The Ten Thousand Doors of January
LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER! Finalist for the 2020 Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards.
In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.
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.
Lush and richly imagined, a tale of impossible journeys, unforgettable love, and the enduring power of stories await in Alix E. Harrow's spellbinding debut--step inside and discover its magic.
Praise for The Ten Thousand Doors of January:
"One for the favorites shelf... Here is a book to make you happy when you gently close it. Here you will find wonder and questions and an unceasingly gorgeous love of words which compasses even the shape a letter makes against a page."―NPR Books
"Devastatingly good, a sharp, delicate nested tale of worlds within worlds, stories within stories, and the realm-cracking power of words."―Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author
"A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love."―Kirkus
For more from Alix E. Harrow, check out The Once and Future Witches.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alex E. Harrow
371 pages
What’s it about?
January Scaller is often left alone at Locke House while her father journeys the world looking for treasures. Mr. Locke (her father's employer) treats January kindly, but she finds herself restless and she misses her father. She longs for a more adventurous life. January is expected to "behave" and she finds her escape in books. When a special book appears that tells the story of secret doors and hidden worlds, she wants to know more.
What did it make me think about?
This is a story about words- more succinctly it is a story about the power of words. The stories we read are doors into other worlds, often worlds we are unfamiliar with. "Words and their meanings have weight in the world of matter, shaping and reshaping realities through a most ancient alchemy."
Should I read it?
Even though I found this book really inconsistent- there is still so much to like about it. It is a fantasy story written for readers. The book kept me engrossed at times, and uninterested at other times. All in all, there is way more to like than dislike in this book. I think this story would lend itself to a good discussion.
Quote-
"Doors, he told her, are change, and change is a dangerous necessity. Doors are revolutions and upheavals, uncertainties and mysteries, axis points around which entire worlds can be turned. They are the beginnings and endings of every true story, the passages between that lead to adventures and madness and -here he smiled- even love. Without doors the worlds would grow stagnant, calcified, story less."
If you liked this try-
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeymii
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Buried Giant by Kazoo Ishiguro
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.