The Ten Thousand Doors of January (2019) is a fantasy novel by Alix E. Harrow. In this coming-of-age story, Harrow uses her background as a historian to recreate early 20th-century America, particularly its ways of thinking and societal rules. She employs magical realism to create new worlds alongside those of her eponymous main character, January, and to point out the relativity of societal laws and expectations. Harrow’s commentary on the past century’s political ideologies such as imperialism, racial discrimination, and gender equality are still relevant today in the 21st century. This study guide refers to the hardcover version published by Redhook.

Plot Summary

January Scaller grows up under the care and provision of wealthy Cornelius Locke, a collector and business owner that employs January’s father to travel the world and bring back objects for Locke’s collection. As a little girl, January loves exploring and getting into mischief. While traveling to Kentucky with Locke, she discovers a blue Door in an empty field that leads to a world by the sea. However, when Locke finds out what she has done, he locks her away in her room and breaks her wild, adventurous spirit. Over the course of her childhood and into her teenage years, January represses her adventurous nature in favor of the demure good girl Locke wants her to be.

The day before her 17th birthday, January finds a mysterious book, The Ten Thousand Doors. Upon hearing that her father is missing and likely dead, she escapes from her grief by reading her newly found book. She reads about Ade Larson and Yule Ian, two young people from different worlds who spent years searching for magic Doors between worlds. At Locke’s annual Society party, January stands up to Locke, motivated by anger at the loss of her father. In response, Locke sends her to Battleboro asylum. January continues to read The Ten Thousand Doors while imprisoned at Battleboro, and based on her experience discovering the blue Door as a child, realizes that the Doors described in the book are real, and the characters in the book, Ade and Yule, are her mother and father.

With newfound confidence in her identity, January escapes from Battleboro. She uses a special silver coin as a pen to carve words on her arm, and has faith that her words will come true. In so doing, she opens a Door from Battleboro to her friend Samuel’s cabin, where her nursemaid Jane is staying after Locke fired her. Afraid of January’s power to open Doors, one of Locke’s Society friends (it’s revealed that the Society has ill intentions), Mr. Havemeyer, finds her at the cabin, and threatens Samuel’s life. Jane kills Havemeyer, and the threesome make their way to a Door that leads to a world called Arcadia. However, another evil member of the Society, Ilvane, discovers January’s whereabouts. To protect her friends and the people of Arcadia, January sets out on her own, and makes it to the Kentucky farm where her mother grew up. There, she comes face to face with Locke, who has been closing Doors and keeping her family apart all along.

Finally breaking free of Locke’s control over her, January reopens the blue Door in the field and escapes into the world where her father grew up—the same world of sea and stone she found as a little girl. Locke tries to follow her, but disappears in the in-between space between worlds. January finds the house where she was born, and meets her mother for the first time. The women wait there for January’s father, and while waiting, January writes her story. The family finally reunites, and January has a new purpose for her life. Equipped with her special power to open Doors, January sets off in her mother’s boat to reopen the Doors closed by Locke’s Society.