Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

74 reviews

cherry_lake's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really enjoyed this book. Slow paced movement from historical fiction into fantasy. Felt like an homage to older YA novels and also did I detect direct inspiration from Broken Earth Trilogy? Definitely difficult themes!

Seems like those who didn’t enjoy it were mainly disappointed by false advertising or assumptions, but I had no idea what it was about or that it existed until a friend recommended! Glad I tried it.

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svenja135's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

2.75


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se_wigget's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Exquisite fantasy novel!

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stargrlbooks's review

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4.0

I am conflicted on this one. On one hand, I absolutely adore Alix Harrow's writing and find myself enamored by her ability to create beautiful and magical worlds within such mundane settings. I fell for the characters in this book and I think overall I enjoyed it. However, the pacing is a bit weird for me and I found that the weaving between point of views was harsh at first and I found myself skimming some of the first chapters. I also think I went in a little too excited after Starling House and was met with a story that wasn't as satisfying or compelling. I would read it again though!

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norspider's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

You can visit other worlds if you're very, very brave.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January mostly follows January Scaller, a young girl growing up as the ward of a wealthy and eccentric collector. Her days are spent in hazy boredom, missing her father while he works. Until one day, January stumbles upon a door that opens to another world. From then her life is a series of searches, upheavals, chases, and escapes. 

The first time I read Ten Thousand Doors I stopped after the first chapter. It was good, just not the story I was looking for at the time. Almost a year later I picked it up again and devoured it. The writing is beautifully imaginative and vivid (too much, at times). Each world you visit feels real and lived-in. The characters described with such depth you can almost touch them. The story could have been told in fewer words, but it is such a rich experience the way it is. 

I would have followed January and Bad through another 10,000 Doors. 

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ohheyitlex's review

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adventurous reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This book had a dragging start for me.
I didn't feel hooked until after
January escapes the asylum
though from then on, I did really enjoy the story! Once all the dots started to connect, and it was made clear that the book she's reading is
actually her parent's story and thus hers
I thought it was paced very well.
In the end, I love the reveal that
January has been writing her story for Samuel. And how she is truly living her own life and creating her own adventures.

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asahome's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

A young woman learns the story of her life isn't what she thought it was. In the end, she goes through one of the ten thousand Doors to find her Home.

There is a book within a book. It felt a little like two short stories brought together in one novel with large sections devoted to one story over the other.

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mindsplinters's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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

Glorious language in a world inspired by all of those portal fantasies that served as a staple to so many of our childhoods.  When we are little, we know that words have power.  When we get older... we forget.  This book makes you remember in the most visceral way as you follow the inner and outer and round-about journey of January Scaller and her mother and her father and her associates.  The entire thing is caught midway between a fairy tale and a very real world story of wealth and haves and have-nots.  While there is a lot of magic here, not just in the words used by the author or the stuff drawn from the characters' will, there is also a lot of brutal honesty.  Even in the other worlds mentioned, there is no shying away from the harsh brutality that might be there.  Doubly so with what we readers might reasonably call our own.  At the turn of the century (1900, that is), there was a lot going on in the world and not all of it was good.  Progress came in two flavors, good and bad, but not everyone can tell them apart.  Racism, stratification of society, people actively fighting to stay on top of the heap. 

January is witness to it all but only slowly starts to actually understand and realize what it all means.  As a character, she has a very long way to grow and go and it is both pleasure and pain to be her companion.  Without quite coming out and saying it, the author holds us witness to the emotional abuse and neglect, the masked concern, and care with strings that January endures.  We see the flaws; January has to learn to see the poison behind and beneath it all.  Understandably, as a complex and very human character, she fights the knowledge at times or backslides.  After all,  it is sometimes much easier to ignore a door or close it than to deal with what might come through it.

In the end, though, this book is so full of hope and strength and you leave it battered and scarred but with a new determination.  As January says (via Alix E Harrow) "I hope to every god you have the guts to do what needs doing.  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."

May we all have the bravery and conviction to STOP being polite when confronted with Wrongness and Evil.

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amaranth_wytch's review

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adventurous inspiring medium-paced

4.0


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jessicarenz's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

3.0


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