Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Holy shit why haven’t I read this book sooner. It’s so good and magical and exactly in my alley.

I would compare this book to The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern in vibes.

Alix managed to write this book in a way I start to believe there may be actually Doors hidden in our world. It makes me want to go and explore, see if I can end up in different worlds, without minding the risk of ending up in a shitty one. I love how stories are woven through this book it makes it so much more magical.

The Once and Future Witches was my first book by Alix E Harrow and I will absolutely read more if she decides to publish them.

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laurenfro22's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

“…the place you are born isn’t necessarily the place you belong.”

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. Given other reviews, I expected a slapdash attempt at magical realism and tropic overuse. What I read was an unfurling love letter to imagination and the power of words and hope and the little mysteries of life.

Harrow sets her story at the turning of our 20th century, when the western world had been gripped by industrialization, for better or for worse. Her main character is stubborn and clever, both important for the challenges she faces. Harrow writes her main character a specific voice and speaks directly to us the reader, which feels so personal as we journey through the story.

Throughout the twists of this plot, Harrow continues to surprise and delight, both in her delivery and in drawing on the best parts of the storytelling traditions. Her world building layers our often bleak surroundings with a softly glinting façade that we can nearly believe exists in our peripheral vision. I enjoyed the occasional highfalutin language and overly particular descriptions. Some readers may find it obnoxious or unnecessary. For me, it makes the real world feel just slightly more magical when I close the book, like maybe there is a way to see small spots of magic and change in everyday life.

Important for readers wanting to avoid some topics, review closely the content warnings. I am glad I knew of a few items to be aware of, as I would have found a couple of sections pretty jarring without the forewarning.

This is a surprising five star for me, made even more so by the fact that I randomly picked it up at the bookstore because it was first on the recommended list when I opened the app two weeks ago. Harrow’s masterful use of language, and her powerful connection to the importance of love in all its forms, of family in its many manifestations, and wonder at the beauty in the world makes The Ten Thousand Doors of January a must read.

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waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Harrow writes beautiful prose and excellently nails the desperate longing for something more that every young woman feels growing up in a world full of adults who make it their mission to squash their spirits. January, Ade, and Jane are brave and strong in the face of prejudice and heartache, and I can't help but sympathize with them on a rather personal level.

The concept of looking for an escape, a way out, a Door is deeply relatable. There is nothing more appealing to me than a door. Especially when that door is old, secluded, or has a special Something that has drawn me to it. I find it difficult to resist the urge to try to open every door I pass, and then I am left wondering what was behind it, even years after I've passed it by. It was so cathartic to see a character who is just like me in that regard, always asking questions and looking for answers.

If there was anything I'd say against it, it's that descriptions of events, people, places, etc. trailed on for too long until it felt as though I was reading a list of adjectives. She's also quite fond of the words "oil," "greasy," "shush," and "bronze." And the ending was rather abrupt.

Overall, I enjoyed this read. And it hits a lot of bullet points in my reading wheelhouse: female MC, historical settings, time travel, magical realism, secret doors/passages, and women on journies.

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elliebeemellie's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book was terrible and lovely and exactly the sort of bittersweet adventure I wanted so badly as a child. The beginning was slow, but the writing turned lovely, and I loved the exploration of deliciously complicated character relationships. I can't say too much without spoiling bits of the book, but the story explores themes about love and abuse and neglect in really interesting ways.
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“There's only one way to run away from your own story, and that's to sneak into someone else's.”

"Worlds were never meant to be prisons, locked and 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."

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carbs4life's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I enjoyed the Harrow’s prose. It had a way of sucking me into this story and it wraps up nicely. Ten Thousand Doors is full of adventure and romance across worlds. The romance is contained to journal entries which I found quite effective and does not distract from the main direction of the plot.

It is an imaginative and interesting story. One that I found myself thinking about when I wasn’t reading. I believe I’ll keep this book on my mind for years imagining the world that Alix Harrow built.

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eruby's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This is a good book. Interesting premise, beautiful writing, loveable characters, a dog sidekick that doesn't die, the plot coming together nicely at the end. I only wish I had read it earlier in my life. At its core, this is a coming of age story, a story of a sheltered 17 year old embarking on an adventure and finding out the world isn't everything she had been told it was. It is a story of a girl who finds freedom after spending her life chafing against the strict rules, and learning about heartbreak, resilience, and tragedy along the way. These are themes that I know would have resonated very strongly with me when I was in high school and college and that I still connect with at 27 but just not as strongly. There are certain elements of this book that feel like a young adult novel (though I didn't see it billed as YA), aside from the main character being a teenager- mainly that the symbolism and thematic elements are very in-your-face (for example,

the character closing the doors being named Locke

). I also think I've been reading too much high fantasy with hard magic systems and deep lore because I had to stop myself from thinking too deeply about the mechanics of these doors. Like, why doesn't time progress differently between the different worlds? Does our world and The Written have a special relationship in that the people can reproduce, or can all people from all worlds reproduce? Why are there three known doors to The Written but only one for every other world? But these questions don't really matter and explanations wouldn't actually add much to the story, so now I'm just rambling.

All that said, I really enjoyed this book and I think if it existed and I had read it 5-10 years ago I would have given it five stars instead of 4.25.

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was kind of a weird one for me. I think I should have liked it more? It was a beautifully written and engaging story about the power of words and the magic of books, while also being a striking social commentary on power. Framing our world as one of many, so as to analyze its bizarre inconsistencies and wild prejudice? Brilliant. There were several sentences I’d want to underline and quote here if I had the space. And the narrator was good too! I think I just wasn’t in the right headspace, because I wasn’t as taken with this novel as I probably should have been. I’m going to read it again in print later. That’s why I’m still giving it 5 stars! Five stars means I want to reread. So even if I didn’t totally love this reading experience, I think it was me, not the book!

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isabelmary's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

This book was such a mixed bag for me. The prose was lovely, and the sense of atmosphere the author evokes is wonderful. The path that January takes - from subdued “good girl” to untamed and free - is compelling, but overall I won’t be revisiting this book or investigating the author’s other works.

Some pros:
- Gorgeous prose - describing the Doors and the other worlds etc
- it was nice to have race actually play a realistic role in a historical fantasy
- the ending was satisfying
- the work itself is clearly well crafted with a lot of love
- the premise is great
- the interweaving of the stories works overall

Some cons:
- it took the protagonist a LONG time to realize things that felt very obvious to me, and that was frustrating
- the interpolation of the two different first person narrative accounts felt contrived (For the middle half of the novel, January ends every chapter picking up a book and reading a chapter of it. In some ways this must’ve taken a lot of clever planning to pull off, but it ended up getting a little unlikely and irritating)
- both narratives were written from the character’s future, and both of them take multiple moments to decry the decisions of the past eg “if only I’d been fast enough”…. That stressed me out
- the love interest has no personality of his own and seems to have a totally improbable attachment to her
- the ending confrontation was actually pretty anticlimactic to me

Locke was clearly evil from day 1, and January’s shock at realizing that did nothing for me. It was realistic for her, sure, but annoying as a reader. There was no real explanation for how she withstood his will and so his death felt unearned to me

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