The Library of the Dead

The publisher's summary of 'Library Of The Dead' doesn't do it justice. Doesn't even seem to be describing the same book. Rather than tell you what it is, they want to tell you what it's like, claiming that this is like 'Rivers of London', 'Sixth Sense' and 'Stranger Things' only set in contemporary Edinburgh and using Zimbabwean magic. Almost all of that is wrong and none of it acknowledges how original this book is.

'The Library of the Dead' isn't set in contemporary Edinburgh. It's set in an alternative, probably near-future, Edinburgh where the use of magic has been institutionalised, monetised and regulated, where there has been some sort of apocalyptic, probably climate-related disaster that has reshaped parts of the city and is show more set some years after the English King re-united Scotland with his Kingdom by force.

Where Peter Grant in 'Rivers Of London' is an adult leading a relatively comfortable life, with a career in the Met, backed up by the rich and powerful Folly and has (very) close relationships with the local River Godesses, Ropa is a teenage girl who has dropped out of school to earn enough from her ability to carry messages from the dead to the living to pay the rent on the crappy caravan she and her gran and her little sister live in and put food on the table. She spends a lot of her time dealing with the reality of poverty and has no one to back her up.

It's true that she does use Zimbabwean magic, inherited from her gran, but that's not all she uses and one of the unresolved mysteries running in the background is who Ropa's father was and what other powers she might possess.

So, what 'Library of the Dead' really is is a piece of speculative fiction, set in a possble future Edinburgh where magic is taken for granted and owned by the people with money and no one cares what happens to people like Ropa and the other kids who are scratching a living in within sight of Edinburgh's grand architecture.

Ropa made the book for me. She's not a primadonna. She barely has an education. She doesn't seem to be magically powerful. She's just keeping her he'd down and doing what she has to make ends meet and to prevent her gran and her sister being evicted because the rent hasn't been paid. I liked the grim reality of that.

What changes Ropa's life and creates the story for the first book in the series, is that Ropa, reluctantly af first, agrees to look into what is happening to some of the kids in her caravan park. They've been disappearing and coming back... empty.

Following up on this brings Ropa into conflict with powerful establishment-protected, magic-users, into contact with a secret Library for magic users in the heart of Edinburgh, and into the clutches of something truly evil that sees her as prey.

I admired the originality of the world that T. L Huchu has created. I'd like to go there again and learn more about it. Most of all, I liked Ropa for her loyalty to her family and her refusal to be ground down by the circumstance of her life or by the efforts of her enemies.

At first, I thought 'The Library Of The Dead' would by a Young Adult book. If it is, it's a grim one and one that this reader - who hasn't deserved being called young in a very long time - found very satisfying.

I thought there were places when the pacing was a little uneven but the key scenes in the story worked really well and the characters were believable and engaging.

It was a good start to a series I'd like to read more of.

I began reading 'The Library Of The Dead' as an audiobook but ended up sending it back and carrying on with the ebook. The narrator, Tinashe Warikandwa, was fine on the dialogue, although not that good at differentiating character voices, but once there's any description of anything abstract, she seemed to lose touch with the rhythm of the prose.

Click on the SoundCloud link to hear a sample. Your experience may be different to mine.

https://soundcloud.com/pan-macmillan/thelibraryofthedead-clip show less

Excellent! I've been looking for more character driven urban fantasy, and Ropa's adventures hit the spot. I love how snarky and annoyed she is, how true blue to family and community, how resilient in the face of grinding poverty. I find her very relatable in our currently crumbling society and I'm interested to learn more about the dystopian background of her world. I'm intrigued by the magical system and delighted by the list of great mbiru players that she drops throughout the book.

The publisher's summary of 'Library Of The Dead' doesn't do it justice. Doesn't even seem to be describing the same book. Rather than tell you what it is, they want to tell you what it's like, claiming that this is like 'Rivers of London', 'Sixth Sense' and 'Stranger Things' only set in contemporary Edinburgh and using Zimbabwean magic. Almost all of that is wrong and none of it acknowledges how original this book is.

'The Library of the Dead' isn't set in contemporary Edinburgh. It's set in an alternative, probably near-future, Edinburgh where the use of magic has been institutionalised, monetised and regulated, where there has been some sort of apocalyptic, probably climate-related disaster that has reshaped parts of the city and is show more set some years after the English King re-united Scotland with his Kingdom by force.

Where Peter Grant in 'Rivers Of London' is an adult leading a relatively comfortable life, with a career in the Met, backed up by the rich and powerful Folly and has (very) close relationships with the local River Godesses, Ropa is a teenage girl who has dropped out of school to earn enough from her ability to carry messages from the dead to the living to pay the rent on the crappy caravan she and her gran and her little sister live in and put food on the table. She spends a lot of her time dealing with the reality of poverty and has no one to back her up.

It's true that she does use Zimbabwean magic, inherited from her gran, but that's not all she uses and one of the unresolved mysteries running in the background is who Ropa's father was and what other powers she might possess.

So, what 'Library of the Dead' really is is a piece of speculative fiction, set in a possble future Edinburgh where magic is taken for granted and owned by the people with money and no one cares what happens to people like Ropa and the other kids who are scratching a living in within sight of Edinburgh's grand architecture.

Ropa made the book for me. She's not a primadonna. She barely has an education. She doesn't seem to be magically powerful. She's just keeping her he'd down and doing what she has to make ends meet and to prevent her gran and her sister being evicted because the rent hasn't been paid. I liked the grim reality of that.

What changes Ropa's life and creates the story for the first book in the series, is that Ropa, reluctantly af first, agrees to look into what is happening to some of the kids in her caravan park. They've been disappearing and coming back... empty.

Following up on this brings Ropa into conflict with powerful establishment-protected, magic-users, into contact with a secret Library for magic users in the heart of Edinburgh, and into the clutches of something truly evil that sees her as prey.

I admired the originality of the world that T. L Huchu has created. I'd like to go there again and learn more about it. Most of all, I liked Ropa for her loyalty to her family and her refusal to be ground down by the circumstance of her life or by the efforts of her enemies.

At first, I thought 'The Library Of The Dead' would by a Young Adult book. If it is, it's a grim one and one that this reader - who hasn't deserved being called young in a very long time - found very satisfying.

I thought there were places when the pacing was a little uneven but the key scenes in the story worked really well and the characters were believable and engaging.

It was a good start to a series I'd like to read more of.

I began reading 'The Library Of The Dead' as an audiobook but ended up sending it back and carrying on with the ebook. The narrator, Tinashe Warikandwa, was fine on the dialogue, although not that good at differentiating character voices, but once there's any description of anything abstract, she seemed to lose touch with the rhythm of the prose.

Click on the SoundCloud link to hear a sample. Your experience may be different to mine.


https://soundcloud.com/pan-macmillan/thelibraryofthedead-clip show less

T.L. Huchu’s The Library of the Dead introduces readers to a gritty, supernatural version of Edinburgh, seen through the eyes of Ropa Moyo—a teenage girl who can communicate with the dead. In exchange for a fee, Ropa acts as a medium between the living and the departed, helping to fulfill final wishes and deliver messages from beyond. But when spirits begin to avoid her and whispers of missing children grow louder, Ropa is pulled into a deeper and darker mystery that challenges her understanding of the world and herself.

The novel does an admirable job of capturing the essence of youth. Ropa’s voice feels authentic—brash, curious, and at times frustratingly impulsive. Huchu doesn’t shy away from portraying her immaturity, and show more while that adds to the realism of a teenage protagonist, it can be jarring for adult readers who expect more calculated decision-making or character growth. There are moments where Ropa seems resistant to change or learning, even in the face of overwhelming evidence and danger. This stubbornness can feel like a character flaw or a narrative limitation depending on your perspective.

The urban fantasy setting is vivid and atmospheric, blending dystopian elements with Zimbabwean-influenced mysticism and Scottish folklore. Huchu’s worldbuilding is one of the book’s strongest assets—fresh, diverse, and filled with just enough intrigue to keep you turning the pages. However, the ending leans heavily into sequel territory, undercutting the resolution of the central mystery. While this sets up future installments, it may leave some readers feeling that the first book doesn't stand completely on its own.

Despite its flaws, The Library of the Dead is an engaging and unique read, particularly for fans of YA fantasy or anyone interested in ghost stories with a cultural twist. It’s a book best approached with the understanding that it’s told from the perspective of a teenager, with all the messiness, boldness, and missteps that come with it. show less

The Library of the Dead was my 75th book. And what a fascinating book. Future Edinburgh after some disaster that has left the world in chaos. Ropa carries message from ghosts to the living, often helping them finally transition to the world of the dead. She struggles to keep a roof over her head and that of her grandmother. When one of the ghosts--a mother--asks her to locate her son who she believes is being used by an evil being, Ropa moves deeper into a world of magic and mystery. Tendai Huchu captures Ropa's venacular and syntax that conveys her character. She is rough and street savvy with a tender spot for her fellow sufferers. I was immediately hooked on this strange but engaging tale.

An entertaining story and an even more entertaining heroine.

I loved Ropa, the way she steps up to look after her family and how smart she is, always quick with a comeback and thinking her way out of trouble. She’s tough, too, and in that extra lovable way where you’re well aware that inside she’s a softy, she does right by people whether they’re strangers or family.

With Ropa still quite young and so many other things going on in this story, it didn’t bother me that there isn’t any romance. There are plenty of other types of relationships to get you emotionally engaged whether it’s family, friends (Priya is particularly fantastic) the missing kids at the heart of the book’s mystery or Ropa’s ghostly interactions.

A show more couple times where Ropa’s learning about magic those passages became a little more long-winded and academic than I would have preferred (I’m sure there are readers who will love it, just a personal preference thing, long-winded and I rarely get along), but I very much appreciate when a character is on a learning curve like Ropa is rather than being super proficient right out of the gate, it just gives things a more realistic and endearing feel to see someone fumble through a bit in the beginning.

The post-apocalyptic Scotland setting, the vibrant personalities and a pace that continuously places Ropa in tense situations made this an enjoyable page-turner.

I received this ARC through a giveaway. show less

Set in a post-apocalyptic Scotland (the exact details are never explained) our protagonist, Ropa, has dropped out of school to become a ghost-talker carrying messages from ghosts to their living relatives, as her Shona grandmother has taught her, until she gets caught up in a wider mystery when children start disappearing. This has Rivers of London vibes (and the publishers have clearly leaned into that with the cover design and blurb from Ben Aaronovitch) but with a grittier/darker style and less humour. Ropa's situation is more precarious than Peter Grant and by investigating the disappearance of these children she's putting her family at risk (grandmother and sister) by losing her source of income even before we consider the direct show more danger from the investigation.

An urban fantasy set outside London is always a plus and the Zimbabwean/Shona influences make this a very interesting read. The weakest part for me was the library of the dead itself which is a sort of secret society of magicians Ropa comes across but this didn't get fleshed out very much in this book which made it seem a strange choice for the title. I think further books in the series are being written so hopefully this gets explored more. show less