Blog Tour and Review: The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alix E. Harrow

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Title: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Author: Alix E. Harrow
Publication date: Out now
Publisher: Orbit

Synopsis

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.
Taken from The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Review

What would you do if you stumbled across a Door? Not a door, you understand. A Door. A portal to another place, another world, another time. That’s what happens to January. She’s young, adventurous, and a bit mischievous. But when Mr. Locke, her warden, hears of her Door, he warns her to be a good young lady, or face the consequences. So she does as she’s told.

Until one day a letter arrives. Her father is missing, presumed dead, and January’s need to find more Doors becomes a desperate need and desire. If she can find the right door, she may just find her father and unlock the secrets of her past.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is an interesting take on a book within a book but also Doors within books. You move gracefully between times, places, worlds, and people. With that, Harrow explores attitudes towards race, as January is treated by Mr. Locke as some sort of novelty to be shown off to his peers.

There are some components of this book that I really enjoyed, particularly when January becomes an inconvenience to her warden and is carted off to an asylum so she can ‘rest’ for an undefined period of time. This was very much a reality for many women who maybe just did not fit in with their society’s expectations of them.

This is an ideal book for people who enjoy fantasy and books about books, as well as those who maybe looking for a book to curl up with on a rainy Autumn day.

Thanks to Orbit and NetGalley, as well as Compulsive Readers, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.