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saturnsierra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Blood, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism
waytoomanybooks's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
eruby's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation
isabelmary's review against another edition
3.0
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
Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation
purplepenning's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
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
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
heytherekaity's review against another edition
- 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
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)
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Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
dtodd's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Colonisation