I think this happens to all of us readers. You buy a book you're super excited for, bring it home, put it on your shelf, and there it sits collecting dust for many years. You never seem to find the exact right moment to read it, especially when new and exciting releases keep dazzling you. I confess that's what happened here.So what held me back from The Ten Thousand Doors of January for so long? Honestly, it was the effusive praise of this book. When it's described as "unbearably beautiful" and ...

World-class writing in service to an excellent story leaves me with no complaints. Harrow has written a portal fantasy where the focus is on the portals more than where they lead to. She twists a family tale through various of these doors, a couple of romance threads, a modicum of danger and threat, and a smattering of Americana. It's all good.My love of great prose means that my main delight was in the power of the language used, the deft capture of feelings or people or places in just a handfu...

I liked the writing style and adventurous concept - it's fun to think about all the different worlds that you can escape to, especially ones that are more accepting of POC compared to our world. I appreciate the decision to make the protagonists POC and have a feeling of "not belonging" to add another layer of wanting to escape to other worlds. I couldn't find myself attached to the characters though, and the “book within a book” execution dragged the story a little too long, making my interest ...

“It is at the moments when the doors open, when the things flow between the worlds, that stories happen.”Ten thousand doors no’s. Twenty thousand doorways no-way’s.Sometimes I shamelessly fall for those hyped bestsellers, but most often I cannot stand them. Funnily enough, I loved what most people hate about this book: the flowery, flowing prose. I admired the writing style so much that I wanted to rate the book with full five stars, a priori, before I even finished the second chapter. How sensi...

If there is a part of you that has always felt there is magic in the world ever since childhood, despite voices to the contrary, and have a penchant for the whimsical, then Alix Harrow has written the perfect novel for you. It is a story of doors, portals if you will, existing in places of particular resonance, stepping through the void, into fables, folklore, adventure, love and sanctuary, and the infinite power of words and stories. In 1901, at the age of 7, the red skinned, wilful and cantank...

5 thousand stars first for wonderful, amazing illustration on the cover and five thousand stars go for rest of the heart throbbing, one of the most creative, colorful, joyful journeys to many different imaginary portals you can never imagine to visit!FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT, OPEN YOUR EYES, READY TO COUNT TO 10 THOUSAND! This is amazing combination of McGuire’s Wayward Children Series and Stephen King’s Dark Tower series! BLURB: Seven years old January’s revelation of finding a door opens to Faeri...

((me: prepares for awkward silence due to unpopular opinion))((confirmed: sound of crickets))I'm sorry, everyone, but I have to be honest. I did not enjoy this book at all.I really wanted to, I was so hyped for it. I saw early reviews coming in and they were fantastic. I couldn't wait to get started.My initial impression was that although the writing style was a little quirky, my interest was still high. Then it seemed to go nowhere. I wasn't feeling anything. I honestly do not think I have ever...

All the stars! Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature (along with my co-reviewer Marion's excellent review):The Ten Thousand Doors of January is perched at the top of the mountain of portal fantasies that I’ve read in my life. It’s set apart by Alix E. Harrow’s intelligent and truly gorgeous writing, unique characters ― including true friends and a fiercely loyal dog ― and a complex and twisty plot, combined with thoughtful consideration of racial and class prejudice, powerful men who ...

I almost didn’t write this review. I felt that to speak of this book would be to contain what it did to me, to diminish it somehow. And I didn’t want to do that. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is almost less a novel than an experience: never have I felt more like I was part of things, moved by the same current, like my soul had disconnected from my body and drifted among fictional souls in a mist somewhere between fantasy and reality. It seemed hardly credible when I finished reading that I c...

oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for BEST FANTASY *AND* BEST DEBUT NOVEL 2019! what will happen?i mean, it’s a perfect book. that should be the alpha and the omega of this book review, because you’ve probably already read the synopsis, and if it takes more than that to convince you of this book’s desirability, i’m sure i don’t have the words to do it. if you like seanan mcguire’s wayward children series, you will probably enjoy this. obviously, they both involve doorways to other world...