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lightreadsThe Ten Thousand Doors of January
3/5. Mixed race girl is the ward of a wealthy man in the early 1900's. Also, there are doors to other worlds and she has a mysterious power.
This is doing a lot of things I like and doing them well (a girl and her dog, rebellion against stifling gender and race expectations, the intrusion of the fantastical into the ordinary). But this never caught on fire for me. Part of it is my fault, and not pleasant. Specifically, the protagonist spends most of this book completely unable to notice that her abuser is abusing her, and even when she does, she can't really believe it. This is obviously a thing that happens to people, and here there is an additional magical explanation, but oi. It is so frustrating to read about that at length, and I could feel my mind turning the spotlight of blame on her, unfairly, the longer it took. So there's that.
Also, this is I suppose technically a portal fantasy, but it's really really in love with the portal part more than the fantasy part. Like all the chapters are "The Door of Ash and Wind" or whatever (I made that up, but it wouldn't surprise me to go back and find I got it dead on), and the entire thematic structure of this book rests upon the idea of portals. Doors, guys. Did you know they, like, mean something? It's just a lot. And a lot that is not particularly fresh or interesting.
Still. A nice book, and well-written.
Content notes: Animal harm (the dog does not die, btw), child abuse, institutionalization, self-harm.
3/5. Mixed race girl is the ward of a wealthy man in the early 1900's. Also, there are doors to other worlds and she has a mysterious power.
This is doing a lot of things I like and doing them well (a girl and her dog, rebellion against stifling gender and race expectations, the intrusion of the fantastical into the ordinary). But this never caught on fire for me. Part of it is my fault, and not pleasant. Specifically, the protagonist spends most of this book completely unable to notice that her abuser is abusing her, and even when she does, she can't really believe it. This is obviously a thing that happens to people, and here there is an additional magical explanation, but oi. It is so frustrating to read about that at length, and I could feel my mind turning the spotlight of blame on her, unfairly, the longer it took. So there's that.
Also, this is I suppose technically a portal fantasy, but it's really really in love with the portal part more than the fantasy part. Like all the chapters are "The Door of Ash and Wind" or whatever (I made that up, but it wouldn't surprise me to go back and find I got it dead on), and the entire thematic structure of this book rests upon the idea of portals. Doors, guys. Did you know they, like, mean something? It's just a lot. And a lot that is not particularly fresh or interesting.
Still. A nice book, and well-written.
Content notes: Animal harm (the dog does not die, btw), child abuse, institutionalization, self-harm.