The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

by Alix E. Harrow

***Shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel***

'A gorgeous, aching love letter to stories, storytellers and the doors they lead us through . . . absolutely enchanting' Christina Henry, bestselling author of Alice

EVERY STORY OPENS A DOOR

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar 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. Each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

'One of the most unique works of fiction I've ever read' Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author

'A gorgeously written story of love and longing, of what it means to lose your place in the world and then have the courage to find it again' Kat Howard, author of An Unkindness of Magicians

'Devastatingly good, a sharp, delicate nested tale of worlds within worlds, stories within stories, and the realm-cracking power of words' Melissa Albert, author of The Hazel Wood

'The Ten Thousand Doors of January healed hurts I didn't even know I had. An unbearably beautiful story about growing up, and everything we fight to keep along the way' Amal El-Mohtar, Hugo Award-winning author

Reviewed by MurderByDeath on

4.5 of 5 stars

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Things that attracted me to this book:  the title (I first saw it in January, around my birthday); the cover; and the blurb mentioning a book.  I picked it up because the only books appealing to me right now are fluffy, preferably magical realism plots.

This book was both and neither.  I have no idea how to describe it.  A grown-up fairy tale sounds too trite and too superficial, though its roots are firmly in myth and legend.  The writing is lyrical, the tense is fourth-wall-breaking second person.  It's a happy story, a heart-wrenching one, and a magical one all at once. It's both predictable and surprising; cynical and fantastically idealistic.  It genuinely shocked the hell out of me because it wasn't at all what I expected.

As the ward of the wealthy Mr Locke, January Scaller feels little different from the artefacts 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. Each page reveals more impossible truths about the world...

It's both a perfect and perfectly inadequate description.  The closest I can come is a story with very faint shades of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, only for grown-ups.

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Reading updates

  • 6 April, 2020: Started reading
  • 11 April, 2020: Finished reading
  • 5 October, 2020: Reviewed