Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights, 1)

Ah, libraries. Are you one of those people who enter a library almost with a sigh of relief, with a feeling of "coming home"? Even now, when much of my reading is done digitally and with my own physical copies, walking through the doors of such a place makes me smile. Because, you know: books! Untapped knowledge, things to discover, to educate, to entertain, all in one place. What that also means, I guess, is that a book with a library as a setting already starts with an advantage for me, and I suspect for some others. (Which makes me think: there might be an article in there somewhere...) TL Huchu’s debut novel not only has a secret library as a place in its pages but is proud enough to have it as the book’s title. Teenager Ropa Moyo is a precocious girl. She lives with her Gran and her younger sister on a caravan park in some sort of alternative or future Edinburgh. (In some sort of creepy Prisoner-like way the traditional greeting seems to be “God save the king” to which the respondent reply is “Long may he reign.”) Her background seems rather typical of many in this future. Having given up on school, but independent enough to realise that she needs to educate herself, Ropa spends much of her time each month trying to scrape the money together to pay for their rent and get her Gran her much-needed meds. So far this could be some sort of dystopian social commentary on a future-teenage wasteland. However, in this place magic is real – her unpleasant landlord is actually a troll - and Ropa has the ability to speak to the dead, which she uses to bring some income in. Like some sort of teenage Harry Dresden, Ropa spends her nights travelling around Edinburgh talking to spirits that only she can see and using her Zimbabwean magic to take commissions for passing messages on to those still on Earth – providing that they can pay, of course! This all sounds quite sad, though Ropa is resilient enough to explain all of this with a degree of humour. And that’s what is this book’s strength. Told in the first-person throughout, Ropa is a lively, intelligent and likeable personality. Sassy without being annoying or malicious, Ropa is a pleasingly well-rounded character who quickly engages with the reader. One night Ropa talks to Nicola, a mother recently gone to the realm known as the everyThere, but cannot move on as her son Oliver has disappeared. There’s been a spate of recent child abductions in the city and stories of a creepy Milkman, and she cannot rest, fearing that Oliver has become a victim. Ropa doesn’t do charity cases (“Emotional blackmail don’t work on me. This is business, nothing more, nothing less.” she says at one point), but she is drawn to this one. As the book continues, the cause of these mysterious happenings is revealed, with horrifying results. Despite this, Ropa puts herself and he...

I read the reviews and was sure I was going to like this book less than I did. I enjoy the world which was created,a type of dystopian magic future, and the characters found within. While the hero is YA, I would say the book could be enjoyed across a wide range of ages. I found the writing excellent, crisp and clean, and the language and tone of the piece to be spot on. Highly recommended.

Only bad part, way too short. Excellent exciting tale. Good world building. Fun read. Can not wait for next book.

I was recommended this book. I can’t remember who told me about. It’s a good thing because I wouldn’t ever listen again. This book was so poorly written. It had the possibility of being a Harry Potter style series but the author could tell the story in a way that it didn’t feel like a jumble of ideas just thrown into 330 long pages. I will never get this time back. Yuck!

I am not sure how this even poses as a book…the authors “style” of trying to create a Scottish accent is horrendous and makes you cringe from page one. Really it ruins the whole book it is that dominating, the plot is pretty stretched and unfulfilling anyways. Do not buy this garbage, let alone read it.