Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

17 reviews

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.

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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

bubbeleh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, and Classism

slburg's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Death

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?

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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. 

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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

fionamclary's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted tense 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? No

4.0

This was a fun time, but I was kind of surprised that the protagonist was so young based on how others had talked about this book. I'm not entirely sure what age range is the target audience. Not that a book can't be for everyone, but I like it to be clear who the main audience is. If someone had pitched this to me as a teen/YA novel I might have rated it a bit higher since my expectations would have been met. I'll probably read book 2. Ropa is a fun protagonist and I am looking forward to reading more about her friendships with Jomo and Priya and hopefully getting some more backstory on Gran.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Trafficking

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Slavery, Car accident, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Rape, Police brutality, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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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.

awkwardimagination's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Library of the Dead is a book thats been sitting on my shelf for about 2 years now, I bought it when it first came out. I thought i would be ready about an experienced ghosttalker who finds a mystical library in a modern Edinburgh and plot ensues. What i got was a 15 yo punk ghosttalker with a slingshot, no magical experience, a begrudging fox sidekick, and a ninja scarf in a Not Quite Modern Edinburgh. It was fantastic. Super creepy imagery, but fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Slavery, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Torture

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.

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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

rosemaryandrue's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

3.5

Ropa, a teenage ghost-talker, is too intent on making a living to work for free. But when a ghost begs for her to seek out her missing son, she gets drawn into the magical underworld of Edinburgh and uncovers the grisly truth.

Astonishingly, I have finally read a physical book! This is a series I've been eying for a while, and honestly I'm not sure why it took so long to get into it.

Ropa is a snarky lead with a strong narrative voice; it took me a little bit to get used to it, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. The world-building is very intriguing - we are in some future Edinburgh that has entered urban decay. There are allusions to some kind of Scottish rebellion in the past, and magic seems to be an open secret. We get enough information on this to flavor the book without really getting a complete grasp on what's going on, but I expect we will learn more in future books. Same goes for a certain mysterious entity and whatever is going on with Ropa's mother.

There was plenty of action and mystery and magic, and I liked following Ropa along on her journey to find Ollie and learn some magic along the way. However, I did find the plot resolved in a somewhat predictable manner - once we were in Arthur's Lodge, about two-thirds through the book, I knew precisely how things would end, and I was not surprised. 

On the whole, though, this is a fun urban fantasy with world-building that feels fresh, and I'm excited to continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Classism

Minor: Addiction