Evar and Livira are both living in a prison. Evar's is a big library full of knowledge, but with all the exits closed shut. He dreams of being able to walk out one day and experience the things he could only read about. Livira feels trapped on the dusty plains that are her home, living the same day over and over, fighting to survive the harsh conditions.

"After a few turns the reassuring resistance told her that the bucket had filled. Every time she carried out the task a small part of her held its breath, thinking that one day there would be no resistance. One day the water would simply not be there. An even smaller part of her hissed its disappointment when the turn of the handle revealed that new weight. When the water was gone there would be a change. Not a good change. But a change nonetheless. And sometimes, in the dark of the night with the hollow sounds of the Dust all around and the bright stars cold in their heaven, sometimes what scared Livira more than the water running out was that the water would not run out and that this would be her life."

They both look for their way out in the library, trying to solve its mysteries and finding a way towards each other.

Let me start with the main characters. While I enjoyed following both of them, Livira definitely left a bigger impression on me. She is so well-written that I could predict what she was going to do in a certain situation. I wouldn't have thought I would fall so for a character that is neither a magic user nor a trained fighter, but I suppose she does have a soul of a warrior. She can seem a bit reckless, but she is just so focused on her goals that she doesn't care about the risks.

As for the side characters. There are definitely some well-developed ones, but I felt that some of the characters that were supposed to be important to our main characters stood a bit too much in the background and I never got a chance to get to know them that well.

The setting of this book is very far from classical, medieval fantasy. The world outside has been turned to dust. The human cities are being attacked by a different and bestial race. Their only hope of surviving being the library, which could give them strong enough weapons to fight off the threat. The knowledge is all there; the problem is finding the right books while navigating the grand, mysterious, and dangerous library. And maybe the answer is different from the one they are looking for.

"People don’t want truth. They say that they do but what they mean is that they want the truth to agree with them. Take ninetynine books that say one thing and one that says the opposite. If that opposite was what the customer was hoping to hear, they’ll put their stock in the single volume."

The story is full of mystery and discovery. The first two-thirds of the book don't reveal much and I must say I wasn't getting that impressed, but once the first big reveal drops, it just keeps on coming and it's well worth the wait. The way things fell together was very satisfying and very emotional. While most mysteries have been revealed, there is definitely more to uncover in the following installments and I can't wait to get my hands on them.

This book combines an amazing story with well-developed characters and an original setting. It ticks all the boxes.

I received an ARC for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ( )

Good book. Very mysterious. All the various plot points are so disconnected that it feels like magical realism at first. Enough time travel loops to make my brain hurt. Undecided about reading the second book. ( )

"To discover that you can read in a language you never knew existed is a surprise. To be instructed to stop reading, in person, in that language, on the first page of a book, is perhaps an even greater one."

A library seems like a great place to hunker down with all that's going on in the outside world. Especially one this large and magical. I mean, it's so large that somewhere is apparently always burning and most aren't even aware! It was my favourite part of the book and I would absolutely love to be able to explore it and all its secrets. I loved Livira but found myself not quite as interested in Evar (which surprised me because I usually love libraryish characters). The book started off strong but I found myself losing some interest towards the end before things picked up for the ending (well, not really the ending ending since there will be a sequel) ( )

I certainly enjoyed the world building and characters in this story about a never ending library that is served by librarians and their automaton assistants. I think if it had been about 200 pages shorter I would not have started to feel the struggle to finish the story. To me, at least, the story was certainly not fast paced but that did allow for some amazing world building. I will definitely be reading the next in the series but I will need to put a few books in between having read this one and the next. ( )

Truly Phenemonal. Near Perfection.

I find it hard to put into words just how much I fell in love with this book, it's characters, and the fascinating and intriguing worldbuilding. To think I picked this up completely at random and it's genuinely one of the best fantasy books I've ever read.

The core elements are classic: plucky, precocious, outsider young girl is taken from all she knows through tragedy and does the incredibly talented inquisitive and cheeky fish out of water thing. There's a lovable, foul-mouthed soldier bodyguard, well-written romance, a split narrative with that comes together, and the futility and pointlessness of war and hatred of one people for another. But what Lawrence does with those elements, the world they create, and the way concepts are explored and extrapolated through a fantastic, wondrous, and terrifying library that straddles all dimensions, is a work of utter brilliance.

The ideas and message are great, combining mind-bending speculative sci-fi concepts and epic fantasy fun with humour, intrigue and human emotion.

I really need to go back and listen to the last handful of chapters, as some of the reveals and elements genuinely had me sobbing my heart out, while pleasantly baffled. This definitely took my brain on a long walk and made my emotions work out.

I'm absolutely gutted this came out this year and absolutely need the next book as soon as humanly possible!

The performance by Jessica Whittaker is out of this world and absolutely top tier. The range of accents, age, and emotion they embody are mind blowing! An absolutely breathtaking performance that makes me genuinely want to listen to anything and everything they narrate.

I loved this book so very much, but I do have two issues that, while absolutely weren't deal breakers, did impact my enjoyment and make me question how much I can trust the author and their views. The first is a fictional quote heading up one of the chapters that discusses very stereotypical and not gender-inclusive depictions of mothers, fathers, and pregnancy. The other is this quote:
"If a civilization is not capable of keeping a book from burning then perhaps it wasn't ready for whatever knowledge was held within"
The point is a good an interesting one in the context of the book with it referring to knowledge, particularly that of weapons of mass destruction. However, we live in a world where fascist and bigoted book burnings have taken place, and we are currently seeing truly wild and dangerous censorship and removal of books from schools and other places due to ignorance, bigotry, and rightwing propaganda. There has to be a better say to phrase this. All I could think of were the Nazi book burnings, which the famous photos come from the destruction of the research and writing of the Hirschfeld Institute, particularly those on sexuality and gender identity. We have always been ready for Queer/ trans folx because we have always existed.

I don't think either of the above points was done maliciously, but it does come across as some cisnormative ignorance that was a small blemish on an otherwise utterly brilliant book. ( )