The Library of the Dead - 1.5 Stars

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

Welcome to "A Fleeting Thought" where I post relatively short and to the point book reviews.

Book summary at bottom of the page

I so desperately wanted to like this book but it fell so flat. I contemplated DNF'ing multiple times but I wanted to give a fully informed opinion on not liking this book.

I feel like the author had a lot going on in his head, half baked ideas, but wasn't able to fully put it out on paper. Description was severely lacking throughout the entirety of the book. Throughout the review, I just complain about how nothing was fully described or explained. Fuck, it's annoying.

First, I've seen reviews saying this takes place in "dreamy Edinburgh." Is "dreamy" in the room with us? Nothing about the description of it is dreamy. We're in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. How is that dreamy? Quite frankly, I felt like the setting was poorly explained. If you've been to Edinburgh, I think only then would you understand the area. He offered a lot of street names and names of landmarks, but I don't feel like I need to get on Google Maps to know where I'm at in a story.

I feel like the author tried way too hard to make our main character feel tough, gritty and swanky. It rang false and annoying. If I hear "at the mo" even once in the next 80 years, it'll be 80 years too soon.

The books title is "Library of the Dead" and we hardly spend any time in the library at all. There's no real explanation for why the library is there, it's just this mysterious thing that has members, and its own set of rules, but we don't learn much about the library at all.

In addition to the poorly described setting, I didn't understand where I'm was in time. We have electricity and phones, but indoor plumbing and food is a luxury. Sounds like there were riots, and WW2 was mentioned as if it happened 200 years ago, but there is no explanation as to why the world is in disarray or how far into the future we're in. We have a totalitarian feeling king, but no explanation of the monarchy either, or why everyone is so afraid. There's also no explanation or context of the catastrophe/conflict that seemingly hit this part of the world,

The magic system felt weak and poorly developed and we moved so far away from the character we were first introduced to. There were cultural references to different African musicians and instruments, but nothing was fully described. We learn that Ropa lives with her grandmother and sister, but we don't know what happened to the rest of her family.

I know this is book one in a series and there are more books to come, and hopefully more explanations to the things that left me wanting in this volume, but fuck. I should have SOME context and descriptors!

This book felt like a lot of half baked ideas, never fully fleshed out. There were things mentioned in the book once and never followed up on later.

Book summary:

When a child goes missing in Edinburgh's darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She'll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

When ghosts talk, she will listen...

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.