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bkwrm1317 's review for:
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
by Alix E. Harrow
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
In terms of pacing, I'd call this novel medium-slow paced, and it does pick up in the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the novel to a solid medium pace. This is a debut, so it tracks that this novel might be written a bit differently now by Harrow, but it's solid.
As with most novels that folks fawn over, this one was a solid slightly above middle of the line novel for me, but didn't entirely wow me.
A portal fantasy with a unique twist, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is about a young woman coming of age in the early 20th century, a father who is mostly absent working for their benefactor/to whom she becomes a ward, and a mother who she has never known. It turns out her father, from an entirely different world, is seeking treasures from other worlds while searching for a way back to his own, which January only learns as an adolescent after she is told her father is dead.
Characters are fairly well-developed, dialogue and actions are believable, the villains of the story are, appropriately, wealthy white men/"men" who contrive to control access to other worlds, prevent whimsy and magic from leaking into the world as we know it and to allow for the ongoing expansion of empire in an "orderly" fashion.
Sindbad/Bad the dog, January, Jane (originally from east Africa, and who has lived in another world herself, escaping during the expansion of the British empire in east Africa), Samuel, and January's parents loom large on the page as their yarn unwinds.
Check CWs, but know that the dog doesn't die in this one.
As with most novels that folks fawn over, this one was a solid slightly above middle of the line novel for me, but didn't entirely wow me.
A portal fantasy with a unique twist, The Ten Thousand Doors of January is about a young woman coming of age in the early 20th century, a father who is mostly absent working for their benefactor/to whom she becomes a ward, and a mother who she has never known. It turns out her father, from an entirely different world, is seeking treasures from other worlds while searching for a way back to his own, which January only learns as an adolescent after she is told her father is dead.
Characters are fairly well-developed, dialogue and actions are believable, the villains of the story are, appropriately, wealthy white men/"men" who contrive to control access to other worlds, prevent whimsy and magic from leaking into the world as we know it and to allow for the ongoing expansion of empire in an "orderly" fashion.
Sindbad/Bad the dog, January, Jane (originally from east Africa, and who has lived in another world herself, escaping during the expansion of the British empire in east Africa), Samuel, and January's parents loom large on the page as their yarn unwinds.
Check CWs, but know that the dog doesn't die in this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia
Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Abandonment
Minor: Gun violence, Pregnancy