Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

36 reviews

artemismoon057's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence

vireogirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Labor Day Camping book #1. Fantasy books are weird. I think it was pretty good but not very experienced with them. I got lost when a second perspective was added but did find it again later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

n00biez's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Xenophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Animal cruelty

cherry_lake's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really enjoyed this book. Slow paced movement from historical fiction into fantasy. Felt like an homage to older YA novels and also did I detect direct inspiration from Broken Earth Trilogy? Definitely difficult themes!

Seems like those who didn’t enjoy it were mainly disappointed by false advertising or assumptions, but I had no idea what it was about or that it existed until a friend recommended! Glad I tried it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

svenja135's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, and Grief

merbears's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Murder, and Pregnancy

mindsplinters's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Glorious language in a world inspired by all of those portal fantasies that served as a staple to so many of our childhoods.  When we are little, we know that words have power.  When we get older... we forget.  This book makes you remember in the most visceral way as you follow the inner and outer and round-about journey of January Scaller and her mother and her father and her associates.  The entire thing is caught midway between a fairy tale and a very real world story of wealth and haves and have-nots.  While there is a lot of magic here, not just in the words used by the author or the stuff drawn from the characters' will, there is also a lot of brutal honesty.  Even in the other worlds mentioned, there is no shying away from the harsh brutality that might be there.  Doubly so with what we readers might reasonably call our own.  At the turn of the century (1900, that is), there was a lot going on in the world and not all of it was good.  Progress came in two flavors, good and bad, but not everyone can tell them apart.  Racism, stratification of society, people actively fighting to stay on top of the heap. 

January is witness to it all but only slowly starts to actually understand and realize what it all means.  As a character, she has a very long way to grow and go and it is both pleasure and pain to be her companion.  Without quite coming out and saying it, the author holds us witness to the emotional abuse and neglect, the masked concern, and care with strings that January endures.  We see the flaws; January has to learn to see the poison behind and beneath it all.  Understandably, as a complex and very human character, she fights the knowledge at times or backslides.  After all,  it is sometimes much easier to ignore a door or close it than to deal with what might come through it.

In the end, though, this book is so full of hope and strength and you leave it battered and scarred but with a new determination.  As January says (via Alix E Harrow) "I hope to every god you have the guts to do what needs doing.  I hope you will find the cracks in the world and wedge them wider, so the light of other suns shines through; I hope you will keep the world unruly, messy, full of strange magics; I hope you will run through every open Door and tell stories when you return."

May we all have the bravery and conviction to STOP being polite when confronted with Wrongness and Evil.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

heshanks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Racism

Moderate: Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

fatedefied's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

valorree's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Vague spoilers ahead, not enough to warrant spoiler tags (*I* think, but maybe you think they would so heres a warning) on the themes in this book

The first couple chapters from January's POV were kinda hard to get through, not because the writing was bad but bc of the colonialism, racism, and imperialism that January herself subscribes to at times. Of course that's important for character development and it's an accurate portrayal of the times but it still was rough at times

(Below are some spoilers on plot points so I do use the tags)

I think if I was younger I would have liked this less, back then I was used to

large story arcs with one big bad or evil entity with a final showdown

which this book doesn't have. Instead the ending is

a relatively small one, where there are small and mid-level bosses January overcomes. The final boss being her pseudo-father and caretaker

and i think i can appreciate that a lot more because of how it is a really great representation of these rich white men thinking they're at the top of the food chain and being an authority over things when really nature

the doors opening and closing 

doesn't really notice and will always balance out.

Locke and his group trying to put rules to how magic works

goes about as well as California trying to build a sea in the desert 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and Colonisation