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greatexpectations77's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
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
4.25
I apparently totally forgot to review this book when I read it, but it was the second book for the Besties Book Club. (But then no one showed up lol.) I want to continue this series, but I think I'll listen to the audiobook for the next one because the writing is so heavily accented, that I think I'm missing some of the cadence by reading it myself. As someone who isn't super familiar with a Scottish accent and can't easily recreate it in my head. But whew, this one got heckin' dark. It was quite scary, but I thought the characters were a lot of fun, and there was significant tension for things not seeming incredibly okay. A fun read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Confinement
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Blood, Police brutality, Abandonment, and Classism
Minor: Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent
pipn_t's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Really enjoyed this one, very engaging.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror and Death
blubbn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror and Torture
elenival's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Usually I really enjoy being thrown into a world with no explanation and figuring it out on my own, but this one needed more worldbuilding methinks. Enjoyable and surprising creepy, really wasn’t expecting that. Also I just want to give Ropa a big big hug🥺🦊
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Body horror
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
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
2.0
Finished reading: December 24th 2023
“Doing something when it is hard, because it is the right thing to do, matters more than doing it when it's easy. The world needs light now more than ever.”
I know that I don't read a lot of YA anymore, but I do tend to enjoy a good urban fantasy and there was just something about the blurb of The Library Of The Dead that had me fully intrigued. I was SO excited when my TBR jar thought it was time to finally read it, and I actually expected to end up finding a new favorite... But sadly the complete opposite happened. This had nothing to do with the premise itself, and everything with the writing. I simply clashed horribly with the writing style, and the way the premise was developed was actually rather confusing and vague at times. I strongly disliked all the slang and cursing; instead of feeling natural, the tone was rather forced and I sometimes struggled to understand certain phrases. My dislike for the writing also ment I wasn't really a fan of the main character Ropa, which was where most of the slang appeared. Even my curiosity for the bookish elements, the library and the magic couldn't redeem this story for me, and I confess that I started skimreading long before the halfway mark. I guess it won't come as a surprise that I won't be continuing this series in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
chalkletters's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
As a reader, it's easy to get lured in by books about libraries, but the more I read of them, the more I question whether that's a good instinct. On the whole, I think I prefer stories about stories to stories about books. That said, though there's a library in The Library of the Dead, the main character only reads about three books from it, so maybe this isn't a good example.
The Library of the Dead is a very, very urban fantasy novel; the action takes place in Edinburgh in a post-war dystopia, with whole sections of the city under encroaching water and caravan parks and tent cities springing up on the land that's left to accommodate the population. For a reader who hasn't spent much time in Edinburgh, that aspect felt cohesive, with little nods throughout to what the city used to be like. While there was definitely more urban than fantasy, the magical elements were integral to the story, ranging from the presence of ghosts to hints of a traditionally learnable magic system.
While Ropa's first-person narrative was strong, her character could have been a little more fleshed out. Given the bleakness of the setting, money and family make sense as motivations, but don't do a whole lot to distinguish Ropa from any other character in that kind of setting. The Library of the Dead was very plot-driven, which meant the interesting secondary characters didn't get much of a chance to shine except in so far as they could contribute to the solving of the 'crime'.
One of the problems with fantasy crime novels is that it's so often impossible for the reader to attempt to solve it alongside the detective character(s). Magical crimes have magical solutions, which can't necessarily be guessed at or suspected by non-magical readers. So although Ropa was definitely solving a crime, T L Huchu didn't hit the detective novel beats of suspects and clues, which left the mystery without any real hook.
Much as I appreciate genre-mixing, I don't think this is a series I'll be continuing with.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse and Kidnapping
Minor: Body horror, Death, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury
readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Car accident, and Alcohol
Drowning, sex work.enbae's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, and Abandonment
Kidnapping of children, Maiming (a.o. of children), Povertyblewballoon's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I'm not really sure how to rate this. I may have enjoyed the book more if I had read it rather than listened to it. The audiobook narrator was giving very little, and for a book that seems like it has a narrative voice with a lot of personality, it clashed with narration that didn't add much life to the text. I found my mind wandering a lot and had to go back and re-listen to big chunks of the story. I'm not sure how well I grasped the worldbuilding either. I think this does read on the younger side, more YA/middle grade maybe? There are some spooky scenes though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror and Death