Book Review - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

 

 

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow is a spellbinding fantasy about a young girl trying to connect with her estranged father and finding her place in the world. In the early 1900’s, January Scaller was a curiosity and an outsider. She looks and acts different from everyone else. She lives in a giant mansion with her caretaker, Mr. Locke. The house is filled with treasures and priceless artifacts, and January sometimes feels that she is something that Mr. Locke has collected. She is well looked after thanks to Mr. Locke being wealthy, but she always feels ignored and out of place.

One day, January was searching through Mr. Locke’s treasures when she came across an old book. She finds herself drawn towards the book and she spends every free moment reading her newly found lifeline. January is entranced with the characters and wants to use the book as a way to escape from real life.

 

The book tells of secret doors to other worlds that allows people to travel between them. The worlds are vastly different from January’s current world and some worlds even have magic. As January delves deeper into the book, she realizes that the story is connected with her. She first thought the story was a work of fiction but then realizes the story might be true. January decides to follow her heart and search for her own magical door.

 

I thought the book was an interesting and magical read. The story did move slowly during some parts of the book where it describes January getting older but nothing noteworthy would occur. The author wrote in a beautiful lyrical prose that was overwhelming at times. I felt that it covered up the fact that there was little story progression.

 

The first two thirds of the book does move very slowly. The story starts picking up in the last few pages and the twist is very predictable. The evil mastermind is easy to guess very early on. While the book was an entertaining read, I felt like I had a hard time connecting with the protagonist. Instead of the magical doors being a gateway to an exciting adventure, the majority of the time the characters use the doors to reconnect with a loved one. The book does have an opening for a second book which seems like it would be a good read if it focuses on January’s adventures in different worlds.

 

Book Review - Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

 

Under the right conditions, children can disappear and end up in a new magical place. Like most children who went to a magical place, Nancy came back a changed person and she is eager to return back. Nancy joins Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children to cope with her current situation and to find a way back home. When Nancy joins the other kids at the home, there is a darkness around the corner. A tragedy strikes that makes the home no longer safe for anyone.

I thought the book had an interesting premise. I was able to guess the mastermind behind the murders pretty quickly. However, I felt that the book was missing something to make it "great". I found the writing and the characters to be flat and choppy at times. I understand that the author wanted to be inclusive in her writing but, it seems like most her of characters were "different" and that was their main trait instead of being another facet of them. The book had tons of potential but, felt flat to me.