In this magical Literary Fiction, a young woman searches for her true self, fantastical worlds intertwine with each other through the magical Doors, and two people discover the power of love.

January Scaller that we meet at the beginning of the book is my favorite version of January Scaller. Don’t get confused! There is only one January, and I will talk more about my issues with characterization below, but January that I started to like, at first, was this brave young girl, witty and bright, trying to discover the hidden powers within herself.

January Scaller is one of a kind. She is a unique specimen, and when she was seven, she found a Door. Not any ordinary door to the neighbor’s house or to the broom closet, no. She’s found a Door to another world.

You don’t even know my name (it’s January Scaller; so now I suppose you do know a little something about me and I’ve ruined my point).


Reading the story from January’s point of view was a true delight, and from very first chapters I expected to fall deeper and deeper in love with her and her story. That, unfortunately, didn’t happen.

The existence of Doors to other worlds is a splendid idea that got me so excited to read this book. And the beautiful cover design, of course. Look at that cover! Even though I loved the concept behind this book, the execution wasn’t what I expected. I wanted adventures in different worlds, I wished for a big quest for the main character, I desired to learn more about what lay behind those doors. But my wishes went unanswered.

Almost every single review of this book mentions the beautiful writing style. And, of course, Alix E. Harrow is a very talented author. Hence why I highlighted so many passages. But these passages combined together created this emotional barrier that I couldn’t overcome. All elements of the story were described to me in a way that I felt very distant from the characters and not engaged in the actual events.

I also had some troubles with characterization. More often than not characters would act out of their element. In «Ten Thousand Doors of January» my first impressions of the characters would always turn out to be wrong. I’d imagine Yule to be a quiet scholar, and he’d act brash and recklessly. I’d imagine January as this brave, selfless young lady, and something would happen to turn my whole image of her upside down.

Another big complaint is the pacing. I loved the beginning and January’s story, but as soon as I started to read the book inside the book I needed to push myself through the story, not really caring about Yule and Adelaide. While also interrupting my connection with January as I waited for the next chapter to bring me back to the “real” world.

The disconnection that I felt made me consider to DNF this book multiple times, but instead, I pushed myself to read 50% of the book, and when I realized that it wasn’t getting better I skimmed the rest 50%, sometimes skipping entire paged. But you know what? I don’t feel like I missed anything.

2.5 stars

My main problem with this book was the pacing. It was so slow and nothing happened for much of the book. It suits the lyrical style of the book, but it meant it didn't feel like a book with a plot, rather a set of vignettes loosely tied together in a biographical way.

January didn't appear to have a goal, a desire - or anything to work towards. She simply reacted to the world around her, in a rather passive way. Until half way through, there felt like there was no threat beyond a disapproving guardian. Even after this action point, it still took until two-thirds until the plot really picked up, and it felt like something was happening (though she could have been less passive).

Without a goal or real opposition, there was no reason to root for the main character - nothing for her to do, so no need to want her to succeed.

Also, the villain actually monologues - backstory and motivation. I was really struggling to read that part, to keep from rolling my eyes and telling her just to end it rather than listen.

After a few chapters, once she's found the book, there's a sudden POV change as we read the book alongside January. It was so jarring. At first it was written like a monograph then an actual story, with a parallel set of chapter numbers. We alternate between the book and January for much of the story. There's a very different POV, and the tone is so different. The tone within the book itself isn't consistent. It's supposed to represent a change in the author and the revelation of the book, I guess, but it was so hard to follow as it didn't feel like the same book - but just yet another shift in POV.

While the book does expand on a crucial plot point, give the backstory and (at points) a more interesting story line to follow, it's so obviously an exposition dump of the world, its magic system and the backstory.

There are also footnotes in the book. I find footnotes a little gimmicky and detracting from a story in physical form. I didn't bother with them in the ebook, because I'd have to hyperlink jump to the footnotes at the end of the book, then find my way back.

The story of a young girl who grows up in a world where doors can take you to other worlds intertwined with the story of how two young lovers met and were separated.

Unlike anything I have read before, I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend for fantasy lovers.

Thanks to net galley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A thoughtful and original portal fantasy, it references the kind of adventure stories I loved as a teenager and honestly, I would love to travel back in time and give this book to my teenaged self. I think she'd have loved it, too. January is a fantastic heroine: I love how she struggles with her relationship with Mr Locke, and how her mixed lover-sadness-and-anger with her father is shown from her perspective and, later, from his. The way Harrow nests his narrative inside hers is particularly well done.

My only criticism is that the end feels a little bit rushed (everything from Arcadia onwards seems to move pretty fast), and I would have appreciated a slower pace as this part of the book is when January really starts to come into an understanding of herself. Overall, though, it was a wonderful read and I enjoyed it very much.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is book in a book, letter in a letter. It’s a father daughter story. It’s a story about doors, doors between worlds, doors that some want to close and others want to open. It’s a coming of age story and a love story. Here are malevolent people and greedy people. its politically correct story about bigotry of the XX century. There is adventure and travel and WRITING.

It’s a wonderful story told in an unusual way.

Wow wow wow!! I absolutely loved this book! Part historical fiction, part otherworldly adventure, this was right up my street and I devoured it. I loved the idea of hidden doors between our world and others and the idea that folk tales are clues to doors whereabouts was genius!
I don't want to post spoilers but I really think there's something for everyone in this book - history, mystery, magic, adventure, fantasy and an epic love story interwoven.
"She accumulated the dust of other worlds on her skin like ten thousand perfumes."
Every word was perfect. Of the hundreds of books I've read this was the first time I've EVER highlighted quotes because of how gorgeously crafted they were!
Cannot recommend enough, the best book I've read this year and maybe even since The Night Circus.
Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in return for a fair review.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

This is a tried and tested format. Lonely girl, January, gets abandoned in a mansion whilst her much loved father goes travelling.

As tends to happen January stumbles on a magical book, that opens to doors to other worlds. January suddenly finds herself on a terrifying journey escaping those who have appeared to protect her all her life, and having to find her much absent father

Although it’s a tried and tested format it works well, and January develops as a very sassy, independent heroine not afraid to stand up for herself. Her companions Jane, Samuel and Sinbad the dog really add to the story, Jane could almost have had a book to herself. Added to the plot is a mysteries book within a book, and different themes of feminism, racism and sense of self. (January is bi-racial, and Samuel is an Italian Immigrant).

Whilst reading this I was reminded of Aldus Huxley’s Doors of Perception which was no bad thing.

This would be a 4.5 for me. Looking forward to the next instalment!

What a magical, wonderful reality to escape into. A story so very reminiscent of McGuire's Wayward Children series, which is such a good thing! This absorbing tale tells all on treacherous villains, stately prisons, whimsical escapism and dark hidden secrets.

The language used keeps you hooked, it isn't so often anymore when I come across authors who use language as the exciting, playful and witty vehicle it can be. I'm so happy I read this. 10/10 recommend!

Glorious and magnificent are two words to describe this book.
This book may be the best written book that I have ever read.
Iam amazed that this is a debut novel and cannot wait to read more by this author

This was a complex, elegant story. Everything about it was beautifully done, from the writing, to the plot to even the pacing.
I was fully engrossed in this story and was charmed by the characters, who were very well done.

Cannot recommend this enough.

I desperately wanted to love this. It sounded so incredible, and unique, and just amazing. Sadly, I really struggled to get into it. I found it really hard to connect with the plot and the characters, and if I'm honest, I found it a bit boring. I ended up skim reading most of the second half, and was quite relieved when I finished it.

I do seem to be in the minority with this approach though, so don't let me talk you out of it! You might get the reading experience I was so keen to have, but sadly missed out on.

What a beautiful, absolutely stunning book this this is and I can’t believe it is a debut as the writing is superb, full of magic and so poetic it takes your breath away. This is a story that’s hard to describe because it’s so very different and unique so I’m not even going to try it just has everything I would want in a book and I was sad to finish it as I felt lost because I had lived in the world of January Scaller travelled with her in her trials and tribulations as she discovers the doors to somewhere else.
When you read a book like this that is written so beautifully you realise the power of words and their ability to move you, transport you to other places but most of all to forget everything else and just to live in the wonder of an exceptional story. More than a five star read and totally recommended.
A book I will treasure always and many many thanks to Alex E Harrow who I hope to hear much more from in the future.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

January Scaller and her father live with the wealthy Mr Locke. This is set in the early 1900’s. Her father travels and finds Mr Locke curios from all over the world. January is a ward of Mr Locke and he often introduces her as his adopted daughter. One of January’s great loves is reading and she devours pretty much anything she can get her hands on. When she finds a book about doors, something she has always thought held more to them than just a shape between two rooms, she is fascinated as these doors are more like portals. we are treated to not only January’s story but that of between the pages of her book Ten Thousand doors and the characters within. In their land the greatest number is ten thousand (think infinity). Mr Locke also wants to know how she knows of such things, Does his secret society have more to hide than she realises and where on earth has her father got to? It took me a little while to get into this but I quickly developed an empathy for January. A child alone having few friends and mostly adult company who treat her as almost an ornament to be gazed at. A wonderful fantasy tale with a little romance, a hint of adventure, a tad of Alice in Wonderland.
(rest of links as part of blog tour)

Alix E. Harrow's debut novel is a journey through worlds, a cult disguised as a society of intellectuals trying to prevent doors opening in our reality to other realities and a girl named January. If you, like myself, always wondered about passageways into fantastical worlds this book is a great example on how this sort-of world jumping could, theoretically, happen (at least in the world of fiction). It is an engaging story about January's struggles in a world of white, rich men on a quest to find her parents.

The story was engaging enough for me to read on, although I wish that we've learned more about January as a character more than that other (read white) characters thought her different and "unique". Some glimpses of this was noticeable in the novel but always in comparison with her guardian Mr. Locke, and not so much her own thoughts about her being "different".

Other than this critique I did enjoy the diversity amongst our group of heroes, and their obvious care for one another - it was very endearing to read about characters that genuinely cared and liked one another in a believable way.

Thanks to the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group UK, for letting me read the book. I feel great things about Alix E. Harrow and am looking forward to more books by her.

I will publish my review on my Goodreads account on September 10th 2019.

"stories, even the meanest folktales, matter. They are artifacts and palimpsests, riddles and histories. They are the red threads we may follow out of the labyrinth"

As soon as I saw this title I knew I had to read it. There is something so compelling about doors which speak to my imagination of Other Worlds, adventures, magic, escapism. Even looking at doorways and the way that they are carved, defined, decorated and adorned can speak to you of some magical realm just hidden behind it. This is why I collect pictures of doors on my Pinterest, they are full of wonders and what lies behind them is only limited to the imagination. Maybe I just read too much Secret Garden as a child.

"sometimes I feel there are doors lurking in the creases of every sentence, with periods for knobs and verbs for hinges"

Based in the early 1900s Ten Thousand Doors is a story about January, a 17 year old girl who lives with Cornelius Locke, a rich man who is part of the mysterious Archelogical Society. January's father works for Locke as the collector of various artifacts and rarely sees his daughter. One day when she is seven years old, January finds a Door in a field. And the doorway leads to a world rich with the smell of the ocean. It is sometime later, however, when January is 17, that she discovers a leather-bound book, called The Ten Thousand Doors, written by one Yule Ian Scholar, that she realises that these Doors are real and the implications of this for her future (Doors with a capital D as this is important. )

Harrow is a word-smith , she plays with words and sentences in a way that just brings the whole story to life. Ten Thousand Doors is a beautiful, lyrical treat for anyone who loves words, parrallel worlds, Other Worlds. It's a portal fantasy unlike any I've ever read. I find it hard to articulate just how wonderful this book is. I think I was a few pages in when I realised this was a special book. I was a few more pages in when I realised this book was going to be a new favourite.

Everyone needs to read this. It's beautiful, amazing and wonderful.

Thank you so much to Netgalley for making my whole year and providing me with an e-arc of this book. I cannot wait to receive my pre-ordered copy.

I was really excited to receive an ARC of this book from Netgalley. The cover is beautiful and really stands out and the concept of the book looked great. However I really struggled with this book, I don't really know why because it wasn't badly written or anything, I just could not connect with the characters. I was extremely bored and felt I was skimming parts just to get through it. I know I'm in the minority and I really tried to like this book. I just didnt.

Without question or hesitation, this is a special book. I want to push it into the hands of every single person and get them to read it.

The overall story is excellent, I love the way it's constructed to allow the reader to work things out moments before the characters. I love the layers of complexity that become more transparent as the story moves on.

The characters are wonderful and the relationships between them are written perfectly. The decisions and actions taken are all in character and every one feels 'right'.

The pacing is spot on.

The concepts of Doors, change and being in-between are though provoking and will resonate with everyone at some level.

The prose flows beautifully and nothing in it jars you out of the story.

Overall this is a fantastic, engrossing read.

This book blew me away. Quite possibly some of the most beautifully descriptive writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

"Those of you who are more than casually familiar with books - those of you who spend your free afternoons in fusty bookshops, who offer furtive, kindly strokes along the spines of familiar titles - understand that page rifling is an essential element in the process of introducing oneself to a new book. It isn't about reading the words, it's about reading the smell."

The Ten Thousand Doors of January follows January Schaller, a girl who doesn't fit into the high society world she was raised in. At seven years old, she finds her first door, as the years go by January starts to feel she imagined the door and the sea and cliffs she saw when she passed through it. That is until a book appears in an old box. As she starts the book, she realises that not only was her door real, but there are over ten thousand of them, leading to ten thousand different worlds.

"But you still know about Doors, don't you? Because there are ten thousand stories about ten thousand Doors, and we know them as well as we know our own names. They lead to Faerie, to Valhalla, Atlantis and Lemuria, Heaven and Hell, to all the directions a compass could never take you, to elsewhere."

This book is wondrously imaginative, the writing is lyrical and flows with an ease that had me reading chapters and chapters without even realising it. The main theme in the story is love. The love between family, the love between friends, romantic love and the love of possession. It shows how love can transcend not only time, but worlds, how love can be the one thing that keeps you going, and how love can be your downfall. Every story is so well entwined, twisting and turning until you are brought to an ending you cant believe you didn't foresee from the start.

January is a headstrong girl, raised by her fathers employer, she is shifted into the world of high society, a world which January with her coloured skin and temperament simply do not fit in to. Her only safe havens are her dog Bad, her governess/friend Jane and Samuel, the boy who used to sneak her stories in Milk cartons. Though January is definitely self sufficient in so many ways, her story would never have come to an end without her companions help.

This book took me back to a time when I believed in faeries, when I was so sure that If I walked though my wardrobe I would end up in Narnia, when the monsters under my bed used to keep me awake at night. But what made this book so magical is its ability to make me believe again. Not to make me believe in magic the way I did as a child, but to see the magic in love, in friendship and in family.

Harrows writing style had me falling into the book like Alice into Wonderland, until I was right there alongside January on her journey to find out who she was and where she was from. Utterly immersive and wondrously imagined, her lush writing style had me so fully engrossed in the story. I experienced a rigmarole of emotions and by the end of the book I felt like I had become January, I needed to know her outcome, happy or sad.

"It's a profoundly strange feeling, to stumble across someone who's desires are shaped so closely to your own, like reaching toward your reflection in a mirror and finding warm flesh under your fingertips."

This is probably one of the easiest 5* I've given this year, if not ever. I would pick up anything else this author writes and she has cemented herself as a favourite author of mine based on this one book alone. Out September 2019 you should get on those pre-orders now because this is one book you wont want to miss!

The post will go live on 1/8/19 on my blog & Goodreads

If there is a part of you that has always felt there is magic in the world ever since childhood, despite voices to the contrary, and have a penchant for the whimsical, then Alix Harrow has written the perfect novel for you. It is a story of doors, portals if you will, existing in places of particular resonance, stepping through the void, into fables, folklore, adventure, love and sanctuary, and the infinite power of words and stories. In 1901, at the age of 7, the red skinned, wilful and cantankerous January Scaller lives with her guardian, the enormously wealthy, white and powerful William Locke on a sprawling estate, in a house crammed full of stolen treasures in his collections, mostly acquired by her black father on his global adventures, occasionally returning, whilst she stays behind in Vermont. January is in Kentucky when she encounters her first door, but Locke does not believe her and she is punished. In her efforts to please him she grows up trying to be a good girl, curbing her natural instincts and desires, to conform to his stringent expectations.

January is a strange oddity, only tolerated by the outside world riven with racism because she accompanies the man of substance that is Locke, the Chairman of the Archaeological Society, on his business trips. He informs her ' Power, my dear, has a language, a currency....and a color', as she grows up lonely, with only one, below the radar, non-fictional friend, Samuel Zappia, who gives her a beloved dog, (Sin)Bad. Until Jane arrives, a brave and courageous Amazon woman, sent to protect January by her father. A griefstricken and drunk January responds with unpalatable truths to Locke and his much vaunted Archaeological Society, an act which is to shatter the world as she knows it. In the gripping narrative, the lives of Adelaide Larson and Yule Ian (Julian) are outlined culminating in a meeting that triggers adventures, journeys through doors and dedicated scholarly research that is to results in a remarkable book, The Ten Thousand Doors, which falls in the hands of January, with its shocking revelations. As January is ferociously hunted and facing grave dangers, will she be able to find the inner resources to fight the deadly threats?

Harrow writes a bewitching story, about powerful underhand forces that are determined to eliminate all threats to the existing political establishment, about family, loss, grief, and a coming of age tale. The characterisation is stellar, a January facing life altering challenges, and her poignant battles to fight the ingrained responses instilled in her from childhood, and I adored Jane, Samuel and the loyal Bad. This is an enchanting read, lyrical, full of charm, that manages to connect with our inner desires and belief that there is magic and hope out there, although perhaps it is unlikely to appeal to those who have a more sceptical nature. An unmissable read for those who adore this type of fantasy, brilliant, colourful, vibrant, with echoes of the darkest of fairytales, and infused with the grim realities of our contemporary world when it comes to issues of race. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley, Little, Brown Book Group and Alix E Harrow for my arc of The Ten Thousand Doors of January in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: The Ten Thousand Doors of January 
Author: Alix E Harrow
Format read: Ebook
Publication date: 12th September 2019
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group UK
Page Count: 384 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Star rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Synopsis: In the early 1900s a young girl tries to find her place in the world after discovering a mysterious books. As a ward of the wealthy Mr Locke, January Scaller lives in a beautiful mansion full of curiosities from around the world, January herself is a bit of a curiosity. When January stumbles across a mysterious book which carries a whisper of Doors and a whiff of magic, her whole life begins to change.

This book started as a bit of a slow burner for me. I found the cover beautiful and the plot interesting but I felt at first that it wasn't going to get going. But fear not, all of a sudden I was lost in the kind of wonderful world that I haven't entered since I was a child. It was like this book was a Door through to those early years of reading which truly enchant you. A world no matter how much I love reading as an adult, I hadn't thought to enter again.
This book is beautiful, magical and important. It uses the magic of other worlds and Doors to explore deeper issues like politics, race, sexuality and human nature itself. Beautifully written this is one of the most stunning debuts I've ever read.