The Library of the Dead
The Edinburgh Nights series, Book 1
T. D. Huchu
Tor
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
Themes: Alternate Earths, Canids, Diversity, Dystopias, Ghosts and Spirits, Girl Power, Libraries, Magic Workers, Thieves, Urban Tales
***
Description
There was a time, or so fourteen-year-old Ropa has heard, when Edinburgh was a bright, beautiful, clean, and hopeful city. Today, half-drowned by rising sea levels and choked by coal smoke and plagued with power grid failures, it's hard enough to get by in this city, and nearly impossible to get back on your feet once you've been knocked down. With Gran in ill health and a kid sister to look after in their rickety caravan home, it's up to Ropa to pay the bills, which she does by delivering messages for the lingering dead, seeking closure before they can move on. But she doesn't work for free; there has to be a relative or recipient - living, of course - who can offer her cold, hard cash. That's why Ropa brushes off the spirit of the young woman who keeps turning up, begging for help finding the young son who went missing before her death. At some point, though, the girl's resolve cracks. Maybe it couldn't hurt just to follow up on one lead, to say she tried (and get the ghost to leave her alone). Before she knows it, Ropa has been pulled into a dark and dangerous plot, one tied to a society of powerful mages and a monster preying on Edinburgh's children.
Review
The Library of the Dead has lots of potential in the ingredients: a dystopian near-future with acknowledged magic and ghosts, different strains of magic, a hidden library, and a heroine who can take care of herself. I should've liked it more than I did. But at some point Ropa's Edinburgh becomes just plain unpleasant, the library and secret mage society fail to live up to their potential, and Ropa becomes one of those protagonists who ends up being protected and coddled inexplicably as she fumbles and stumbles and tends to do stupid things for the sake of the story. The culprit is a little too obvious too early on, as well, and the story wanders off on a few tangents that never really pay off. For all that Ropa starts out so distinctive, her adventure starts feeling like a collection of too-familiar plot points and characters, the latter of whom sometimes lack development as they serve their expected roles in Ropa's tale. Some of this can be explained by it being the first book in a series, of course, but when I end up feeling dissatisfied enough that it took extra effort to even finish the audiobook, it affects the rating. By the end, I can't say I felt like I wanted to spend much more time in Ropa's Edinburgh.