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The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Alix E. Harrow

Start date: October 1, 2019

Finish date: October 31, 2019

Discussion: Fantasy

Why we're reading this: Featured Buddy Read - October 2019
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What Members Thought

May 26, 2020 Nataliya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads, hugo-nebula-nominees-and-winners

“You see, doors are many things: fissures and cracks, ways between, mysteries and borders. But more than anything else, doors are change. When things slip through them, no matter how small or brief, change trails them like porpoises following a ship’s wake.”

This is a story about the desire for unknown, the longing for change. It is a story of the dangers of complacency, blind obedience, unquestioning submission to those who proclaim they are the strong ones. This is a story of the need to take action, to rise above what has been determined for you and do what you have to do regardless of the obstacles in your path. It is a story of growing up while holding on to curiosity and adventure which do not need to give way to propriety and stuffiness. It’s a story of family and abandonment. It is a story of how it feels to be the “other”, “an in-between sort of thing.”

This is also a story about the power of words.

“If one follows the stories, one will nearly always find a doorway buried at their roots.”

“Worlds were never meant to be prisons, locked and suffocating and safe. Worlds were supposed to be great rambling houses with all the windows thrown open and the wind and summer rain rushing through them, with magic passages in their closets and secret treasure chests in their attics. […]
I was so very tired of locked doors.”

There are doors in the world — or Doors, really — that appear in the places where boundaries between worlds are thin and that can take you through to places that are different and strange. They allow for things unusual and new to flow between worlds, changing status quo, bringing fresh beginning with them.

But those Doors are closing now. Or rather, someone has been closing them.

In 1901, January Scaller is seven. An “oddly colored” reddish-skinned girl, she is a ward of Cornelius Locke, a rich man, a no-nonsense member of an archaeological society and her father’s employer. January has no mother, and her father is always away on Ms. Locke’s archaeological expeditions, returning from time to time with a wealth of strange things that go straight in Mr. Locke’s vast collections. January is lonely, and resentful of her mostly absent father, and works really hard to earn approval and love from the replacement father figure, her guardian Mr. Locke who buys her things and takes her on long travels — and in return expects her to grow into a respectable young lady with certainly no penchants for imaginary things and wanderlust.

But then, at age seven, January walks through a blue Door standing in an empty field and sees a different world - one full of smell of ocean and blue water, one that calls to her. And eventually she notes that writing some things down when she really believes them makes them happen. But that is certainly nonsense, and no proper young ladies should be given to such flights of fancy.

“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.”

Then, at the age of seventeen, January runs afoul of those in power who view her either as a nuisance or an irritation to be swatted away. Those who look at her and see a weak colored girl of no consequence — unless she has something that they want. And January, sheltered and naive, raised to be quiet and pliable and proper, has a rude and abrupt awakening.

“The truth is that the powerful come for the weak, whenever and wherever they like. Always have, always will.”

This book made me quite angry at times — angry at blatant power imbalances, at the injustice, at imperialism and prejudice - and at January herself — at her questionable choices and desperate desire to cling to normalcy, as abnormal as that normalcy can be. (view spoiler) And anger is often what fuels change. And change, while not always good or bad, is what fuels and sustains life, even if it is inconvenient to the ones happy with status quo.

“The will to be polite, to maintain civility and normalcy, is fearfully strong. I wonder sometimes how much evil is permitted to run unchecked simply because it would be rude to interrupt it.”

It is a well-written book, full of wondrous and magical things and told in a crisp well-crafted prose, with excellent plot and well-crafted characters, and enough worldbuilding to sustain sequels (although in this world of never-ending series I’m very happy with stand-alone novels). Its magical yet grounded, charming yet tough. It allows for a bit of moral ambiguity in the characters, with no one (view spoiler) coming out of this smelling like roses. For a debut especially, it’s very strong; it reads as though written by a seasoned author, which bodes quite well for Harrow’s future works. Those Hugo and Nebula nominations are well-earned.

“I hope you will find the cracks in the world and wedge them wider, so the light of other suns shines through; I hope you will keep the world unruly, messy, full of strange magics; I hope you will run through every open Door and tell stories when you return.”

4.5 ~~stars~~ keys to all the locked Doors.
———————

My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more

149 likes · Like · see review

Jun 10, 2020 Philip rated it it was ok

Shelves: hugo, author-woman, fantasy, 2019-releases, ya, historical-fiction, not-for-me, middle-grade

2.5ish stars.

I appreciate the author’s writing skill, especially as this is her debut. I appreciate the few genre subversions and the occasional moments of greatness. But overall I mostly found it boring. It felt like a young adult novel, but somehow also felt too mature and too juvenile to be a young adult novel, all at once.

Posted in Mr. Philip's Library ...more

82 likes · Like · see review

Aug 27, 2020 Lyn rated it liked it

Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore sit in a café in Los Angeles and discuss Alix Harrow’s 2019 Hugo Award nominated novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

Jim: It was really great, kind of a Light my Fire kind of book.

Ray: Ah! Good one, Jim. Yes, Ms. Harrow is very talented and I was initially impressed with her writing ability, her use of language, how she structured her narrative, all very original and entertaining.

Robbie: I also liked the setting, turn of the centur ...more

65 likes · Like · see review

Dec 30, 2019 Jo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars.

5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 30, 2019 Christina Pilkington rated it really liked it

I thought Harrow's Ten Thousand Doors of January was written so beautifully! I was expecting this to be more of a portal fantasy, and while it was, that wasn't really what this book was about.

I loved its story within a story, pages brimming with gorgeous imagery, slow-burn adventure and magical elements. It's a story of family and racial and class prejudice.

Looking forward to see what Harrow will write next!
...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2020 Ctgt rated it really liked it

8/10

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2020 Linda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

Such an unexpectedly good read! This is one of those books that I would have never had picked up on my own, but did so after several of my reading buddies raced about it, and I was not disappointed. The story took awhile to get fully setup, but by the 50% mark I was fully immersed and was happy for a rainy weekend where I was resigned to reading inside.

3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 08, 2020 Alexis rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Beautifully written and well crafted and a great blend of historical setting with the added magic of other worlds, secret doors and even more secret societies.

January Scaller has grown up pampered, the ward of a wealthy man while her father goes off around the world searching for artifacts for his employer, Mr. Locke's, collection. Rather than take January with him, he leaves her at the Locke estate in Vermont. There, January is subject to many of the struggles that you'd expect from a precociou Beautifully written and well crafted and a great blend of historical setting with the added magic of other worlds, secret doors and even more secret societies.

January Scaller has grown up pampered, the ward of a wealthy man while her father goes off around the world searching for artifacts for his employer, Mr. Locke's, collection. Rather than take January with him, he leaves her at the Locke estate in Vermont. There, January is subject to many of the struggles that you'd expect from a precocious child in the early 20th century when young women (particularly those who didn't fit the definition of totally white) are expected to be seen rather than heard, deferential and generally not to have too many thoughts of their own.

Then, one day, her father disappears. At the same time, January gets her hands on the Ten Thousand Doors, a book that tells of doors between worlds, similar to the door she had discovered by accident as a child years before. Suddenly, January's life becomes full of secrets...or rather, the secrets were always there, and she just never knew to look for them. Some are wonderful, some are horrific, but either way, January's whole world is about to turn upside down.

For anyone who's heard this compared to the Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, yeah, the aesthetic hits pretty much the same. You've got books by candlelight and a girl who can walk into one door and come out somewhere completely different. You've even got an interweaving story within a story that ends up playing back into our main character's personal history.

But for those who adored the aesthetic of the Starless Sea, but were put off by its lack of linear plot, you might like this a lot better. Where the Starless Seas twists in on itself again and again until you aren't even sure where in the story you're supposed to be (which I actually loved, but I know there were a lot of people who said it wasn't for them), here you have more of a point-A to point-B narrative.

I don't know why I've never gotten around to reading this before, but it was far better than I expected, going in blind. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2020 Leticia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction, young-adult, read_all_the_books, sff_awards

This was beautifully written and the story/characters/themes were all awesome. This will be one of my favorites of 2020.
Alix E. Harrow is a new favorite author to watch for!

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 29, 2020 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: audible

a little slow going but it still kept me interested and then I loved the ending and it really was a interesting take on a little bit of fiction for the world.

Like · see review

Jan 18, 2023 Emily rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: protag-of-color, ya, sff

I read huge chunks of this in single sittings, but now that I'm done I feel pretty meh about the whole thing. I cared a lot about January's dog Bad. ...more

Like · see review