Reviews - La biblioteca del Monte Char

7.39k reviews for:

La biblioteca del Monte Char

Scott Hawkins

4.05 AVERAGE

paulajameel's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

meanieheadbookreviews's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense

Strong character development: Yes

Fun fact: this is the very first book I ever put on my Libby TBR list/tag. Let’s not discuss how long it took me to make my way to it. Now it’s a book club pick, so I gotta read it.

This was batshit crazy cover to cover. I didn’t know what was happening and neither did the characters, which I usually hate. I actually think it worked well here. It was so unique and well written that I didn’t mind getting dragged behind this psychotic, spooked horse of a story. I can’t even explain what it’s about effectively. It’s about a library at the end of the world, and alternate realities and timelines, and god, and love, and a cult?, and the duality of man. It’s funny (I laughed out loud at parts) and horrifying and sad and uplifting. I really enjoyed this reading experience. This is just a good fucking book.

If you like books like Piranesi, which is another fantastical “what the fuck is happening” book, you’d probably like this too. I will mention, there’s a really graphic rape scene that is skirted around (not exactly on the page, but the reader gets the idea), and it’s handled a bit more cavalierly than I felt comfortable with. I’ll chalk that up to the superhuman circumstances combined with the fact this was written by a straight white guy. This author wrote this book and then nothing else since. It’s his only book. And he has a huge fan base rattling his cage about it. I don’t know how he could possibly follow this up. It really feels like a penultimate novel. Worth the read if you’ve been eyeballing it.

rebecca_huerta's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

echosk's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

An excellent read from start to finish! Scott Hawkins does not take his foot off the gas the whole way through. The characters are interesting, and the story is fantastic. I genuinely don't know how to explain it but if you enjoy incomprehensible beings, mystery, magic (not exactly), and a good story, I think you'll very much like the book.