#ten thousand doors of january
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you publisher!
5 out of 5 starts to Ten Thousand Doors of January
Honestly if I could - I would give it more stars because this is a book I never knew I needed in my life. It left me on the floor, in the puddle of my own tears, unable to tell my husband exactly why I was crying.
Ten Thousand Doors of January is a story of January Scaller - an in-between girl, a wild child, a mixed race child who has never fit into the world of neat order and rules of the 1900’s. Brought up by an older rich man (while her father is way hunting treasures for him), she has only ever known a life of privilege and comfort. Yet she never ever felt like she belongs, she feels like a bird in a cage and when her father goes missing, January finds a journal explaining where she comes from and her world is turned upside-down.
I wasn’t sure about the book at first - mainly because it’s about a mixed raced girl who seems oblivious to Mr. Locke’s (to me obvious) racism and sexism. It’s always upsetting to read that someone could actually think and believe in superiority of one race over another. Yet I continued with the book, it made sense for the time period. And I am so glad I did. January turns out to be a shining beacon to the in-between girls, strong, smart, loving and kind she takes her own life into her own hands; she does not need a knight to rescue her. Despite the odds being against her, she never gives up, never allows herself to be beaten. It is a book about finding family and love and about loss and most of all about the need of this world to have all of us here to make life richer.
Miss Harrow (or is it Mrs?) has absolutely blown me away. The novel is written in such lyrical and captivating language that I honestly found it very hard to put down. It absolutely blows my mind that this is a debut. I will be on the lookout for her future books.
I would recommend this to anyone who liked The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, and Circe by Madeline Miller. If you like a STRONG female character - this is a book for you.
~ Iryna
