A review by alibrareads
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
4.0
This reminded me of American Gods a little bit, which I also really enjoyed! Carolyn was a really interesting character who had me wondering if she was really a villain in disguise as the book went on. I also really enjoyed the bond that formed between Steve and Naga the lion, that was entertaining.
There were some pretty violent and horrific things described in this book, and trigger warning for the mention of rape. But this was also full of some great dry humor, which I generally enjoy. Like Steve’s whole train of thought about Buddhism very early on the book made me chuckle.
I also liked just the random introductions of names and things that weren’t necessarily explained, but kept coming up so by the end I was like oh yeah, that Q-33 North is a big problem, but I have no idea who or what that is. And it works in this kind of absurd story, where things are often just thrown at you and not explained fully.
If you hate when stories jump around in time so that you don’t understand everything until near the end (and then not even everything), then you won’t like this probably! The characters are interesting, but because the writing style is on the dry side, you might find them a little flat if you prefer your characters to have a lot of outward expression.
But it was wild, almost with bits of horror sprinkled in, it was curious, bizarre, whimsically, violent, unapologetic about telling this strange story. Recommend if you enjoy Neil Gaiman’s writing or absurd stories with like disastrous world-ending consequences.
YouTube review: https://youtu.be/vTyuCIoYvmw
There were some pretty violent and horrific things described in this book, and trigger warning for the mention of rape. But this was also full of some great dry humor, which I generally enjoy. Like Steve’s whole train of thought about Buddhism very early on the book made me chuckle.
I also liked just the random introductions of names and things that weren’t necessarily explained, but kept coming up so by the end I was like oh yeah, that Q-33 North is a big problem, but I have no idea who or what that is. And it works in this kind of absurd story, where things are often just thrown at you and not explained fully.
If you hate when stories jump around in time so that you don’t understand everything until near the end (and then not even everything), then you won’t like this probably! The characters are interesting, but because the writing style is on the dry side, you might find them a little flat if you prefer your characters to have a lot of outward expression.
But it was wild, almost with bits of horror sprinkled in, it was curious, bizarre, whimsically, violent, unapologetic about telling this strange story. Recommend if you enjoy Neil Gaiman’s writing or absurd stories with like disastrous world-ending consequences.
YouTube review: https://youtu.be/vTyuCIoYvmw