This is a tale of doors that take you to magical and terrifying places.

EVERY STORY OPENS A DOOR

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored and utterly out of place.

But her quiet existence is shattered when she stumbles across a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

I found this book a little strange to read at first as it’s essentially a story within a story. January herself is an unusual girl, she has reddish skin and in a world where society is divided by the colour of their skin, no ones know quite where she is from.

She’s a ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke who has hired her father to travel the world finding oddities. She finds a door when she was young and upon going through it, finds a strange world and a silver coin. Unbeknown to her, this encounter will change the fabric of her life. After her father disappears and her life with Mr. Locke taking a turn for the worse, she is institutionalised and eventually freed and learns that that little door she found was just the beginning.
⠀
This is a tale of doors that take you to magical and terrifying places. Of people searching worlds to find each other and a girl out of place, looking to belong. The idea that there are special doors, if you know where to look for them and feeling like you don’t belong in one world, may mean you might very well belong in another.

It was a beautiful book, whimsical, charming, spirit lifting and magical. I loved the ending and feel like this is already a classic! I haven’t stopped thinking about it for some time!