninterested in it. Obviously everything comes together eventually, and I saw why the story was so important but it just took a while to get there - which seemed to be the theme of this book. I felt like everything only started to really happen about 70% in.

I really loved the ideas in this book, and the magic of the doors. The story itself just took too long to get going for me, and I felt like there was too much build up before any actual action.

I’ll admit that I was rather torn by this one. The comparison that came immediately to mind as I began to read was The Shadow of the Wind – and if I add the fact that Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s book is on my all-time favourites list, that gave it a particularly high benchmark to live up to.

At the beginning I was mesmerised – I really loved the whole feel of the book, the well-described quirky characters, and January’s clear and engaging voice and personality. I loved it until a third of the way in – the whole concept of the doors, the other lives, the way January’s life continued in the present with its many twists and turns, and the clever device introduced to frame the story.

The author’s style is compelling: the way she captures January’s day-to-day life with its edge of the strange and fantastical is superb, and I was immensely impressed by the sustained clarity of her voice. I also enjoyed the vivid and detailed descriptions creating January’s world – particularly Mr Locke’s home filled with curiosities – and the way her character grew and matured, facing the challenges with which she’s presented and the lessons learned along the way. And the book’s whole structure is highly original and very well-handled – I’m in awe at the author’s imagination and creativity.

But I’m sorry, my personal enchantment didn’t continue – the repeated departures from life’s reality left me behind, and that has far more to do with my own reading preferences than the book itself. While I can happily give it four stars in all the places that matter, I can only apologise that it was a book I just couldn’t love – but I do hope that the reviews of others might convince you to try it.

(Copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

This is not a novel to be skimmed, scanned or to fly through.  It's a indulgent story that should be read and digested with the utmost joy and the attention that it deserves.  From the stunning cover until the very end, every word should be savored.  It's also a novel that is just so brilliant that finding the words to describe it without revealing too much is difficult but here's my attempt. 

The writing is so vivid and it doesn't take long before the reader is fully merged with the story and it's wonderful characters.  Using a first person perspective works really well for this novel as it brings a child-like voice to the whole narrative and really helps to see the events through a younger set of eyes.

The world building and weaving  of characters and plot are extremely intricate and cleverly put together and the whole story is just spellbinding. 

For me personally, the key elements of the story were the undertones, subtly threaded through the main narrative but highlighting important aspects of life.  To begin with there is the question of January's heritage and how people perceive her.  Seeing the reactions of people around her, through her eyes really provokes thought about how others read us.  This theme is written typically of the time era of the book and really brings home how life was.  Another theme that was really heartbreaking was that of loss and the unknown for a child.  Having no mother and not knowing if her dad is alive or just working really is an issue that is still highly prevalent in many children's lives today.  My absolute favourite aspect of January was how unique and quirky she was in a time when this was much less acceptable.  These themes are tackled through the places she visits and the people that she meets. 

I cannot put into words how beautiful and eye opening this novel is to read.  Beautiful!

Thank you, NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for a review!

I was expecting this book to be better than it actually is, but it is not as bad as I heard others assume it was. For me, it was a good read. It had the perfect element that tangles all the reader together - the desire to escape.
The doors felt like a metaphor for everyone who tries to escape reality through reading.
I dearly appreciated that!

There are times when you love a book, and rather than explain you just want to put copies into the hands of the right readers and insist that they stop whatever they might have been doing and read.

I say the right reader because this isn’t a book that will be universally adored, and it isn’t quite perfect, but I know that those right readers will love it dearly.

It isn’t the kind of book that I read often, but I picked it up at exactly the right moment, when I needed an escape from the turbulence of the world that I live in.

The story opens in America, early in the 20th century.

January Scaller has grown up in the mansion of her guardian, Mr Locke, a wealthy collector of rare and rare and beautiful objects. This had come about because her mother – a white woman – had been missing for so long that it could only be presumed she was dead; and her father – a black man – was employed to travel as far and as wide as he could in search of new treasures for Mr Locke’s collection.

JanuaryShe knows that she has had a privileged upbringing, that she has been lucky in many ways, but she can’t help feeling that she is just another piece in the collection, prized by her guardian and the members of his scientific society for her cedar-wood coloured skin and her usual and exotic heritage.

As she grows up things that will change January’s worlds begin to happen.

She makes friends with a boy named Samuel, a delivery boy who often comes to the mansion.

He gives her a dog who she names Sinbad, and he becomes her devoted friend and protector.

Her father sends her a formidable black woman named Jane Irimu, who he hopes will be her companion and her guide.

And then two quite extraordinary things happen.

She finds a door, out in the country where no door should be, she finds that stepping through that door takes her into a different, and her head fills with questions about what that might mean, and about her own family history and situation.

Not long after that, she finds an old book. She had always loved books, and she knew straight away that the book she held in her hands was special.

<i>This one smelled unlike any book I’d ever held. Cinnamon and coal smoke, catacombs and loam. Damp seaside evenings and sweat-slick noon times beneath palm fronds. It smelled as if it had been in the mail for longer than any one parcel could be, circling the world for years and accumulating layers of smells like a tramp wearing too many clothes. It smelled like adventure itself had been harvested in the wild, distilled to a fine wine, and splashed across each page …</i>

The faded gold letters on the book’s spine read The Ten Thousand Doors, its opening pages presented it as a monograph on portals between worlds, but as January turned more pages she found that she herself reading a compelling story of the life and adventures of a young woman who had found doors just like the one she had found.

That was just the beginning of January’s own extraordinary adventure. I was enchanted by her voice from the very start, and it was lovely to follow her as she learned so much and discovered that though there were many who were eager to open doors and to learn and explore, there were others who wanted to exploit those things and to close and control doors.

Her story was written in lovely prose, that could be rich and evocative, that could move the story along at times of high drama, and that could build worlds wonderfully, wonderfully well. And that prose was threaded though with wonderful ideas, about words and books, about discovering the past and stepping into the future, about the big things and the small things that make a life.

<i>Once we have agreed that true love exists, we may consider its nature. it is not, as many misguided poets would have you believe, an event in and of itself; it is not something that happens, but simply something that simply is and always has been. One does not fall in love; one discovers it …</i>

January’s own story was every bit as special as the one in the book that she found, and the the two stories worked together beautifully.

The plot became a little predictable as the book went on, and I think the setting up of the story was stronger that the playing out; but my care and concern for January and her friends and the themes and ideas that enriched the story were more than enough to hold me.

There is a timeless quality to this story, and it sits well in its era while speaking about things that are very significant today.

I appreciated that it acknowledged its influences.

<i>Worlds were never meant to be prisons, locked suffocating and safe. 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 secret treasure chests in their attics …</i>

And I found that this book was wonderfully readable, that it gave me much to think about, that it pulled me right out of my world ….