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A review by clarissep
The Archived by V.E. Schwab
3.0
Actual rating: 3.75 out of 5
I'm having a hard time giving a specific rating to this book, as you can tell. There are sides to this book I really really liked, but somehow there are parts that fall kind of short for me as well, but not so much that it takes away my general enjoyment for this book. It's a unique one for sure.
Mackenzie is a Keeper of the Narrows, a place where the Histories (spirits of the dead as they are called here) run to when they somehow manage to escape the Archive. The Archive is a library for the dead of sorts that actually feels more like a morgue. Anyway, Mac's job is to prevent them from escaping to the Outer (our world) and bringing them back through the door of the Returns. To aid her she has the ability to read objects, to grab hold of the thread of memory etched into them. From her old home she moves to this old building called the Coronado, which briefly speaking has lots of history and character. But then Mac discovers that the Coronado has an even deeper mystery hidden in its walls. Through her ability to read the past she discovers that something horrible happened right there in her new room. Seized by a strong sense of justice, she sets out to investigate this incident by asking help from a friendly Librarian in the Archive, but Mac never expected all hell to break loose when she digs a bit too deep.
The whole concept of the Archive is pretty brilliant. I love the play of words connected to the use of a library-like setting as some sort of... I don't know, heaven? Hell? Purgatory maybe? I really like the idea of using different Keys to get to and from this other world, and how there are levels of keys/positions the agents of the Archives can achieve. It's all like some sort of cool secret club where everyone has superpowers. But there are still a lot of things that aren't clear to me with regards to the whole structure of the Archive, for instance how does it work inside? Who calls the shots? Who the heck even built the Archives and how did the whole system begin? There are still a lot of blanks that need to be filled, so in a way I wasn't very satisfied with the things that I learned so far. That's the bad thing about having a first-person narrative. The reader only knows what the narrator knows.
This story is like a mixture of creepy Agatha Christie-esque mystery story plus a unique YA urban fantasy that has a lot of retro/vintage elements. This book focuses a lot on the ancient building that is the Coronado. Literally everything happens either in the Coronado or the Narrows territory adjacent to the Coronado, and the Archive branch in that area as well. I'm not complaining because there was plenty of action going around, and I literally mean fight scenes and blood.
Oh, there is also action of the kissy-kissy kind.
My main problem is that I didn't like Mackenzie as much I should. I think I have read enough books to say that most times my enjoyment of a book is based heavily on how much I like the protagonist, and Mackenzie simply wasn't one of my favourites from the list of kickass heroines I've read. Sure she has some awesome points, but she made some pretty questionable decisions that left me scratching my head. She's also extremely stubborn to the point that she neglected to use her common sense and intuition. The good thing is you can actually see the type of girl she is past all the pain/denial-induced rebellion she was going through, so I feel like she's going to get her head straight after this book. It seems to me like she found some closure in the end, and found a friend she can actually share her secret with. If there's anything that this book established it's that Mac is a lonely lonely girl.
And on that note let me just say that I like Wesley so much my heart flutters when he has a scene with Mac. Any scene really.
Anyway, the story is certainly something I have never read before. And I am excited to see if Mackenzie will get promoted to Crew from Keeper, because despite everything she worked hard to redeem herself, at least in my eyes. I'd like to see her grow a bit more in the succeeding books.
PS. THAT BOOK COVER IS AAAAAH-MAZING!
I'm having a hard time giving a specific rating to this book, as you can tell. There are sides to this book I really really liked, but somehow there are parts that fall kind of short for me as well, but not so much that it takes away my general enjoyment for this book. It's a unique one for sure.
Mackenzie is a Keeper of the Narrows, a place where the Histories (spirits of the dead as they are called here) run to when they somehow manage to escape the Archive. The Archive is a library for the dead of sorts that actually feels more like a morgue. Anyway, Mac's job is to prevent them from escaping to the Outer (our world) and bringing them back through the door of the Returns. To aid her she has the ability to read objects, to grab hold of the thread of memory etched into them. From her old home she moves to this old building called the Coronado, which briefly speaking has lots of history and character. But then Mac discovers that the Coronado has an even deeper mystery hidden in its walls. Through her ability to read the past she discovers that something horrible happened right there in her new room. Seized by a strong sense of justice, she sets out to investigate this incident by asking help from a friendly Librarian in the Archive, but Mac never expected all hell to break loose when she digs a bit too deep.
The whole concept of the Archive is pretty brilliant. I love the play of words connected to the use of a library-like setting as some sort of... I don't know, heaven? Hell? Purgatory maybe? I really like the idea of using different Keys to get to and from this other world, and how there are levels of keys/positions the agents of the Archives can achieve. It's all like some sort of cool secret club where everyone has superpowers. But there are still a lot of things that aren't clear to me with regards to the whole structure of the Archive, for instance how does it work inside? Who calls the shots? Who the heck even built the Archives and how did the whole system begin? There are still a lot of blanks that need to be filled, so in a way I wasn't very satisfied with the things that I learned so far. That's the bad thing about having a first-person narrative. The reader only knows what the narrator knows.
This story is like a mixture of creepy Agatha Christie-esque mystery story plus a unique YA urban fantasy that has a lot of retro/vintage elements. This book focuses a lot on the ancient building that is the Coronado. Literally everything happens either in the Coronado or the Narrows territory adjacent to the Coronado, and the Archive branch in that area as well. I'm not complaining because there was plenty of action going around, and I literally mean fight scenes and blood.
Oh, there is also action of the kissy-kissy kind.
My main problem is that I didn't like Mackenzie as much I should. I think I have read enough books to say that most times my enjoyment of a book is based heavily on how much I like the protagonist, and Mackenzie simply wasn't one of my favourites from the list of kickass heroines I've read. Sure she has some awesome points, but she made some pretty questionable decisions that left me scratching my head. She's also extremely stubborn to the point that she neglected to use her common sense and intuition. The good thing is you can actually see the type of girl she is past all the pain/denial-induced rebellion she was going through, so I feel like she's going to get her head straight after this book. It seems to me like she found some closure in the end, and found a friend she can actually share her secret with. If there's anything that this book established it's that Mac is a lonely lonely girl.
And on that note let me just say that I like Wesley so much my heart flutters when he has a scene with Mac. Any scene really.
Anyway, the story is certainly something I have never read before. And I am excited to see if Mackenzie will get promoted to Crew from Keeper, because despite everything she worked hard to redeem herself, at least in my eyes. I'd like to see her grow a bit more in the succeeding books.
PS. THAT BOOK COVER IS AAAAAH-MAZING!