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The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alex E. Harrow Book Review

Reasons for Reading This Book:

If you have followed my book reviews over the years you will know I get my book recommendations from many different people. One of them is my best friend. I was in a book rout where I couldn’t decide what to read off of my running list, but was also not very inspired by that list. I asked her what she had recently read and liked. She said she read The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. This is a book I had never heard of and knew nothing about prior to picking it up to read. I picked this book up from the library with very little expectations other than that my best friend enjoyed it and recommended it. I love reading a book that someone else I know read because then we can discuss it.

Content of This Book:

January Scaller is the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke. In his Vermont mansion she lives under his rule and with all the treasures and artifacts he has collected. Inside of one of her favorite treasures January finds a book. This book tells the stories of ten thousands doors. This book leads January to embark on the fantastical journey of self-discovery, secret doors, love, adventure, and danger. Read this book to see how the fearless January travels worlds in search of answers.
 

What I Liked About This Book:

As someone who is not a big fantasy read, I found the amount of fantasy in this book to be perfect for me. There an even mix between the realistic plot lines and the fantasy plot lines. One of the main focuses of this book was building January’s character. The author truly encompassed all of her. The reader read all the thoughts and actions of January, giving a clear picture of who she was. The author would clearly spell out January’s intensions for what she did, which gave the read added understanding into who she was. She was also very intuitive when she was retelling an event from her past being able to reflect on it and see what she learned or gained from that experience. This became more common and benifical to her discoveries as she aged. I loved how self-aware January was. The theme of not belonging or fitting in and in search of finding where you belong was one of my favorite parts of the plot. Some people do not like when the story is told from different perspectives or at different time periods. The book is told from two main points-of-view. One is January in the ‘present’ and the other is the telling of The Ten Thousand Doors which is set in the ‘past’. The author wrote the book so it easily flows from one plot point in one section right into a complimenting or explanatory point in the other section. I have read another book where doors were gateway to somewhere or something else, so this concept was not new to me. What was new to me was the author’s use of a scientific writing style as an introduction into the book. I found this very refreshing and was a fan of it. I wish she would have concluded the book in the same way to bring it all together. As you will read in the disliked section below, I did have an issue with the choice to use excessive metaphors and similes for the descriptions in this book. Even with my dislike to the choice I do have to credit the author for painting descriptions that could easily be imagined. With a new concept like going between worlds I was unsure if I would be able to picture how this looked, but the author’s descriptions made it so I could. I do not know how else to say it, but I simply liked the plot. I enjoyed both January’s self-discovery and the discovery of the doors and all that came along with them. It was a fascinating story. 
 

What I Liked About This Book:

Some think that I really disliked about the book and voiced to my friend was the constant metaphor and similes. This literary technique consumed this book and made up a majority of the writing. Why is it in the dislike section? For me it was too much and actually caused me to be confused a number of times throughout the book. There was a crucial scene where a metaphor was used and at first I could not tell if it was literal or not. I had to reread the scene to make sure I understood it correctly. Staying on this topic, I also felt exhausted by the use of the similes and metaphors. I would have appreciated literal descriptions used in addition to the author’s preferred way. With this choice of descriptions I feel like some readers would skim over these descriptions in an effort to get to the real plot points. Other than the use of the metaphor and similes I have nothing else I disliked about the book.
 

Would I Recommend This Book?

I would recommend this book but I would give a warning beforehand. That warning would be that there is violence, sexual assault, and extremely detailed and long descriptions for almost everything. With that being said the overall story outweighed how I felt about the metaphor and similes so that I liked it more than I disliked it.

Check out my book reviews for 2023!!

Check out my book reviews for 2022!!
2022 Book Rankings

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Ownes
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
Hester by Laurie Pico Albanese
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Environmental and Sustainability Book Reviews 2022
Self-Improvement Book Reviews 2022
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Not All Diamonds and Rosé by Dave Quinn
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham 
Girls With Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Run, Rose, Run by James Patterson and Dolly Parton
The Summer Series by Jenny Han
A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard
The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives by Brian Moylan
Verity by Colleen Hoover
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart 
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Majesty: American Royals 2 by Kathrine McGree
Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre

Check out my book reviews for 2021!!

2021 Book Rankings

Beach Read By Emily Henry
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Educated by Tara Westover
The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 
The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins 
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins 
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Klara and the Sun 
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
American Duchess by Karen Harper 
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Girl With No Job by Claudia Oshry
Down the Habit Hole by Holly Madison Book Review
My Story by Elizabeth Smart
Layla by Colleen Hoover

Check out my book reviews for 2020!!

Check out my book reviews for 2019!!

Check out my book reviews from 2018!!

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