Alix E. Harrow: Ten Thousand Doors of January (2020, Little, Brown Book Group Limited)
432 pages
English language
Published Oct. 29, 2020 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
It's well written, but not strikingly original. I liked it, but clearly sort of a YA kind of thing.
Content warning Spoiler for a story twist, cw death, animal harm, self harm
It's a little flat. Fantastical but enough racism to just sort of suck the air out of it. I really resented the >>spoiler<< dead dog switcharoo even though I kinda saw it coming. When the >>spoiler<< dead mum turned up alive then the >>spoiler<< dead dad did too then dead friend then dead great aunt ... it was a bit of a struggle to not just nope out.
The worldsbuilding is solid. The characters are solid. Representation of POC is great. One character is in a pan polycule, which is rad. The rest is OK, (pacing, plot, etc.) just very predictable. It's fairly YA but for the self harm. (One day I'll happen upon a novel for grown-ups & faint dead away)
I listened on audio book. I enjoyed parts but felt it went on a bit too long and jumped around a lot, but not in a good way. I was bored by the end. It didn't really ever grab my attention
