- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Orbit (12 Sept. 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0356512444
- ISBN-13: 978-0356512440
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.
Review
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is the perfect book for book lovers as it is an ode to story telling. Set in America in the early twentieth century Mr Locke is a collector of original treasures from around the world. One of those treasures is January, his ward who he looks after whilst her father travels the world searching for more collectable items. January with her copper skin and unruly hair hates being dressed up and put on show to Lock’s friends, and after finding a strange book she finds herself reading about places she never new existed that may include the truth about her own family history. This book has myth, adventure, mystery and romance and will take you on a journey you will not want to end.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is one of those books that completely took my breath away, with the diverse characters and spellbinding plot. The book is narrated by January from the age of seven until her teenage years. Over the years she tried to control her wilfulness and daydreaming to be a good girl for her guardian. However, we all know that you can’t suppress your true self and by sixteen she is fed up with being put on display, dressed up in fancy clothes by her guardian who ignores the rest of the time. Her best friend is Sinbad, her dog who guards her fiercely and adds a few humorous moments in the book. There are some other chapters that are from the book January finds; The Ten Thousand Doors: Being a comparative study of passages, portals, and entryways in world mythology. After an experience as a seven year old, this books sets her imagination alight and also makes her think of her own story. The idea of a book within a book is an idea used by many authors including Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt and Carlos Ruiz Zafron, and as with those books it brilliantly adds another dimension to this book.
I really can’t believe that this is the debut novel from Alix E Harrow, it is accomplished, with depth of character and a well rounded and stunning plot line. It reads very much like a fairytale for adults with its main character being a child, living in an interesting house, with a strange guardian, and the important villain. The diversity of the characters, their personal situations are not what they seem at first, and as the book progresses I found my self becoming more invested in the stories as individuals and as a collective group. To say I didn’t want this book to end would be an understatement, I wanted to continue to follow January’s story and be part of the many worlds from the book.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is an amazing read, and will definitely be one of top books of the year. The idea of doors being portals to other lands made me think how we see books as exactly that, a way of escape from our daily lives, to go to another place for a while. Magical, breathtaking, spellbinding and enchanting are just a few words I can use to describe this amazing love letter to stories. So, get ordering and take yourself on a literary journey you will never forget or want to end.
I would like to thank Orbit Books and Tracy Fenton for inviting me to be part of the blog tour for this magical book.
