The Ten Thousand Doors of January is by Alix E. Harrow and tells the story of January Scaller. She is a rather lonely young woman who is the ward of the rather wealthy Mr. Locke. Her father works for Mr. Locke by traveling around the world in search of rare and unusual historical objects to add to his collection. With him always gone, January feels rather disconnected from the world around her. However, when she is seven she discovers something that changes her world even if she manages to forget for the next decade. In an open field she finds a door that when opened leads to what seems to be an alternate world. Destroyed by Mr. Locke she puts it from her mind until she learns some time later that there are other such doors and that maybe, just maybe, there are more to the doors than Mr. Locke would want her to know or that he is even aware of. Aided by an unusual book that reveals certain secrets about the doors and her scant handful of friends, January must decide what she actually wants from her life and if it is even possible to achieve it.
I want to admit that the name of the book is definitely what snagged my attention about this one and that I did not realize that January was a person until I actually started reading it. Somehow I had missed that when reading the description. What drew me in about the story though was the idea of being able to open a door and literally enter another world. I mean that is the whole point of reading, opening the cover and turning the page to enter a world different from our own. Reading about someone being able to do exactly that was intriguing and extremely thought provoking. Especially the way it was handled in this story. Perhaps the most interesting part though was the idea that these doors can exist anywhere and everywhere even where there shouldn’t have been a door at all. I did rather enjoy watching as January worked on unraveling the secret of the doors and trying to figure out what was actually going on in relation to them, as well as trying to figure out who else might have known about them. Some of what was revealed about that in the later half of the story was unexpected but the majority of it was hinted at pretty heavily in the earlier parts if you were paying attention. That being said, it was still weird how everything ended up coming together and like it was destined to have been that way. The odds of it happening like it did are pretty low overall. It was still an incredibly enjoyable read and I am happy giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This is probably best classified as young adult fantasy, at least I would classify it as young adult considering January’s age throughout the story. It would probably hold the most appeal for adult or young adult readers who enjoy fantasy though it might also appeal to older teens. While there is some violence it is extremely mild and I would be fine with recommending it to teens as young as fourteen or fifteen. It does deal with some interesting concepts that will probably make you really think about what you are reading so be prepared for that before diving in. I still thought it was highly enjoyable and hope you will consider trying it out if it sounds interesting. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you decide to do so.