The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Publication Date: 12th September 2019
Goodreads | Waterstones | Amazon
Rating: ★★★★★
*ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
EVERY STORY OPENS DOOR
In a sprawling mansion filled with exotic treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.
But her quiet existence is shattered when she stumbles across a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. As each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, January discovers a story that might just be the key to unlocking the secrets of her past.
Words can’t describe how much I loved this book, but seeing how this is a book review I guess I’m going to have to try. The story follows January Scaller, who at the age of seven discovers a Door to another world, and then at 17 finds a book describing many of more doors of this kind. The reader follows January through he childhood as a mixed race girl growing up in Vermont under the guardianship of Mr Locke, whom her father works for collecting strange and rare items.
The premise of the book is so interesting and it’s a fun yet emotional read. The characters are all so intriguing with their stories of travels to other worlds, some nice and some not so nice. The book itself created such a nice nostalgic feeling, through the idea of most myths and stories having originated in other worlds and then been spread by those who travelled between. Remember being young and fully believing you were one day going to find the wardrobe to Narnia? That’s the feeling I got from reading this book.
I loved Harrow’s writing style and there were just so many memorable quotes within the book. Harrow also had such a good grasp on dual narrative story telling, and unlike with some other books I never really got confused as to who’s POV I was reading as both narrators had their own distinct style.
The only negative I can really think of was that a number of the plot twists were somewhat predictable but I can’t say that really bothered me to much.
All in all, this book was honestly amazing and I think everyone should read it.
Sorry that this review has gone up kinda late I’ve been busy with work so haven’t has much time to read. Let me know what you thought of The Ten Thousand Doors of January in the comments.
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