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toffishay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I don't know about this one. Something about it didn't really draw me in. It felt repetitive and like we were spinning our wheels for a lot of the time and then the ending really just jumped out of nowhere. That may be first book struggles though as there is a lot to set up. But I would have hoped that the library would feature more in this one, since that was the name of the book and we barely got anything. Also, I don't really know why the main character is 14-years-old. The themes are really mature and dark and I know that a lot of YA books deal with intense themes, but it seems like the audience is more for adult fantasy, so why not have the main character be in her early 20s or even late teens?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and War
atlantiareads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The Library of the Dead was not my typical read, but was a nice change of pace. Theres a good mystery and great cast of characters. I found this book to quite creept at times. Even though the main character is 14, this book i feel like is definitely better suited to an older age range.
Overall i felt the first 130 pages were too slow and were difficult to get through. Truthfully consideted dnf'ing.
I feel like learning more about the greatly detailed magic system and spending more time in the hidden library would have brought me more enjoyment with this book.
Unsure if I will continue on to book 2.
Overall i felt the first 130 pages were too slow and were difficult to get through. Truthfully consideted dnf'ing.
I feel like learning more about the greatly detailed magic system and spending more time in the hidden library would have brought me more enjoyment with this book.
Unsure if I will continue on to book 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Police brutality, and Medical trauma
adancewithbooks's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
The Library of the Dead is a very different kind of book than I was expecting. I conciously did not look up reviews for this book so I really had no idea the actual library wasn't quite as big of a part of the story as I thought it would. The Library of the Dead is not a bad book but expectations and a few other things stopped me from loving this story.
We follow Ropa, a ghosttalker who is just trying to make some money to keep paying the rent the place she lives with her grandmother and her sister. She sends messages between ghosts and their living relatives. Its a hard but simple life. But when ghost mother contacts her to find out what happened to her son she gets thrown in all kind of holes of Edinburgh she had no idea about yet.
Ropa has a very distinct voice which I think is a great thing. But I have to be honest and say that it took me very long to really get into it. Everytime I picked it back up I needed to get back into it again and that took some of the flow out of the story for me. I also had a bit of a bone to pick with how some of the magic was explained through Ropa reading passages of books. That was pretty dry.
When it comes to the world building the actual idea of the setting and the magic is really interesting. I think we got a good idea of what was important to the story but there is still a lot left to be discovered in other books. I loved that Ropa had to work a bit for the magic by figuring out what would work for her.
I did find it annoying that there was a reference to an incident in the past which is what shaped Edinburgh to what it is today. Yet there is never a good explanation of that.
With a title like The Library of the Dead I really thought we would be having more time with the library. Instead it is just something that is used in the background. I guess I was dissapointed by that. It doesn't seem like such an awesome place with those grumpy people in there.
I did like the addition of Priya and the Zimbabwean roots we see shining through.
We follow Ropa, a ghosttalker who is just trying to make some money to keep paying the rent the place she lives with her grandmother and her sister. She sends messages between ghosts and their living relatives. Its a hard but simple life. But when ghost mother contacts her to find out what happened to her son she gets thrown in all kind of holes of Edinburgh she had no idea about yet.
Ropa has a very distinct voice which I think is a great thing. But I have to be honest and say that it took me very long to really get into it. Everytime I picked it back up I needed to get back into it again and that took some of the flow out of the story for me. I also had a bit of a bone to pick with how some of the magic was explained through Ropa reading passages of books. That was pretty dry.
When it comes to the world building the actual idea of the setting and the magic is really interesting. I think we got a good idea of what was important to the story but there is still a lot left to be discovered in other books. I loved that Ropa had to work a bit for the magic by figuring out what would work for her.
I did find it annoying that there was a reference to an incident in the past which is what shaped Edinburgh to what it is today. Yet there is never a good explanation of that.
With a title like The Library of the Dead I really thought we would be having more time with the library. Instead it is just something that is used in the background. I guess I was dissapointed by that. It doesn't seem like such an awesome place with those grumpy people in there.
I did like the addition of Priya and the Zimbabwean roots we see shining through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Kidnapping
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Racism, and Death of parent
wanderonwards's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and TOR Books for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Library of the Dead is a paranormal fantasy mixed with horror and mystery set in post-apocalyptic Scotland. Beyond the cover (which is absolutely stunning), I found the world fascinating and wanted to learn more about it (even if overall it’s pretty bleak). I also enjoyed the idea of ghostalking and loved Ropa’s sarcastic narration and her use of music to ghostalk. I felt Ropa, Priya, and Jomo’s friendship was set up well to continue on in a series.
Unfortunately, though, this book had so much potential but ultimately didn’t deliver on its promise for me. I was less interested in the mystery and more interested in discovering more about this world and spending more time with ghosts and the library, but perhaps each of these will be explored more in other books in the series. However, I know there is a right audience for this book and I look forward to seeing this series progress.
Thank you again to NetGalley and TOR Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Racism, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Grief