“The Ten Thousand Doors of January” by Alix Harrow – The Wild Life Realized

Alix Harrow had only published a few short stories in collaborative works and magazines until 2019, when she finally graced her readers with her debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

In it, we follow the eponymous January Scaller as she tends to an old recluse in his mansion, and in the process finds a mysterious book which tells tales of danger, adventure, love, and perhaps most intriguingly, secret doors.

Alix Harrow Walks Between Worlds

Personal growth is profound and interesting topic to which I have no doubt entire tomes could be dedicated to, but I think we can all agree on one general principle about life, if not from personal experience then from observation: true growth happens upon leaving what is known behind to experience something unknown, potentially dangerous. In other words, we grow by facing the world and all the suffering it throws our way, something our protagonist is about to discover first-hand in Alix Harrow's debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January.

Taking place in the early 1900s, the story introduces us to the eponymous January Scaller who has a seemingly boring and uneventful future in front of her, being left with her father's patron on a grandiose estate in Vermont while he hunts for relics around the world. It doesn't take her long to feel like she really doesn't belong in the place, surrounded by well-maintained yet largely ignored antiquities. However, one object catches her eye, a book of power her father once recovered titled The Ten Thousand Doors, telling tales of there existing doors between worlds.

She believes in the book, remembering having seen one of those doors a long time ago, and when her father goes missing she finally decides to kick the dust off herself and go out to search for him. But how exactly is she to find him in the whole wide world? The mystical doors are the key, and soon she leaves the comfort of everything she had ever known behind to cross through them, one after the other, visiting different countries around the globe. Though she only set out looking for her father, she might pick up a whole lot more on the journey, and with a bit of luck grow into the person she always had the potential to be.

A New Approach with Old Ingredients

On the surface, we don't exactly see many new things offered by this story, at least if we look at the elements individually. A missing relative, a young woman finding her way in life, a magic book of power, a truly despicable villain... in short, nothing we haven't exactly seen before. However, when it comes to writing books, it's a little less about the ideas themselves, and more about how the author meshes them together with the power of their own, personal imagination. In this novel's case, Harrow's writing abilities elevate the afore-mentioned elements from mundane to memorable.

A lot of emphasis is placed on January's emotional development throughout the story as she goes from one door to the next and learns a little more about the world and her place in it. Each and every new bit of scenery is described magnificently with a lot of evocative details which make every stage of January's adventure memorable in and of itself. We watch how these environments leave their marks on our protagonist, and overall it feels as if there is seldom a chapter where she doesn't grow as a person.

In my opinion, one of the strongest aspects of Harrow's writing is her ability to create compelling secondary characters which feel a whole lot more alive than they would in other books, where their sole purpose is to impart a tiny bit of information. Nearly every individual Harrow interacts with is characterized well enough for us to from relatively complete pictures of their internal worlds. As a result, we pay attention to what they have to tell January and the wisdom they are trying to impart on us, the readers. In the end, they become vital to our protagonist's journey towards personal progress and ultimately breathe a good dose of colour into it.

Leaving the Shelter of Comfort

While novels are all works of fiction, they can still very much be used by authors to express certain things and ideas, using the plot and characters as vehicles for their endeavours. While The Ten Thousand Doors of January certainly has a meticulously-developed plot which takes us on a grand adventure and hooks us in with the promise of uncharted lands, I always had the impression the authors was trying to send a message to her readers underneath it all.

One of the more prevalent themes of this book is about leaving safety in favour of danger in order to attain some kind of personal growth. Time and time again we witness January as she leaves the world she knows and is completely safe in to travel through mysterious portals in search of her own power. The only times we really see her making progress are when she accepts the mystery of the unknown and plunges head-first into it. In a sense, it almost feels as if we ourselves have walked through a door into Harrow's world, and she's doing our best to teach us the lessons she herself learned in life.

For those who are unfamiliar with the author, Harrow has the distinction of having worked in multiple careers and lived under all sorts of conditions, from tents, cars and wagons to cabins and cramped apartments. If anyone knows anything about leaving comfort zones to face the dangers of life, it's Alix Harrow. Whether or not you agree with her assessments, there is certainly a lot of brain food to chew on here and it's weaved magnificently into the story, keeping it all on a logical and believable level.

The Final Verdict

The Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow is fantastic novel on two levels, telling both an engrossing story while feeding us with thought-provoking meditations from the author's obviously profound mind. If you enjoy fantasy novels revolving around the subject of self-discovery and with a lot of food for thought, then I truly believe you will enjoy this remarkably strong debut novel.

---

Alix Harrow Alix Harrow is a full-time writer living in Kentucky who has the distinction of having worked a whole host of jobs before taking up an author's career, from being a farm hand to an office dweller. She began with a few short stories, namely ones which have appeared in Shimmer Magazine, Strange Horizons and Apex, and in 2019 her debut novel came out, The Ten Thousand Doors of January.