Best Fantasy - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow

Publisher – Orbit

Price - £8.99 paperback £3.99 Kindle eBook

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr Locke, she feels little different from the artefacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored and utterly out of place.

But her quiet existence is shattered when she stumbles across a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Why do we need fantasy stories? Escapism, relief or a reminder that there can be other worlds than this one (for better and worse). Fantasy is our world or past version mixed with the magical and while a lot of these tales are their own unique universe there are many stories that look at what happens when we cross those boundaries via wardrobes, gardens and most of all doors. In the Alix E. Harrow’s wonderful The Ten Thousand Doors of January we get a strong reminder of the power of those other worlds and how fantasy helps us better understand our own world and its problems.

The story is told by January across the crossing of ward of the wealthy Mr Locke. Her father who works for Locke is largely absent in her life as he travels across the world seeking antiquities Locke can horde or sell. One day when seven she crosses a strange door standing alone in a field and steps through; there she briefly glimpses a strange world of sea and islands; but she quickly comes back. As January grows up though she never forgets that moment of weirdness and finally she finds a book known as The Ten Thousand Doors which is a tale of these portals and in particular one woman’s experiences and quest for more. January realises she is not imagining things and decides finally its time to break away from Locke and his unsettling fellow society members and find out for herself who she is and how she fits into this mystery herself.

This was a delicious read and Harrow accomplishes this through so many levels and themes. In January we purposely have someone who crosses boundaries. And not simply into those of other worlds. She is of mixed race in a time when racism was very much normal, and no one would think of saying what they think to someone’s face. She comes from impoverished parents but travels in Locke’s wealthy sphere and of course as a woman she is viewed by the male members of society as inferior, yet she is for more intelligent, willed and resourceful than people think. As January seeks the purpose of Doors she finds herself in rising conflict with her sometimes benevolent guardian Locke (and I do like that name choice). It becomes apparent that while fond of January Locke doesn’t see her quite as family but more a possession he treasures and once January gets out of his shadow she finds losing wealth and his privilege means the world suddenly sees her as a young black woman and therefore a firmly second class citizen. She’s a truly compelling character and as she starts to understand the world and move into adulthood we really warm to her and want her to move out of her cage.

There is an absolutely terrifying scene where January gets trapped in a mental health ward at Locke’s request. We know what she has experienced as real but it is terrifying how her power and autonomy is so quickly completely out of her hands. There is a tendency to think of portal fantasy as for children but here the villains are murderous, the stakes are high and as we see from the tales told in January’s own Thousand Doors the worlds that can be experienced aren’t safe. The setting of this story is the rise of the twentieth century – empires are being built, industrialists are enjoying their own burst of power and as we know this becomes the norm for our capitalist times. These forces of order and control take issue with the idea of Doors and the other worlds that bring new ideas or offer safe havens. So, while we have a personal journey of discovery, we also get a really interesting theme that explores how fantasy and the imagination is a counter-balance that can challenge these forces. Once you know there are other ways to live why should you conform?

There are also some great supporting characters. In particular January gets three interesting companions. My favourite is the relationship with a new nanny/companion for January named Jane – unusually hired by her father and not Locke. Jane is a black woman from Africa who for unclear reasons has move to the US to care for Jane. Their relationship starts frosty but develops into a true and powerful friendship despite the racist society that clearly see Jane as inferior and they will be sorely mistaken. Alongside this is her childhood friend Samuel the Italian-american store-clerk that shares her love of adventure fiction and dreams of a life outside of a shop and most of all you will love January’s dog…named Bad…I’ll leave you the joy of reading about him yourself. The final key focus is the woman Adelaide whose January’s book is focused on – a poor working class woman on a farm who has one magical day with a Door and meets someone form another world and it changes her life as she herself crossed the world seeking its secrets. Each of these stories are people who the normal world only sees one way and their experiences with the Doors give them options to be something very different – doors and fantasy are about change.

This novel a bit like the Doors themselves is deceptive a fairly brisk tale that within it packs adventure, danger, growing up and a huge exploration of what does fantasy mean for us? This story mixes quite a wonderfully compelling story – Harrow’s prose is wonderfully crafted. It can read quite comfortable but the phrasing Harow uses can conceal quite a lot of bite. One of those reads you can see yourself coming back to wallow in a wonderful tale but also explore the ideas. If you enjoy stories about stories and the power of fantasy to change then this is a read that you really need to explore.