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A review by flying_monkey
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
There are some very strong aspects to this debut fantasy novel. The notion of doors between worlds is hardly a new one, but the way in which it's used here is quite effective, particularly the concept of a secret society that might be trying to close doors and prevent travel between worlds is deployed well, although again, this anti-magic or anti-secret powers society is a staple of fantasy novels too.
Given the at the world-building isn't original in most ways, novels like this rely on the quality of the writing and the characters. The former is strong, it has flourishes without being florid and it has a well-judged balance of scene-setting description and action-driven plotting. In terms of character, in January Scaller, the willful and adventurous product of a hardbitten poor white southern family and a mysterious dark-skinned father, who may just have some kind of magical powers, we have in many ways the perfect protagonist through which to explore not only the multiverse but also American society in the first half of the Twentieth Century. There is also a uniformally effective supporting cast of heroes and villains.
We find January at the start of the novel in a thoroughly gothic situation, being raised by a wealthy guardian, Mr Locke, who fills his mansion with treasures from around the world and some that seem well, from elsewhere, including one special chest in which presents always seem to appear for January, perhaps from January's father, who is employed by Locke to find these things and spends very little time with his daughter. Several things happen in succession to change her apparently comfortable situation: she acquires a large and unpopular dog, called Sindbad, but known thenceforward as Bad, January finds a mysterious book called The Ten Thousand Doors which calls strongly to her, a strong African woman, Jane, arrives supposedly requested by January's father to be her companion, and then shortly afterwards her father disappears while in Japan. As her situation starts to seem decidedly unsafe, January and her dog, new companion and her paramour, Samuel, end up leaving to find their way to and through the doors to other worlds.
There are things about the novel I liked less. I'm not much of a dog person, and I really don't like the way that they smell, so the constant descriptions of how January sleeping with and smelling her dog etc. left me feeling a bit queasy, but that is just me. More critically, there was a bit too much 'love will resolve everything' that really just filled large plot holes in some places. The potential of the other worlds was in some ways underused, and frankly they were mostly not that marvellous or mysterious, at least not the ones the story visited: we get to hear about stranger and more extreme worlds, but we just don't go to them. There was a also a little too much of the 'dea! / not dead!' type of reveals, which I can't talk about too much other than to say that more than once a character is presumed dead, and there are all the subsequent recriminations and emotional pain, and then they aren't after all. This is more than a little emotionally manipulative rather than creating a feeling of more genuine emotional development, and once again, it fills plot holes. Most of the time though, the story moves a long at a pace, propelled by the fluid writing that allows for these shortcoming to be passed over swiftly. It's a very good debut novel.
PS: I've seen more than a few people describing this as a young adult novel, indeed it's been placed in this category here on StoryGraph. Being someone who was reading adult novels when was 8 or 9, I never really understood this category, but I don't think it's an accurate description. I think rather it's a reflection of the prejudice that assumes that any SF or fantasy novel that has a young female protaganonist must be written only for other young women - see also Nnedi Okorafor's Binti sequence which is also not YA but some people seem to think it must be. This is a modern fantasy novel. And it's a good example of its type.
Given the at the world-building isn't original in most ways, novels like this rely on the quality of the writing and the characters. The former is strong, it has flourishes without being florid and it has a well-judged balance of scene-setting description and action-driven plotting. In terms of character, in January Scaller, the willful and adventurous product of a hardbitten poor white southern family and a mysterious dark-skinned father, who may just have some kind of magical powers, we have in many ways the perfect protagonist through which to explore not only the multiverse but also American society in the first half of the Twentieth Century. There is also a uniformally effective supporting cast of heroes and villains.
We find January at the start of the novel in a thoroughly gothic situation, being raised by a wealthy guardian, Mr Locke, who fills his mansion with treasures from around the world and some that seem well, from elsewhere, including one special chest in which presents always seem to appear for January, perhaps from January's father, who is employed by Locke to find these things and spends very little time with his daughter. Several things happen in succession to change her apparently comfortable situation: she acquires a large and unpopular dog, called Sindbad, but known thenceforward as Bad, January finds a mysterious book called The Ten Thousand Doors which calls strongly to her, a strong African woman, Jane, arrives supposedly requested by January's father to be her companion, and then shortly afterwards her father disappears while in Japan. As her situation starts to seem decidedly unsafe, January and her dog, new companion and her paramour, Samuel, end up leaving to find their way to and through the doors to other worlds.
There are things about the novel I liked less. I'm not much of a dog person, and I really don't like the way that they smell, so the constant descriptions of how January sleeping with and smelling her dog etc. left me feeling a bit queasy, but that is just me. More critically, there was a bit too much 'love will resolve everything' that really just filled large plot holes in some places. The potential of the other worlds was in some ways underused, and frankly they were mostly not that marvellous or mysterious, at least not the ones the story visited: we get to hear about stranger and more extreme worlds, but we just don't go to them. There was a also a little too much of the 'dea! / not dead!' type of reveals, which I can't talk about too much other than to say that more than once a character is presumed dead, and there are all the subsequent recriminations and emotional pain, and then they aren't after all. This is more than a little emotionally manipulative rather than creating a feeling of more genuine emotional development, and once again, it fills plot holes. Most of the time though, the story moves a long at a pace, propelled by the fluid writing that allows for these shortcoming to be passed over swiftly. It's a very good debut novel.
PS: I've seen more than a few people describing this as a young adult novel, indeed it's been placed in this category here on StoryGraph. Being someone who was reading adult novels when was 8 or 9, I never really understood this category, but I don't think it's an accurate description. I think rather it's a reflection of the prejudice that assumes that any SF or fantasy novel that has a young female protaganonist must be written only for other young women - see also Nnedi Okorafor's Binti sequence which is also not YA but some people seem to think it must be. This is a modern fantasy novel. And it's a good example of its type.