Seventeen-year-old January Scaller discovers she has a unique gift – that of being able to make things happen just by writing about them. While we all shut our doors during this pandemic, January is busy opening them. Doors to other realms and worlds, which call to her natural sense of adventure, and send her on a voyage of discovery about her own roots. The trouble is, not everybody is happy about letting January into other worlds, or other worlds into ours.

This was an enjoyable, book-lovers’ fantasy full of adventure, romance, humour and pathos. The fact that it had a female protagonist of colour was a major draw for me although this is secondary to the actual story.

The first thing that hooked me, apart from the gorgeous cover, was the language and writing style. Harrow’s use of metaphor and imagery is vivid, evoking scenes and emotions in bold strokes. Her sense of voice is sharp so that she manages to render a variety of distinct ones, whether it’s an earthy Kentucky twang, an imperious English tone, or a scholar’s measured explanations.

The main characters are brave and likeable – even the flawed heroine, January. But the villains are very clearly villains – and this is the only criticism I’d make of the novel. With the exception of maybe one central character, there is a clear demarcation between “good” and “bad” characters – and their motives - that might situate this book more on the YA side of the fantasy shelf. This is only a slight criticism from me though, as sometimes I do just want heroes I can cheer on and baddies I can shake a mental (or literal, if that’s how you roll!) fist at.

At its heart this is a book about writing, and reading. “Word-workers” do what writers do every day – opening “Doors” or portals to new worlds and experiences. As readers, we go through the doors and discover these new realms. There’s a long tradition of authors who have used the idea of portals to other worlds: Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll, even Enid Blyton. But Harrow links it directly back to the act of writing and creating stories. The only MG / YA author I can think of who does something similar is Cornelia Funke in Inkheart, although there it is the act of reading the story or book that takes one through to the other world.

One aspect of this that I found interesting was the idea that “word-working” takes a personal toll on the writer, depleting their vital energy. This might simply be a literal depiction of the idea of writing being a demanding process where you put something of yourself on the page, but when January is forbidden to write by the various people trying to control her, it also made me think of the very real cost of writing for different groups of people at different times in history – for instance African American slaves.

To me the most intriguing layer of the story is to do with colonialism, race, class and migration. Harrow explores how class privilege and race can intersect; she alludes to how colonisers amass wealth and status through the practice of looting cultural artefacts and resources from colonised peoples; she highlights the enslavement of subject races; she even critiques the type of nationalist isolationism that fears immigration and encourages the closing of borders / Doors to others, and which we are seeing such a resurgence of in our own world. I thought this in particular was brilliantly done, as so many of the fears around immigration completely ignore the role that colonialism has played in facilitating migration. But far from getting up on a soap-box, Harrow just weaves it into her tale, giving us a thrilling narrative full of emotion, twists and pithy dialogue.

It’s a well-paced, engaging odyssey that I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved January’s personality and all her sidekicks, I was drawn into the emotional turmoil she experienced on her journey and I would certainly read more by this author.

I am finding it difficult to review this book. For me this book is brilliant and meh at the same time. I think the prose is brilliant , not necessarily likeable but brilliant . The character are not very engaging . I am a big Susanna Clarke fan but the footnotes in this book felt really unnecessary and I feel like the writer did it out of love for this style and I can appreciate that . This book is is not for everyone but if you like the art of storytelling itself you might like it .


* I received an e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via netgalley

This book was different to what I was expecting. I haven’t really read anything like it before, so I’ll give the author points for writing such a unique book.

The story follows a young girl, from when she was 7 until 17 onwards. Living in a world where she didn’t quite fit, her reddish skin sticking out like a sore thumb. Kept in a house like a museum artefact, taught to be a “proper” young girl.

Until one day a mysterious book finds its way into her possession. It talks of doors to thousands of worlds, dangerous wonderful worlds, which might just be the answer to what she’s been looking for her whole life. Her identity.

It took me a while to get into the story, but once I was there, I was there. It took me by surprise. The author is obviously a master of writing.

I really do not know how to rate or review this book. For at least the first 50% I could have put this down and never picked it up again. The whole thing seemed really disjointed and i could not get into it. Going backwards and forwards between January's story and her fathers book was off-putting and really took me completely out of the story. Although i pushed forward and the last 20% had me intrigued and was enjoyable i cannot give this a high rating. I felt no connection to January and her character rubbed me up the wrong way from the start. It was not until the end that this changed. If rated by me the first half was a DNF the second half would be a 3.5 possible 4 for the ending. As a whole i am going for 2.5 but will round up to 3. I really wanted to love this and i am sad that this was not the case. I am unsure if this is a me problem though as i can see reviews are good so perhaps this is just not for me.

Firstly, I would like to give a huge thankyou to Netgalley and Little Brown Books for giving me the opportunity to read the e-book of The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

This is an enchanting story of magic, love, a myriad of fantasy worlds and place, folklore and most importantly discovery.

Alix E. Harrow introduces us to January Scaller at the age of 7 and in this book we journey with her through life, adventure, loss, discovery and the mystery of who she is and where she comes from. Alix is a semi-orphaned child whose father is rarely present in her life; He is an explorer discovering new places and new collectables for Mr Locke, who January is fostered with.

This book is part coming of age, part mystery and wholly fantasy...my motto in life is a book is a doorway to new worlds (sorry I can't remember the original quote & source,) and this book took that and made it real. Reading this story, it felt like I was exploring and discovering with January, which at times was quite brutal. There are some triggers of violence and mental illness that you should be aware of.

January as a the protagonist is a character you don't fall for immediately, but she's like mould, she grows on you and she grows as a person. Her journey of discovery is both external and internal and Alix E. Harrow brings this to life with the wonderful narratives and almost life-like descriptions. At times, I could smell the foulness of rotting or the brine and salt of the ocean. This book definitely comes to life through these, although Harrow retains a unique ability to describe and narrate that whilst not always beautiful is relevant, appropriate and essential to the story.

There were a few elements of the mystery that did feel predictable, but they did not detract from the beauty of this coming of age story. I would highly recommend this book for a number of reasons including an opportunity to escape into a wonderful story, reflect on January's growth and development and also the themes of change and control that are dominant throughout.

A great fantasy and amazing book, it was great and I enjoyed it a lot. It's a great idea if you are looking for an scape of real life.

**Thank you to the author and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange of an honest review**

<b>3.5 stars<\b>

I feel conflicted about this book - the writing was fantastically whimsical and endearing. Listening to the audiobook really added to the magical feel and helped me persevere through the book, because nothing else did. I think the plot got lost in the mystical setting which the book heavily relied upon throughout. This book should have been exciting to read. I love the Wayward Children series and this seemed like it would be similar. Writing-wise it was great, but plot and pace-wise it was disappointingly uninteresting, slow and lacking, in what in particular I can't say. But I cannot stress enough how good Harrows writing is!! I didn't except it and I'll definitely look out for her other works.

Review will be posted to Goodreads 2 weeks before release

Don't get me wrong, I love portal fantasy novels, yet this one fell rather flat for me; the writing was flowery and beautiful, but it seemed like the plot got lost in all of that.

★★★✰✰ 3 stars

“Reason and rationality reigned supreme, and there was no room for magic or mystery. There was no room, it turned out, for little girls who wandered off the edge of the map and told the truth about the mad, impossible things they found there.”


Readers who have yet to dip their toes in the vast sea of YA fiction will probably enjoy The Ten Thousand Doors of January more than those who are well acquainted with this popular genre.

In spite of its first promising chapters, The Ten Thousand Doors of January never quite reaches its full potential.
The premise of the book called to mind Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series—which also stars 'magical' doors—and the more adventure/travelling oriented YA such as Alexandra Bracken's Passenger. The start of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, with its focus on the relationship between a young child and her guardian, held echoes of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and Cornelia Funke's The Inkheart Trilogy: Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath. What followed sadly lacked the magic of these two series and throughout my reading of The Ten Thousand Doors of January I had the impression that it's the kind of book that doesn't know wherever it's aimed towards middle-grade or young adult readers...it stars cartoonish characters that would be more suited to a MG while also trying to address more serious themes, all the while attempting to establish a complex 'magical' system.

The Good
Occasionally I do like to first address the good things—or to be more accurate, the things I personally liked—in a book. In the case of The Ten Thousand Doors of January that would be the writing style. Alix E. Harrow's writing style was the best aspect of her debut novel.
“Books can smell of cheap thrills or painstaking scholarship, of literary weight or unsolved mysteries.”


The first-person point of view allows for a compelling and engaging narrative, a narrative which our protagonist is aware of:
“I ought to introduce Mr. Locke properly; he'd hate to wander into the story in such a casual, slantwise way.”


This awareness creates many charming moments as she intersperses her narrative with many amusing asides, for example telling us what she thinks of certain words or sayings: “After that, our fates were more or less sealed (a phrase that always makes me picture a weary old Fate tucking our futures into an envelope and pressing her wax seal over us).”
The openness of January's storytelling is incredibly effective as it holds the reader's attention and makes us sympathise with her.
“But, as Mr. Locke so often complained, I could sometimes be quite improper, wilful, and temerarious (a word I assumed was unflattering from the company it kept).”


That she often refers to existing stories/tales of children wandering into magical realms or such places acknowledges the intertextuality of her own story.
“People never got to stay in their Wonderlands, did they? Alice and Dorothy and the Darlings, all dragged back to the mundane world and tucked into bed by their handlers.”


And it is the very way that January recounts her own story that kept me interested...it was also nice to follow her character growth. Due to her father and her own appearance (she is described as having coppery-red skin) she is pegged as 'no good'. Because of this, January does try to meet expectations of respectable femininity, an attitude which—as she herself notes later in her narrative—will hinder her future independence. We could see the way her circumstances affected and shaped her.

The Not so Good
Although I loved the portions recounted by January herself, incorporated in her narrative are sections from a book that she is reading...called The Ten Thousand Doors. These sections were boring and led to a very predictable reveal.
The magical doors that we are promised in the summary of....do not really make a 'proper' appearance as we are told of the adventures of other characters in a very rushed and indirect manner.
I was hoping that the story would follow January's adventures but that wasn't the case. She reads of other people's adventures, and it is only it last 20% or so that she actually gets to do something more enterprising.
The book she reads is supposedly written by a scholar but it just seemed pale when compared to January's own narrative. While her voice is engaging and genuine, the book she's reading never really convinced me. It seemed to be trying for a similar effect as January's sections but the 'author's' voice failed to come across as believable or even as belonging to an actual individual.
The magic system, in other words the Doors, was poorly explained and explored. Parts that should have been more detailed and fleshed out are rushed over so that we never get a clear picture of how a Door works. We know that they introduce “change”, which is a very generic way of defining them.
There is little to no action and, with the exception of January, the characters we are introduced to never seemed very fleshed out. Some had very inconsistent personalities while others, such as the love interest, were painfully dull additions. And it isn't great when as soon as we are introduced to a character we know the role they will play. Take for example this love interest. As soon as the words “childhood friend” and “boy” appeared on the page it was quite obvious that he would form a romantic attachment to January. His main two qualities are: he is Italian and he likes January. That's about it (his name/appearance/personality are pretty much irrelevant).
I think that having more characters would have filled up the backdrop of January's non-adventures a bit more. Maybe it could have detracted from the overall one-sidedness of two or three people in her life. Other than January there are mainly two other female characters, and they seem to share the same I-am-sort-of-empowered personality. With the exception of January's father and her love interest all men sort of suck, seeming closer to caricatures of evil men rather than actual evil men.
While I loved January's narrative voice, I disliked the way the writing would sometimes use metaphors or description that seemed to exist merely to meet certain YA aesthetics (we have the typical overabundance of colours: “I dreamed in gold and indigo”; as well as descriptions alluding to 'glitter/shards': “The thought was dizzying, intoxicating—I'd already broken so many rules tonight, left them smashed and glittering in my wake—what was one more?”).
The plot seemed to predictable and undeveloped...less sections from The Ten Thousand Doors would have given more page-time to January and her story.

Overall
The summary and first few chapters lead to disappointment. The simplified vision of evil, the boring and wafer-thin side characters, and the poorly developed 'Doors' all left me with a not so great impression of this book...which is a pity as I really really enjoyed the first few chapters.