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

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

27 reviews

hecubatohim'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? Yes

4.75

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thequiltyreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.0

I really enjoyed this story. There are a number of back stories, while slow in places they tie nicely together in the end.

I loved the occasional exploration of using particular words, capitalisations and the general importance of words.

There are fleeting references to various other lands / worlds through the Doors and I would have loved it if these had been explored in some way.

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k_galloway's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

beautifully written, but i’m sick of white authors writing characters of color with internalized racism as their main (and sometimes only) trait. do better.

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bittennailbooks's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

If you are a fan of RF Kuang's Babel, this is your next read.

A standalone, historical fantasy that casts a lens over the archaeologies contribution to colonization. January Scaller is a curiosity, she is the ward of wealthy Mr. Locke, an artificer that is the head of a highly prestigious archaeological society. January's birth father provides Mr. Locke with artifacts from all over the world in exchange for raising January. After telling Mr. Locke of passing through a magical door to another world as a child, Mr. Locke decides it is time to put an end to his ward's childish imagination. Putting away her childish fantasies, January is offered a prestigious membership into the archaeological society that Mr. Locke runs on her 17th birthday, unheard of for a woman of a colour. Refusing to be another cog in the machine of colonialism, January refuses and upon finding out her father has gone missing on an excursion, January's life is turned upside down. Her only escape maybe the fabled doors in which she once passed through as a small child, it's existence hidden in her old leather bound book called "Ten Thousand Doors".

I thought this book was imaginative, tense, and absolutely threatening to the delicate veil that archeology holds over what its ruined. For those who are wondering about the dog:

the dog does get hurt (mentioned not brutally described) but is totally fine

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bronzeageholly's review

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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miak2's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Doors introduce change. And from change come all things: revolution, resistance, empowerment, upheaval, invention, collapse, reformation - all the most vital components of human history, in short. p.52

4.5 stars

In this book, Harrow kept to two central themes: the power of doors and the power of words. Both of these were used, separately and in conjunction, to weave a powerful story about family, love, and belonging. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a story that unfolds slowly and satisfyingly - something like a mystery in which the puzzle isn't too complicated necessarily, but rather like you were sitting too close to it to see how the pieces all fit together. But when they do come together, and you see the full picture? My heart could barely take it.

Something that I particularly enjoyed were the characters. Harrow wasn't afraid to make her characters flawed, and truly flawed. Because that's how life works, sometimes you can be a good person for some people and not for others. I could see how much January wanted to forgive people who had done her wrong. It took a lot to rewrite her attachment to them. It was frustrating and heartbreaking but also perfectly encapsulating of the human experience.

I loved how Harrow depicted the racism that January experienced throughout the story. It was so expertly weaved into her interactions with strangers. Not in-your-face, but never something to be forgotten either. It was in how people treated her with suspicion...until they saw her white companions. It was in how when she had money, she was unique, like a zoo exhibit, but when she didn't have money, she was distrusted.

I also really loved Harrow's commentary on old, rich, white men feeling entitled to the treasures of other places, but also fearing that those people and those cultures could threaten their own position in society. "There is nothing quite like the anger of someone very powerful who has been thwarted by someone who was supposed to be weak." I thought it was genius that these villains took different shapes. Cartoonish and gun-wielding, to personable and subtly manipulative. In some ways this book made me sad, because it so perfectly reflected a lot of what's wrong with the world today. But it was also empowering to see a young girl who'd grown up blind to these wrongs come into herself and feel determined to set them right.

What brought this book down just a little bit for me was that it was definitely slow to get into at first. I think the payoff was immensely rewarding, but it was a really slow start that was, in part, due to the switching between the two stories. Again, incredibly worth it once all of the pieces came together, but a little dry at first.

But circling back to the two main motifs. Doors, of course, are central to the story. Both as literal passageways between worlds, but as mechanisms to stifle one's freedom. If doors are a passageway, words are the means of transportation. If doors are a barrier, words are a means of escape. The portal magic felt whimsical and crazy, but also incredibly grounded. And the worlds that Harrow created behind the doors were really unique and well-built. I would eat up a book that took place entirely in the City of Nin.

Tl;dr this was a really magical book with cohesive motifs and a very tightly written plot, even if it took a few chapters to kick into gear. Definitely one I'll be revisiting in the future!

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