Pages: 310
Publication Date: September 10th, 2019
Genre: Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, YA Fantasy, Historical
This is a portal fantasy about January, who discovered a door. "You know the kind of door–they lead to Faerie, to Valhalla, to Atlantis, to all the places never found on a map"
January began to forget the elsewhere and is raised by her guardian on his estate, until she happens upon a strange book. This book is full of doors, the scent of the otherworld and how the doors lead to adventure, love and intrigue. With discovering this, she remembers the past door of elsewhere. This leads to an extraordinary adventure and looking for her father.
I was honestly so excited to be approved for an ARC of this, I was not really expecting to because this was so highly anticipated. It lived up to the anticipation that I had for this. I absolutely loved it. Portal fantasies get me every time. The idea of doors leading to another world has fascinated me since I was a child.
I liked January has a protagonist. She was intelligent and was likeable. I also love when they use month names for Fantasy protagonists. January had a strong, distinct voice and made a great narrator. It dealt with family separation in a way that felt fresh.
The writing is beautiful and honestly doesn't feel like a debut. It is poetical and flows beautifully. It helps you get absorbed in the story and I really wanted to know what was going to happen next. I liked how it was written alternating between the now and the text of The Ten Thousand Doors, which I personally thought was an unique way to do it. Both the text and January's chapters had their own tone, voice and after reading so many books that fail at this (looking at you Spinning Silver), it was so refreshing to see this done so well.
My one issue is that Mr. Locke's character arc was somewhat predictable.
5/5
I love this book. I'd recommend it to everyone, but particularly fans of "The Wayward Children" series by Seanan McGuire. They both have a similar tone and are somewhat whimsical but still feeling grounded in reality.
**e-ARC provided by Netgalley and Orbit in exchange for an honest review**