A review by lazygal
Archivist Wasp, by Nicole Kornher-Stace

4.0

I saw this in our New Books pile and thought, "hmmm". Then I started seeing reviews that said "this is amazing - read it!" so, well, I did. And am I ever glad. This isn't the easiest book to review, because it's such a genre mash-up, but the core is Wasp's journey (or journeys, since there's a emotional as well as physical one) away from being a solitary creature to being part of a community of sorts. The world she inhabits is dystopian, post-apocalyptic and primitive all at the same time, and while usually I'd complain about the world building being slight, in this case it makes sense: like Wasp, we end up wondering what is real, what has been made up and why that might have happened. There are so many questions left for us - and Wasp - and I have to say I like that part. How did the ghost's world become hers? What was the black goo the priest used? When did the Archivist position become so formalized? And so many more. There are clues, but not definitive answers. What is definitive is that Wasp, despite herself, learns to trust others, even if the "others" are the ghosts she's supposed to be studying.

Can't wait to recommend this to my dystopian fan students!