REVIEW: The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Alix E Harrow)
Book: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Author: Alix E Harrow
My rating: 3/5.
Premise: 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. Then she finds 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 turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
[⚠️CW: racism]
This book was very different to how I imagined. I was expecting something fast paced with lots of fantasy and jumping through doors to different worlds. It was not like that for most of the book. I found the story was a tad slow to start with, which felt a bit like a let down with my expectations. But after about 100 pages, things started to pick up and an adventure was happening. I loved the idea that there are Doors to different worlds and behind all stories, there is a Door. At first, it took a while to get used to the writing style - it's written kind of conversational-y with lots of descriptions - but it's an easy style to get into. Overall, a bit of a bittersweet book: enjoyable but less exciting than expected.
Premise: 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. Then she finds 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 turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
[⚠️CW: racism]
This book was very different to how I imagined. I was expecting something fast paced with lots of fantasy and jumping through doors to different worlds. It was not like that for most of the book. I found the story was a tad slow to start with, which felt a bit like a let down with my expectations. But after about 100 pages, things started to pick up and an adventure was happening. I loved the idea that there are Doors to different worlds and behind all stories, there is a Door. At first, it took a while to get used to the writing style - it's written kind of conversational-y with lots of descriptions - but it's an easy style to get into. Overall, a bit of a bittersweet book: enjoyable but less exciting than expected.