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meaganlikereagan 's review for:
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
by Alix E. Harrow
I loved the middle third and the early reveals within the Ten Thousand Doors book (Yule Ian .. her mother .. etc.). I really wanted to love the entire book so much. I know this was the author’s debut and would definitely be interested to try other work by them.
I loved the writing but at times would get lost in the descriptive sentence structure.
I didn’t care for the dog being used as a plot device to thwart January’s decisions.
I don’t understand the idea that January will reopen doors, knowing that evil originally came through, because of the whimsy idea of freedom and allowing change to flow through. There are always consequences.
Why didn’t her mother like the name Jane? Why was there a side character with the same name?
The introduction of many social issues felt inauthentic or heavy handed. While I understand these were important issues at the time, the way they were written felt flopped on the page to prove a point?
The author has a clear ability to hide details within the story that catch you off guard but I felt the “reveal” of Mr. Locke was odd and obvious. It felt more like his villainous arc was added later on and not well layered?
I wish there had been more chemistry between Samuel and January. For me, the end would have had a much greater emotional impact if we saw more of their love/friendship on the earlier pages.
Why would January leave the second her father returns? I understand she felt caged her whole life but the through line of needing to get to her mother and father, to then immediately leave was confusing to me. Especially because the relationship between Samuel and January and them reuniting didn’t feel very high stakes or dire.
The villains and their side stories felt underdeveloped and a little like the “bad guys” in the Vampire Diaries TV show .. there was a bad guy and then a badder bad guy and then the ultimate bad guy but she was still able to “easily” escape/triumph.
I loved the writing but at times would get lost in the descriptive sentence structure.
I didn’t care for the dog being used as a plot device to thwart January’s decisions.
I don’t understand the idea that January will reopen doors, knowing that evil originally came through, because of the whimsy idea of freedom and allowing change to flow through. There are always consequences.
Why didn’t her mother like the name Jane? Why was there a side character with the same name?
The introduction of many social issues felt inauthentic or heavy handed. While I understand these were important issues at the time, the way they were written felt flopped on the page to prove a point?
The author has a clear ability to hide details within the story that catch you off guard but I felt the “reveal” of Mr. Locke was odd and obvious. It felt more like his villainous arc was added later on and not well layered?
I wish there had been more chemistry between Samuel and January. For me, the end would have had a much greater emotional impact if we saw more of their love/friendship on the earlier pages.
Why would January leave the second her father returns? I understand she felt caged her whole life but the through line of needing to get to her mother and father, to then immediately leave was confusing to me. Especially because the relationship between Samuel and January and them reuniting didn’t feel very high stakes or dire.
The villains and their side stories felt underdeveloped and a little like the “bad guys” in the Vampire Diaries TV show .. there was a bad guy and then a badder bad guy and then the ultimate bad guy but she was still able to “easily” escape/triumph.