Reviews

The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov, Михаил Елизаров

jim_jam's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I really struggled to finish this book. The first third or so I quite enjoyed but once it got to the reading rooms, I struggled to follow the plot. The ending made absolutely no sense to me. This boon may be better suited to a Russian speaker, as I found it very difficult to keep track of names and who was who.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Torture, Murder, Blood, Violence, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dementia, and Death

foxantoine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

vinni_pushinka's review against another edition

2.5

 Первое, что хочется сказать об этой книге, что я после её прочтения еще три дня ходила думала и пыталась сформировать и сформулировать свои впечатления от неё.

Первая треть была прослушана на одном дыхании. Несмотря на отборную трэшатину повествование цепляло, и даже самые мерзкие детали не отвращали. Яркие персонажи, сюжетные повороты, в принципе концепция, вокруг которой развивается действие - всё это казалось необычным и интригующим.

Вторая треть с главным героем, который далеко не герой, и водоворотом героев второстепенных уже читалась чуть медленнее, но всё же было интересно погружаться глубже в эту библиотечную секту потерянных людей с их трогательными судьбами, неловкими отношениями и дурацкими самодельными доспехами. Людей, после смерти которых остаётся лишь старенькая машина да храбрая собака.

Разбилось всё примерно тогда, когда открылся главный смысл тех самых книг, из-за которых люди бьются буквально насмерть. Было бы любопытно узнать, какое впечатление бы произвела на меня книга, прочитай я её раньше, до 24 февраля 2022. Но прочитала я ее 24 апреля, поэтому меня лишь отвратил драматический накал патриотизма и концепция защиты богоспасаемой Великой Страны, на которую со всех сторон готовится нападение.

Наверное, через это можно было бы переступить, но зацепиться дальше было особенно и не за что. Последняя треть книги перенасыщена кровавыми побоищами и разорванными телами. Буквально из сцены в сцену кочует трэш-хоррор, где кровь-кишки-расчленёнка смешиваются в кровавое месиво, в котором не разобрать ни имён, ни лиц. Вся эта некро-вакханалия перетекает в другой некрополь на базе дома престарелых. И пусть формально люди там еще живы и цепляются за жизнь изо всех сил, но их сенильное безумие напоминает лишь пляску смерти. Живые мертвецы подчиняют себе Великий Смысл во имя Вечной Жизни. Но жизнь ли это?..

В заключение вынуждена признать, что автор безусловно талантлив и имеет необычный взгляд на мир. Но, пожалуй, не смогла я ему простить ни пренебрежения к бывшей родине, которая родиной ему так и не стала, ни трэша ради трэша, ни пафосной сверхидеи, раздутой из сверхпаранойи. Впрочем, заглянуть в его мироустройство было пусть и неприятно, но небезынтересно. 

msgtdameron's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

These are the most violent librarians I've ever read about or seen.  The story line is: relatively unknown Soviet author wrote some books that 20 years later have magical powers if read in the original 1960's 70's editions.  New editions won't confer the magic.  Each book has a different magical effect.  Reading rooms and library's are created by people to control(?) the magic and the books.  And these library's and reading rooms will get violent to protect their books.  No spoilers here all this is explained in the first 80 or so pages.  The main story concerns Librarian Alexei who inherits his position from his Uncle Maxim and afterwards Alexei's world is turned upside down in some really wonderful, scary, and unexpected ways.  A real goos read. 

abookishtype's review against another edition

4.0

If you ask a reader about the experience of reading, he or she might say that a good book will fill up their mind to the point where they can shut out noise and distraction. They might also say that a well-written book will transport them to another world. This is all metaphor (though a certain kind of philosopher would argue with me). I imagine that something like this phenomena was the inspiration for Mikhail Elizarov's The Librarian. In this book, reading can convey special powers on readers of a particular author. Readers fight bloody battles for access to rare books and librarians declare war on each other. How could I not pick up this book?

Read the rest of this review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

caitietatey's review against another edition

4.0

I kind of loved this, even though it was very far removed from my novel comfort zone. It was a happy reminder of why it's a great idea to pick up random books from charity shops on the basis of cool cover art. Here's my full review: https://wellwrittentooshort.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/drop-your-sword/

bodagirl's review

2.0

It's very Russian: inescapable sense of fatalism, normalized violence and lots of it, and a cast of characters with multiple names that bleed together. I will say that the idea of a secret cult/cabal of readers, reading rooms, librarians, and libraries mystically powered by an author's work is intriguing.

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2015 | Task 24: Read a book based entirely on its cover

competencefantasy's review

4.0

I loved the concept and liked the execution. There was a proper noun dump at one point that I found difficult to keep up with, which resulted in some issues getting acquainted with minor characters, which is a shame since the author has a real skill for capturing backstories in quick vignettes. Some additional difficulties, for example with the humor, also manifested. I suspect these are down to me lacking sufficient familiarity with the cultural references, so I won't grade the book down for them.

Finally, this was one of many books where the author and I did not agree on which character ought to be made the protagonist.

emiliek's review

3.0

I gave this book three stars purely because of its mesmerizing and intriguing characters. Otherwise, it would have gotten a two. I believe something of it's beauty must have gotten lost in translation or was never there to begin with. The plot consists of warring bands of people called "libraries", gruesomely wage war on each other for rare books that imbues them with different sorts of power for several hours before wearing off. It is an interesting concept and was solely the reason I read til the end. However, the narrative voice was rather dull and in the habit of reciting lists of action instead of describing the state of things with any imagination. Keeping track of characters and what they were exactly was problematic because a description of them was linked with their name once, maybe twice, and was rarely ever revisited in the narrative. Quite an interesting read but difficult to slog through.

sdiaz's review

1.0

I had high hopes for this book, but they were quickly dashed when the novel begins with 70-80 pages of pure clunky exposition. Seriously only after all the exposition is the protagonist presented, at which point you get some interesting character development and I thought that the novel was going to pick up, unfortunately it quickly lost its way once more. Once the titular Librarian, Alexei, joins the reading room it all devolves into a mess of inconsistent ad hoc world/rules creation, a series of characters that are more "meat bags" waiting to be slaughtered in some interesting way than actual people we care about. I will give credit where it is due, the author has a knack for descriptive and creative fight scenes and deaths. Unfortunately we simply don't care about any of these people (not helped by the classical Russian style of addressing people by a myriad of names, which is hard to follow for a westerner). The ending becomes interesting as it focuses on Alexei and his final tribulations once more, but by then too little too late. I believe the author has talent and I was really interested in the conceit of the novel it just wholly fails to come together.