Scan barcode
novel_nibbles's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
You know when people refer to a match as a game of two halves, well this book felt like that, except it was more 70/30. While I enjoyed the narration and found elements of both POV interesting It was very slow until approx. 70% of the way through. I was enjoying the book enough to complete it (3/5) but I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to read the next one. Then in the final third or so Lawrence pulled all his carefully laid threads together for the big reveal (4/5) and now I am committed to finding out more about the library what happens next for the characters (I’ve downloaded the second audio book!)
Over all I give this book 3.5 stars. I hope the sequel builds on the momentum of the final third and quickly unravels more of the library’s secrets
Over all I give this book 3.5 stars. I hope the sequel builds on the momentum of the final third and quickly unravels more of the library’s secrets
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
idkimoutofideas's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, War, and Classism
Minor: Fatphobia
nina_rae_131's review against another edition
adventurous
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
5.0
This defines my taste in books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Genocide
Moderate: Death, Violence, Trafficking, Death of parent, and War
srm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
Well written and an interesting enough set up, but I'll never completely love anything with elements of time travel. My own fault for not reading reviews, though.
Content Warnings
Minor: Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, and War
dkamada's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Time is trippy and so is love
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
angorarabbit's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Context: So I read my Libby books on the Kindle app and now I want to get all the silly achievements. Without giving Amazon any money.This was one of the five books on my GoodReads want to read list that was eligible for the Series Pioneer achievement and I only had to wait one day for my hold. So there you have it. Three of the other books still have holds, the fourth is not available at my libraries.
Clark Tech: The existence, maintenance and power supplies of the mechanism, assistants, and portals.These things have been running for thousands to tens of thousands of years. No explanation as to how the portals transport living beings instantaneously through time and space to where they need or want to be.I’m not certain, but I think a time travel rule was broken in the last chapters,
In many ways this reads like a YA book.We first meet the main character when she is 10. In the first third of the book we spend most of our time with children. The adults do not have much character development. The children as they age do not seem to change much except to mildly flirt. The protagonist has a “chosen one” vibe and also “she is not like other girls”. Boys pretty much exist to help her with her explorations. Serious rule breaking is follow.jAlso I didn’t learn one new word.
I really had high hopes for this book. I loved the ideas regarding the library, mechanism, and assistants., Although I’m always hesitant with time travel, the author does handle the time travel part better than many (time turners I’m thinking of you).It’s just that somehow the execution didn’t work for me. The writing was fine and for the most part the action taking place was clear. I was confused as to some characters motivations. The book was 3 stars going towards 4 until I got to the last 10 chapters (there are 70 chapters) then it starting slipping to 2 stars. It felt as if they were just the set up for book 2.
I also twigged two major plot twists in the first 10-20 chapters. I hate it when that happens.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism
Moderate: Cursing
One character has an intellectual disability, though it is not part of the plot. All characters are heteronormative.peregrinwho's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The first 20% of this book can seem slow, with Evar's chapters in particular being repetitive, but only because they're setting up a world, characters, and several questions. After that point that feeling falls away as answers start to come, and it's really difficult to put down the book so you can chase more of them.
Everything I thought was set up for a specific pay-off later was indeed paid off. It gave me so much joy to see the story unwinding to those points and being able to scream, "yes! I was right!" as characters solved the mysteries. A satisfying story with a fun journey. I laughed, I cried, I sat staring at the wall contemplating some of the author's words like a nexus point as the world turned around me. Can't wait to follow these characters into the next book💜.
Everything I thought was set up for a specific pay-off later was indeed paid off. It gave me so much joy to see the story unwinding to those points and being able to scream, "yes! I was right!" as characters solved the mysteries. A satisfying story with a fun journey. I laughed, I cried, I sat staring at the wall contemplating some of the author's words like a nexus point as the world turned around me. Can't wait to follow these characters into the next book💜.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Racism, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery and War
bookish_itineraries's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-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
5.0
One of the best books I have ever read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism
yilliun's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Wholly original and unlike anything I had ever read before. Some of the early sections dragged and I struggled to get through those world building pieces. The last 200 pages flew by though, so that made up for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Xenophobia, and Classism
hannxm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Death, and Blood