The Ten Thousand Doors of January

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

  - Alix E. Harrow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The concept of finding another world through an unexpected doorway, a portal, is not something new - Narnia is the first thing that comes to mind, followed by several more. However, the way author has built up a story around it, is wonderful and engaging. I loved the writing style and the language. This is essentially an adventure story, with a suitable happy ending (apologies for the mild spoiler, but this mattered to me, specially in these stressful times).

On the downside, it stretched a bit too much, describing the different worlds that can be reached through different doors, and explaining the pseudo-science and pseudo-philosophy behind the interconnection of the worlds, sometimes repetitively. And the protagonist makes several stupid mistakes, even accounting for her young age and naivete.

Here are a couple of beautiful lines from the book:

“The will to be polite, to maintain civility and normalcy, is fearfully strong. I wonder sometimes how much evil is permitted to run unchecked simply because it would be rude to interrupt it.”

“Maybe all powerful men are cowards at heart, because in their hearts they know power is temporary.”