I finished the book a few days ago. I “liked” it but didn’t “love” it. IMO there were quite a few places where the story dragged and it seemed like more of a chore to keep reading. I also felt the book ended a little too speedily, given how long it took to get there – if that makes sense. (As a side note, IMO book ending are often tough for many authors.)
I had a definite “Aha!” moment when I realized Ade’s story was actually January’s life story. That knowledge made the story line a bit less confusing to follow.
Me, too. It took me way too long to figure this out. Almost up until the time she read his name. I think there were hints earlier that I should have seen, but didn’t. It also surprised me that the book we were reading was January’s story to Samuel. I’m usually better about figuring these things out ahead of time. I’m going to blame distraction since I’m with my son and DIL helping take care of my new granddaughter.
Forgot to show up yesterday. Well, I enjoyed the book, not too surprising since ever since I was entranced by the Narnia books at age 9, I have been a big fan of portal fantasies. That said, I felt this book missed some opportunities. Part of that is because it seems undecided about whether the parents’ story or the daughter’s story is the main event. I don’t mind books within books, but books within books within books? It made me less invested in the story.
Right – I forgot to mention this aspect. The reader doesn’t really get this until almost the end of the book – at one point January directs a comment to “you,” meaning Samuel. Or were there earlier clues? If so I missed them. When I did realize it, I had a thought that there a lot of people in the book who needed detailed explanations of what was going on!
To me, though, I wondered about the rest of Locke’s group still in existence. Yes, Locke and two of the evil ones are no longer after her, but what of the rest? Surely she isn’t safe.
I agree she has to watch her back but it’s unclear that the others have magical powers—mostly they have money and are acquirers/collectors. Who knows? The Society wanted her dead or alive for quite awhile already. They even botched killing Bad. The red-haired guy is still out there—with his fake face/mask that makes him look like kindly old woman and magic feather of invisibility but happily Bad can still bite him.
I also wondered why January doesn’t grab that feather when she’s got him. She asks for and gets the compass. Me - I would’ve wanted that feather too. It’s never mentioned again.
She should have demanded the mask & the feather and anything else that he had of Locke’s, but in the heat of the moment I’m sure she was happy to at least get the compass.
Just chiming in to say I read about 30% and gave up. Trying to follow the comments to make sense of this book, complicated, doors, portals, ect story within story,
I found the changing points of view confusing but to the extent parts were written by January to Samuel, I guess that makes more sense. For a debut novel, it was interesting but had a lot of poor orphaning vibes for January and wicked rich “patrons.”
I’m just sad there aren’t more participating and that this isn’t a more robust discussion. I’ve enjoyed the Book Club discussions and they often raise points of view that I never considered. The Book Club was the only reason I borrowed this book and the only reason I pushed myself to finish it by 12:35am on 2/1/2026. It wasn’t my favorite book that I’ve read with this group but also not hard to read as some of the others I’ve slogged through (like the one about the house over the centuries which I found rather gory).
I couldn’t get a copy in time to re-read; I certainly left enough time that either the ebook or hard copy should have arrived. I remember recommending it because it wasn’t tragic and didn’t have very unlikeable characters. And didn’t leave me totally depressed. And that it dealt with the importance of stories, legends, fairy tales, myths, et al in establishing and maintaining the world order. At least I think that’s what it did?! I didn’t realize how the structure was the same as other books we’ve read. I also remember it started slow and I was well into the book before it really came together for me.
Yes on all counts! I’ve been thinking a lot about this book (but finding time to sit down and post has been a challenge – new baby in the family and lots of grandparent duties).
Don’t worry, @HImom, it’s only February 2nd (at least for a few more minutes ) – sometimes the discussions evolve at a slower pace.
I’m surprised there is not a discussion question about the plot-driving gift that January possesses. How is it that she came to have this power? It seems to be not so much a question of magic as of DNA. Both her parents have an innate and rare ability to find doors. Yule and Ade’s first encounter is by accident; it isn’t a gift they’ve learned to control yet.
But January has a hundred times the gift of her parents, as if the combination of genes from two beings of different worlds resulted in some sort of mutation. Not only can she find doors, she can create them. And she can make things happen almost instantly by writing them down! Imagine how this gift might be both a blessing and a curse for January in her life — or at least a potential path of great temptation.
My brain just made a crazy connection to the children’s book “Sam and the Firefly" by P.D. Eastman, where Gus (the firefly) learns he has the power to scrawl glowing words in the sky and uses this newfound ability to write messages that create havoc. If you didn’t read the book to your kids, you’ll think I’m nuts, but if you did, you’ll know what I’m talking about. My point being that you don’t have to be from The Written (Yule Ian’s homeland) to recognize the power of words. We mere mortals learn from a young age that words are potent and should be used with care. I think Alix Harrow was taking the “Sam and the Firefly” idea to new heights.
Sorry – you can blame this theory on all the time I’ve been spending with a four-year-old lately.
Anyway, January’s gift could be used for good or for ill. I wonder how the Society would harness her power if they had her in their clutches. They didn’t even seem to be aware of what she could do. Mr. Locke says near the end, as January writes his fate, “January, I don’t quite know what you’re doing, but I can’t allow it.”
In chapter three, Yule Ian describes how in The Written, words have power to “reshape the nature of reality.” He writes:
Now, not every written word holds such power–what chaos that would be!–but only certain words written by certain people who combine an innate talent with many years of careful study, and even then the results are not the story of fairy godmother-ish magic you might be imagining. Even a very great word-worker could not casually scrawl a sentence about flying carriages and expect one to come winging across the horizon, or write the dead back to life, or otherwise subvert the very underpinnings of the world as they are. But she might labor for many weeks to craft a story that would increase the likelihood of rain on a particular Sunday, or perhaps she could compose a stanza that would hold her City’s walls fractionally more firm against invasion, or guide a single reckless ship away from unseen reefs.
January’s talents far exceed those of even a “very great word-worker” – and with no training at all, much less “many years of careful study.”
Yule adds that word-working comes at a cost:
Acts of word-magic leave their workers ill and drained, and the more ambitious the working – the more it defies the warp and weft of the world as it is – the higher the toll. Most everyday sorts of word-workers lack the force of will to risk more than an occasional nosebleed and a day spent in bed, but more-gifted persons must spend years in careful study and training, learning restraint and balance, lest they drain away their very lives.
Those are lengthy quotes, but I think they’re important as they lay the groundwork for Harrow’s world-building. And they certainly don’t bode well for a long and healthy life for January! Perhaps she manages to completely escape the “life-draining” aspect of her word-working gift, but we’ll never know. Again, as mentioned above, this feels like a setup for a sequel that was never written.
It seems like the author wanted to keep her options open. Allow the reader to “write his/her own adventure,” or craft a sequal when time might allow.
@Marilyn — yes, interesting and mostly hopeful book. I found it engaging but do agree it does have a bit of overlap either with some of our more recent book selections.
It was pretty amazing how powerful January was, without any teachers—self-taught. Other than the time she had to write in blood on her arm and the time she was wrangling with Locke somehow injuring her hip in the threshold/crossing, she didn’t seem to be much harmed by writing doors and writing Bad into her life. She does seem much more powerful than anyone else she encountered.
) – sometimes the discussions evolve at a slower pace.
