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A review by jconn4
The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson
3.0
Reading the summary for this book, I was CERTAIN I’d fall absolutely head over heels in love with. A cute romance that also doubled as library activism? As an LIS student myself, sign me up!
But overall I found Last Chance Library very…underwhelming. I’ve been trying and trying to figure out a way to word my thoughts about this book, but every time I get close it seems to float out of reach—and maybe that’s the best way to describe this book overall.
It’s a perfectly pleasant story. I read it quickly and was never necessarily bored, or annoyed. June is a nice main character to follow, and her friends are nice, and her love interest is nice.
It was just all so….nice.
Nothing about this story ever got a deep emotional reaction from me. The characters and dialogue all felt a bit shallow—even June. In her case at least, I feel much of that could have been solved by writing the book in first person rather than third. She’s such an introverted character throughout the book that I feel like being in her immediate headspace would have made it much easier to grow attached to her and empathize. As it stood, everything felt surface level, and was just disappointing.
Also, don’t come into this book expecting a contemporary romance as I did, since it was shelved under romances at the bookstore I got it from. The romance between Alex and June—advertised in the summary, to boot—was very much a subplot to the library drama throughout the book. Which would have been fine, had the book not been presented to me otherwise. They’re cute together, but as other reviewers pointed out, I never felt any sparks between them, nor did their dialogue ever surpass plain and pleasant. (Honestly, all of the dialogue felt very cookie cutter to me.)
This was a decent effort for a debut novel, but felt very “eh” to me by the end.
But overall I found Last Chance Library very…underwhelming. I’ve been trying and trying to figure out a way to word my thoughts about this book, but every time I get close it seems to float out of reach—and maybe that’s the best way to describe this book overall.
It’s a perfectly pleasant story. I read it quickly and was never necessarily bored, or annoyed. June is a nice main character to follow, and her friends are nice, and her love interest is nice.
It was just all so….nice.
Nothing about this story ever got a deep emotional reaction from me. The characters and dialogue all felt a bit shallow—even June. In her case at least, I feel much of that could have been solved by writing the book in first person rather than third. She’s such an introverted character throughout the book that I feel like being in her immediate headspace would have made it much easier to grow attached to her and empathize. As it stood, everything felt surface level, and was just disappointing.
Also, don’t come into this book expecting a contemporary romance as I did, since it was shelved under romances at the bookstore I got it from. The romance between Alex and June—advertised in the summary, to boot—was very much a subplot to the library drama throughout the book. Which would have been fine, had the book not been presented to me otherwise. They’re cute together, but as other reviewers pointed out, I never felt any sparks between them, nor did their dialogue ever surpass plain and pleasant. (Honestly, all of the dialogue felt very cookie cutter to me.)
This was a decent effort for a debut novel, but felt very “eh” to me by the end.