Scan barcode
cardlikecredit's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Mental illness, Confinement, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Blood, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Colonisation and Racism
norspider's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, and Classism
Moderate: Racism, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Death of parent
Minor: Violence
perifairy's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Self harm, Abandonment, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Classism, Blood, Colonisation, and Abandonment
ohheyitlex's review
- 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
I didn't feel hooked until after
In the end, I love the reveal that
Moderate: Racism and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty
adequate_squatch's review
- 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
4.5
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Animal cruelty
r_j_setser'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
5.0
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a deeply emotional coming-of-age novel with a splash of fantasy. While I can't say that it's an "enjoyable" read, it is definitely one that can play your emotions effortlessly and I have no choice by to give it five stars. The writing style is absolutely breathtaking, January is a unique and lovable main character who will always have you rooting for her, and the double time-line makes the plot very engaging.
I never grew tired of the story or lost interest, but there were a few scenes where I had to step away and take a breath just because of the emotional intensity. This book got the closest to making me cry as any book has in a very long time. I will recommend it to anyone looking for a low fantasy, historical novel with a healthy dose of heartbreak and healing.
Moderate: Classism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Self harm, Blood, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Cursing
Content warnings:atlantisfrost's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, and Forced institutionalization
asahome's review
3.5
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.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Violence, Racism, Colonisation, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, and Murder
mindsplinters's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Xenophobia and Racism
amaranth_wytch's review
4.0
Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Blood, Confinement, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Grief, and Self harm
Minor: Gun violence