_lia_reads_'s Reviews (757)

I really, really wanted to love The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I was super excited when I first saw the book. And let’s be honest, the cover is what first drew me to it. But then I got intrigued by the mixture of historical fiction and fantasy. I usually really enjoy fantasy that is only just adjacent to the real world.

But guys, this one was a struggle for me. I’ve been thinking a lot about why it didn’t work and I think it was the story within the story. You start out by meeting January, whose father has left her in the care of his wealthy employer, Mr. Locke, while he goes off to find treasures for Locke’s antiquities society. When January finds a strange book in Mr. Locke’s house, she discovers a series of worlds adjacent to her own and a story that magically entwines with her reality. A fascinating premise, but I found myself not caring at all about the story that January reads. It was dry and I think I would have been more invested if I had known from the beginning why we were reading the story.

That said, I flew through the chapters told from January’s POV and ultimately kept going with this one because I really wanted to know what was going to happen to her. I’m glad I eventually finished the book (it was smooth sailing when we go past the story within the story).

I know a lot of bookstagrammers REALLY enjoyed this book, so I might be in the minority with this opinion. But that’s what this community is all about, right? Talking about books and sharing different opinions?

I won a copy of The German House from BookishFirst and I was so excited to receive that I started it almost immediately. Set during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials in the 1960s in West Germany, the story follows Eva, a German woman in her twenties who works as a translator. She is brought into the trial because of her ability to speak Polish. Through the different characters, we see the ways in which Germans dealt with the aftermath of the Holocaust, from denial to complete ignorance. Eva was a young child during WWII and starts the book not really understanding the depth of the atrocities committed in the camps. Through the events of the trial, Eva begins to uncover the dark secrets of her country’s and family’s past during the war.

The author of the book has written a lot for television and you can really see that influence in the way that the book switches between different POVs. Mid-paragraph, you switch from one character to the next without much warning. This was hard to follow at first but kind of cool once I got used to it.

I found Eva’s ignorance about the events of the Holocaust surprising but realistic of a lot of people who were children during the war. I also appreciated how, according to the notes in the back of the book, much of the dialogue during the trial itself was direct quotations from the real transcripts. This lent a layer of authenticity to the story, while also making the trial scenes that much more heartbreaking. What I did not like was the character of Jurgen, her boyfriend, who really just seemed like an awful person not matter how many excuses we were given for his actions.

Though presented as a bit of a mystery, of Eva uncovering her family’s past, the real story here is the evolution of her character from a naive young adult to a woman full in grasp of her past and personality. I greatly enjoyed this look at a time in Germany’s past that doesn’t get as much attention.

Thanks HarperVia for the advanced copy. Out in the US on December 3!