Our February selection is The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. This bestselling fantasy novel tells the story of January Scaller, a young woman from the early 1900’s, living in a sprawling mansion with her wealthy guardian. She finds a strange book and discovers that its pages will take her on a series of enthralling and mysterious journeys. Harrow’s novel was a finalist for the 2020 Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards.
“One for the favorites shelf… Here is a book to make you happy when you gently close it. Here you will find wonder and questions and an unceasingly gorgeous love of words which compasses even the shape a letter makes against a page.”―NPR Books
“A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love.”―Kirkus Reviews
Well, this is embarrassing! I suggested this book and now I can’t get a hold of a copy to re-read. The e-book has been on hold all month; with only a 21 day checkout one of the copies should have come through by now! The hard copy has been in transit between libraries for a week.
It’s February 1st! Welcome to our discussion of The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.
This was a fun adventure and I liked the premise of many doors opening to other worlds. It moved fairly quickly, although I think the story might have benefited from some editing.
I was struck by the fact that the relationship between protagonist (January) and antagonist (Mr. Locke) was nearly identical to the the relationship between Nicholas and Richard Maxwell in the later work, Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs, which the CC Book Club read in 2024. Both the young people are a little naive, sheltered in wealthy homes to the point of being almost under lock & key. They are convinced that they are loved by their respective guardians, who actually only take care of them because of the magical gifts they possess (and are unaware of). Not only that, both Mr. Locke and Uncle Richard turn out to be immortal. I liked the book Ink Blood Sister Scribe more, but nod to Alix E. Harrow for creating this dynamic first. I’d be kind of annoyed at Emma Törzs if I were her! However, I don’t read a lot of fantasy — maybe it’s a trope in the genre.
Below are Discussion Questions to use or ignore as you see fit.
How would you describe January Scaller—when we first meet her? In what way do events change her? Or, perhaps we should ask, how does her true personality emerge during the course of her adventures?
In what way does Cornelius Locke (good name, there) treat January as one of his specimens?
Rather than crafting an action-packed thriller, Alix E. Harrow focuses instead on social issues. How does this book, for instance, address racism? What about sexism, including the way women are consigned to asylums for hysteria?
How does the book tackle the issue of class and the propensity of the wealthy to protect themselves in the face of threats to their position?
What parallels to life in the 21st century do you find in both the story and the story-within-the story?
In what way does this fantasy offer hope for change in the real world?
Why the name “January”: what does it connote metaphorically? Are there other names that possess symbolic significance?
January often describes letter shapes and how they inherently contain certain qualities. What are some other qualities you can derive from letters that remain unmentioned? What about other alphabets?
Artifacts from other worlds are described as having magical properties because they are displaced; they are only fantastical in new settings. In what way does this align with traditions of collecting and museums? What happens when objects are on display?
What are some of the motivations the characters have for seeking Doors? How do they differ?
Describe how characters move through Doors. What do you think about the Threshold?
The villains in the text have specific abilities. After January overcomes them, how do you understand her power differently?
I suspect the ebook delay has something to do with the libraries lease or however they got the rights to loan. Maybe it wasn’t renewed? Oddly there were two copies showing in the system and now only one. The hard copy in transit for two weeks maybe has to do with staffing?
Or maybe the book just doesn’t want me to read it again.
I enjoyed this book. I loved the story within the story. When January was reading her father’s Ten Thousand Doors book, I would get so wrapped up in my reading I would have to remind myself which story was the main story. It turns out they both were!
I definitely had moments of … wait, did that happen to Ade or did it happen to January? I think that’s because I read the book over a long stretch, so would pick it up after some days, having forgotten who opened which door.
I was happily reading this book and then the long detour into Ade’s story got me very off track and I kind of lost interest and basically just skimmed the rest. I think that says more about me than the book, though!
It was a very interesting book but I found it a bit confusing as to who was the narrator. It did remind me of Ink Blood Sister Scribe. I stayed up until nearly 1am to finish the book. I was glad to have read it all in quick succession to keep track of the story.
I’m kinda like @MMRose: I lost interest about the time of the lengthy detour into Ade’s story, though I did plug through to the end. I found it too too easy, though, not to pick up the book for several days at a time.
I like how Harrow names the chapters by door. If I needed to check something out, I just had to refer to the chapter title to remember the door and what befell the characters entering it (or not.)
Alix Harrow may not be my cuppa. I read The Once and Future Witches and rated it two stars on Goodreads. My thoughts about TTTDoJ pretty much echo my thoughts about that one: too much of this/too much of that; longer than it needs to be; but a thumbs up on the use of fairytales to pass info through generations. I do like TTTDoJ more.
I found it coincidental that both this book and Enlightenment reveal that the “book” you just read is authored by the main character, i.e., January (with the book inside the book written by Yule Ian Scholar) or Thomas Hart.
And I claim what I believe will be the odd spot of liking Enlightenment more than TTTDoJ.
I was struck by the fact that the relationship between protagonist (January) and antagonist (Mr. Locke) was nearly identical to the the relationship between Nicholas and Richard Maxwell in the later work … However, I don’t read a lot of fantasy — maybe it’s a trope in the genre.
Yeah, I’d say it’s common enough. May I take a moment to recommend The Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette?
I finished the book which is more than I can say for Enlightenment. The story was pretty good, but I like others got confused by all of the changes. There were lots of questions in the end. I guess I am one who loves definite finishes. I don’t love lots of questions left hanging. What happened to Locke? Did Samuel get his memory back? (I think that he did.) Did they find Jane? I don’t think that I would read a sequel.
The novel ends on a hopeful note, but there are no definitive resolutions. Harrow leaves the door open (no pun intended!) for a sequel. I wonder if she considered making the book the first in a series, but then didn’t go that route.
In the end, Mr. Locke is stuck in the Threshhold, aka the in-between (sort of like the Upside Down in “Stranger Things” – a wormhole between two worlds). Jane is alive. She visits Samuel, hoping that his memory has returned, but she is frustrated:
A woman had approached him as he made his delivery to Shelbourne Inn. She was obviously foreign, black as oil, and far too familiar for someone so strange. She said a lot of things that made no sense to him – or rather, they did but then didn’t, as if the words were sagging and sloughing away in his mind, and he could almost hear a voice saying Forget it all, boy– and eventually she grew irritated with him (p. 368).
January finds Samuel and gives him the book, hoping that it will break the spell that Locke put him under, and her presence does begin to clear away the cobwebs. It seems that January intends to be patient and have a few adventures repairing and opening up some closed doors while waiting for Samuel to improve.
Yes, it’s ambiguous as to whether Locke will somehow be able to magic his way out of the threshold, where he was stuck when last he was seen and heard from.
There is a hopeful suggestion that Samuel was starting to have some memory of January toward the end of her visit with him. Jane also gave Samuel her address so between that and January’s magic compass, Jane should be “findable.” I think the author wanted to leave some breadcrumbs and make the book end upbeat.
Locke’s spell seems to weaken over time as well.
January’s powers to create and open doors definitely seem to have strengthened at the end of the book, with her drawing and going through a door.
