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. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a book that seems like a runaway hit, something that’s destined for tons of book bloggers Top Ten lists at the end of the year. And with very good reason. Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel is really something like magic, with a timeless quality to it that will capture the hearts of new readers for many, many years.

Full disclosure: it took me awhile to get into this one. Maybe somewhere north of 100 pages? It was never a struggle for me & the writing was beautiful from the get-go. It just wasn’t grabbing me the way I’d hoped it would.

Until it was.

This is the story of January Scaller. She lives in Vermont under the protection of Mr. Locke, an extremely wealthy man & collector of very rare items. January’s father is employed by Mr. Locke, scouring the globe for the rarest of treasures. And while January lives under rather opulent conditions & is well cared for, she doesn’t see much of her father, and she seems quite lonely & sad. Books are her comfort. Her best friends. She loses herself in stories when the sadness or the drudgery of day-to-day life becomes too much to bear. So that’s relatable af…oof.

When January is seventeen, she discovers a leather bound journal which will change the course of her life forever, and show her just how powerful words & stories can be. What follows is this sort of beautifully woven story-within-a-story.

I’m honestly struggling so much to get this review out and I’m not sure why. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a book that’s full of surprises, so the less said about the plot, the better. While there’s a whimsical & magical quality to the story, there are also some heavy themes explored here. January is biracial, and living in New England in the early 1900’s. We see racism explored from multiple angles…from outright hate-filled language, to more subversive & subtle forms of racism directed towards January.

This is a book for people who love books. For people who crave adventure. This is a book for people who love having their hearts wrung out & then wrung out just a little more. This book is beautiful & romantic & fun. This is an incredibly special debut novel by an author I suspect has many more tricks up her sleeve. Honestly, I adored The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

(Oh, I should also mention that there’s a very good dog named Bad in this book. Good boy, Bad.)

Big thanks to Orbit/Redhook for sending me a copy!!