Review in

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

By Alix E. Harrow

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️

Would Recommend: if you like a book within a book, and overly expressive writing

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• Published date: September 10th, 2019

• Publisher: Redhook

• Page numbers: 374

• Genre: YA Historical Fantasy

• format read in: eBook provided by NetGalley

• get it here

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What it is about...

A very lonely girl, growing up forbidden to dream and to imagine, discovers that things around her aren't what they seem, and that she might have some magic in her that can transport her and revive her spirits.

I liked...

This book started off captivating albeit the writing style being confusing. I was excited to read some fantasy, but this was portal fantasy AND a book within a book! What?! I had to read it! However, as the book went on, things got worse. At first, I felt a sparkle of magic, and thought that maybe if I put the writing aside, this could be a gem, but it got shutdown real fast like the imagination of the main character as she grew up.

I disliked...

This is written in a VERY lyrical way, and unfortunately, too lyrical for my liking. Now, I love poetic writing, but extravagant writing with massive use of adverbs and adjectives and sentences that go on and on and on, does not mean it is good writing. I found that the overcomplicating sentences were frankly nonsensical and it made the reading quite tedious.

The story is boring and the characters are barely explored. Also, she barely gets to experience the portal part of the story, instead you are told about all those other worlds in a few sentences through the book written within. The ten thousand doors were more like the two doors...

I thought the villain was obvious, however the second part (the discovery of what really is going on) of the book felt really rushed. Also, what was the point of the vampire plot twist exactly? That was ridiculous.

TLDR...

The ideas throughout were somewhat lacking in intensity, and the writing style combined with unsurprising plot points and lack of characters’ depth were disappointing and overall dull.

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Have you read this book? What are your thought on it? Let me know in the comments!