The Ten Thousand Doors of January

This book was practically perfect in every way. It follows a young girl named January who, at the beginning of the twentieth century, discovers a door to another world. Her guardian denies it's existence and nearly succeeds in making her doubt it, too. But then she finds a book about all those other worlds, which irrevocably alters her life's path. The interleaving of the two books is well done, and they build on each other in incredible ways as January discovers that she's closer to the center of the story than she ever expected to be.

This is a book about stories. About the stories we lose ourselves in and the stories we tell to make sense of our past. It's about claiming your spot as protagonist in your own story while recognizing that everyone else is a protagonist, too. The world is full of stories, each story it's own world forever spawning more stories and worlds, contributing to the richness and vastness of life.

It's also a book about colonialism, using portal fantasy as an avenue for exploring the claiming of new worlds. The villain is someone who wants to close all the doors, shut off all the stories, in the name of order. He wants only one story, one that he is, naturally, the star of. Every other story is an affront to hos ego, other worlds create messes that he's unprepared to deal with.

January's final confrontation with him was incredible, and it hit really close to home for me. I found reading it cathartic, especially with January's conflicting emotions. The ending has her dedicating her life to making amends for the damage caused by the previous generation, both intentionally and through ignorance or coercion. It's a fitting and hopeful ending for the world we're currently living in.