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waytoomanybooks's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Grief, Classism, Confinement, Racism, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Forced institutionalization
eruby's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation
isabelmary's review against another edition
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 meLocke 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
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Grief
Moderate: Abandonment, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Racism
purplepenning's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
"Once there was a brave and temeraryous (sp?) girl who found a Door. It was a magic Door that’s why it has a capital D. She opened the Door."
Set (mostly) in the early 1900s in (mostly) Vermont, The Ten Thousand Doors of January tells the (mostly) coming-of-age tale of January who longs to join her father on his artifact-hunting trips but is stuck being raised in luxury and on display by their wealthy benefactor-collector, Mr. Locke. It is, of course, about so much more than that: a possibly real magic Door, a possibly evil Society, an impossible love story, the impossible power of words, the possibilities of courage and progress.
I'm a sucker for a portal fantasy and this is such a good one! The narrative follows an unusual format, which might weigh down some readers, but I loved the dimension it adds and the way it drew me into the experience.
Content notes: racism, bigotry, confinement (to room, closet, mental asylum, bed, with and without restraints), tattooing and cutting, knife and gun violence, death, vampire, mind control
Set (mostly) in the early 1900s in (mostly) Vermont, The Ten Thousand Doors of January tells the (mostly) coming-of-age tale of January who longs to join her father on his artifact-hunting trips but is stuck being raised in luxury and on display by their wealthy benefactor-collector, Mr. Locke. It is, of course, about so much more than that: a possibly real magic Door, a possibly evil Society, an impossible love story, the impossible power of words, the possibilities of courage and progress.
I'm a sucker for a portal fantasy and this is such a good one! The narrative follows an unusual format, which might weigh down some readers, but I loved the dimension it adds and the way it drew me into the experience.
Content notes: racism, bigotry, confinement (to room, closet, mental asylum, bed, with and without restraints), tattooing and cutting, knife and gun violence, death, vampire, mind control
Content Warnings
Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Blood, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Confinement, Racism, Sexism, Torture, and Violence
heytherekaity's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
5.0
hello yes I LOVE this book!!!!!
do you like portal fantasies? have you ever wished the Wayward Children series were full length books instead of novellas? do you dream of a grown up version of The Magician's Nephew? because if so, WOW do I have the book for you!
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is an absolutely PHENOMENAL book and you should read it as soon as you possibly can!!!
and also Alix E. Harrow is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE authors and somehow I ended up reading her debut THIRD (I read A Spindle Splintered first, then The Once and Future Witches) and OH MY STARS it's just SO GOOD! her writing style just really works for me and I wish she had at least ten more books for me to read RIGHT NOW! (but there will be more soon and I will wait. patiently. or at least attempting to wait patiently)
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | Readerly
do you like portal fantasies? have you ever wished the Wayward Children series were full length books instead of novellas? do you dream of a grown up version of The Magician's Nephew? because if so, WOW do I have the book for you!
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is an absolutely PHENOMENAL book and you should read it as soon as you possibly can!!!
and also Alix E. Harrow is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE authors and somehow I ended up reading her debut THIRD (I read A Spindle Splintered first, then The Once and Future Witches) and OH MY STARS it's just SO GOOD! her writing style just really works for me and I wish she had at least ten more books for me to read RIGHT NOW! (but there will be more soon and I will wait. patiently. or at least attempting to wait patiently)
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | Readerly
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia
dtodd's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-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? No
3.5
I found the writing of this book, which had been recommended to me by a friend, to be excellent, with wonderfully imaginative turns of phrase and descriptive moments. The central premise also felt original, though was of course related to other works of fantasy, particularly Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart series. However, I was disappointment that the plot moved very slowly, and halfway through, I begin to get bored. If the plot had matched the writing, it would have been outstanding. As it is, for me it is very good, but a little too slow-moving.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence
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