My Review of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

My Review:

The Ten Thousand Doors Of January was a delight to read. I loved the first person narrative and found the narrator, January Scaller both endearing and wholly plausible. We first meet her when she's a mere seven years old and cannot help but feel for her predicament. She's a young girl and although not an orphan officially, she is to all intents and purposes as her father, Julian, is an absent presence in her life and she has never known her mother. Mr Locke, January's guardian, is remote but seemingly kind, think Daddy Warbucks at the beginning of Annie's stay! Her needs are taken care of but you can't help but yearn, just as she does, for something more for her. 

Alix E Harrow shows us through the character of January, with her travels and travails, that we all have our own power within us, and that we are all stronger than we know. This seems particularly empowering with for teenage girls but that's not to say that this novel should be aimed at them, merely that they could learn something from her. January exemplifies that sometimes our only limits are imposed by our own self belief and that we can overcome this.

The importance of stories imbues every line of The Ten Thousand Doors Of January and exquisitely encapsulates how humans make sense of the world, ourselves and our history. It shows that being denied access to the stories of our past precludes us from a sense of belonging and this is January. The concept of doors as being the access point between two rooms or areas is used hyperbolically to become the gateway between two worlds. As a dramatic device its superb as it really makes the reader think about how doors allow us to leave one place and arrive in another. Harrow's use of different worlds allows the reader to travel to worlds beyond our imagination but thankfully not Harrow's. My favourite was Arcadia where life might be hard but it had overtures of the way America should be: tolerant, communal and where all are equal. 

I thoroughly enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January and hope you will too. Thank you to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.