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greenfox's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
At first a cozy way to enter one of the hardest times in our world, which leads to a more comfortable way to face the harsh realities of the period. The mirrored story in the 1980s provides some more current context, but often leaves the reader simply wanting to return to the War.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, War, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Classism, Hate crime, Deportation, Genocide, and Death
megelizabeth's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
"She crossed the Seine. There was not another soul on the vast Place de la Concorde, not a single car motoring down the Champs-Élysées, France’s grandest traffic hazard. In the liveliest city in the world, she could hear a hairpin drop. The stillness was strange. She’d never felt so alone."
For most of the way through, I was, aside from a few niggles, really enjoying this book. I found both Odile's and Lily's characters interesting and well-fleshed-out, and loved that we get to follow several years in both timelines, so it really feels as if you get sucked right into their lives. There's a great cast of supporting characters too, and I enjoyed following the development of several of the relationships. I particularly loved the strong focus on friendship and community. The book is also rich with historical detail, and provides brilliant and insightful domestic perspectives to both the Second World War and the Cold War. In particular, of course, it shines a light on the American Library of Paris and what went on there during the former war, a chapter of history I previously knew nothing at all about.
However, I unfortunately came away feeling slightly disappointed. Firstly, the blurb misleads you to think there's going to be a prior connection linking Odile and Lily, whereas this link turns out to be so ridiculously tenuous that it's just infuriating. It would've been so much better not to pretend there's such a link in the first place, as the story would've worked fine without it and I wouldn't have gone in with the wrong expectations.
I also really didn't like the way the end of Odile's time in France and decision to move to the US was dealt with. I understand the historical social context and the expectations placed upon women at this time, and the added heightened emotions associated with wartime, but it still wasn't believable to me that Odile would've felt so strongly the way she apparently does, and made the decisions she does. At the very least, these elements could've been addressed in the chapters set in the later timeline, but they aren't and that really frustrated me, especially as the book otherwise contains a lot of great messages (though it does also briefly romanticise adult-minor relationships and is pretty uncritical of the police).
Finally - and this is more of a personal gripe - I didn't know until I read the author's note at the end that Odile's colleagues at the library are all fictionalised versions of real people, i.e. using their real names and known elements of their life stories, and that's something I really don't like in historical fiction and that makes me very uncomfortable. As well as the issues discussed above, this also made me look back on the storyline running through the earlier timeline in a very different way, and consequently I came away much preferring Lily's later coming-of-age story to the story of the wartime Paris Library, which is such a shame as, despite my feelings towards the way it ended, I did for the most part enjoy younger Odile's story, and it has a lot of great elements and is at times very cleverly-told. It's just a shame that things weren't wrapped up in a more fitting and less harmful way.
For most of the way through, I was, aside from a few niggles, really enjoying this book. I found both Odile's and Lily's characters interesting and well-fleshed-out, and loved that we get to follow several years in both timelines, so it really feels as if you get sucked right into their lives. There's a great cast of supporting characters too, and I enjoyed following the development of several of the relationships. I particularly loved the strong focus on friendship and community. The book is also rich with historical detail, and provides brilliant and insightful domestic perspectives to both the Second World War and the Cold War. In particular, of course, it shines a light on the American Library of Paris and what went on there during the former war, a chapter of history I previously knew nothing at all about.
However, I unfortunately came away feeling slightly disappointed. Firstly, the blurb misleads you to think there's going to be a prior connection linking Odile and Lily, whereas this link turns out to be so ridiculously tenuous that it's just infuriating. It would've been so much better not to pretend there's such a link in the first place, as the story would've worked fine without it and I wouldn't have gone in with the wrong expectations.
I also really didn't like the way the end of Odile's time in France and decision to move to the US was dealt with. I understand the historical social context and the expectations placed upon women at this time, and the added heightened emotions associated with wartime, but it still wasn't believable to me that Odile would've felt so strongly the way she apparently does, and made the decisions she does. At the very least, these elements could've been addressed in the chapters set in the later timeline, but they aren't and that really frustrated me, especially as the book otherwise contains a lot of great messages (though it does also briefly romanticise adult-minor relationships and is pretty uncritical of the police).
Finally - and this is more of a personal gripe - I didn't know until I read the author's note at the end that Odile's colleagues at the library are all fictionalised versions of real people, i.e. using their real names and known elements of their life stories, and that's something I really don't like in historical fiction and that makes me very uncomfortable. As well as the issues discussed above, this also made me look back on the storyline running through the earlier timeline in a very different way, and consequently I came away much preferring Lily's later coming-of-age story to the story of the wartime Paris Library, which is such a shame as, despite my feelings towards the way it ended, I did for the most part enjoy younger Odile's story, and it has a lot of great elements and is at times very cleverly-told. It's just a shame that things weren't wrapped up in a more fitting and less harmful way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, War, Racism, Antisemitism, and Violence
Moderate: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Child death
falltumn's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Misogyny and Medical content
Minor: Child death, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
calliecachat's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Beautiful and bittersweet
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Genocide, War, Grief, and Antisemitism
ginadapooh's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Cancer, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, Bullying, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Antisemitism, Grief, War, and Toxic friendship
lily_benavides's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
cranewife's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Rape and Bullying
miniando's review against another edition
emotional
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism and Racism
eesti23's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"A bookmark—a bright ribbon, really—beckoned from each, inviting the Directress to return."
“Life’s a brawl. You must fight for what you want.”
"I had learned that love was not patient, love was not kind. Love was conditional. The people closest to you could turn their backs on you, saying goodbye for something that seemed like nothing. You could only depend on yourself."
"Yet there was solace: in reading other people’s stories, I knew that I wasn’t alone."
"It was why I read—to glimpse other lives."
“Two feed your stomach, the rest your soul. We’ll find another way to soothe your heart.”
"GRIEF IS A sea made of your own tears. Salty swells cover the dark depths you must swim at your own pace. It takes time to build stamina. Some days, my arms sliced through the water, and I felt things would be okay, the shore wasn’t so far off. Then one memory, one moment would nearly drown me, and I’d be back to the beginning, fighting to stay above the waves, exhausted, sinking in my own sorrow."
"The Library is a bridge of books between cultures.”
"She wished she could make them understand that Paris was home. She’d made her life’s work, her life here."
"You’re nothing without principles. Nowhere without ideals. No one without courage."
"Love is accepting someone, all parts of them, even the ones you don’t like or understand."
"‘Accept people for who they are, not for who you want them to be.’”
Judging by the number of highlighted quotes I had, The Paris Library provided plenty food for thought. This was a really interesting angle on WWII history in France. There were great characters, both in the past and present storylines. I gasped out loud at the
This was my pick for The StoryGraph's Onboarding Reading Challenge 2022, prompt three, ...head to your Up Next Suggestions (Home > To-Read Pile > Search and Filter > Suggestions) and read the book from your Random Pick prompt....
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Antisemitism
Moderate: War and Physical abuse
Minor: Infidelity and Suicidal thoughts
bookellys's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Now I love a war film. Saving Private Ryan has got to be THE best movie of all time! But I have not read many historical fiction books based around the war for some reason.
Enter my Booksta name twin who treated me to The Paris Library for Easter ❤️ and I’m so thankful that she did as it was a beautifully written story of the horrors of the war and quiet heroics of ordinary people that undoubtedly saved lives.
This book has it all: love, loss, friendship, heartbreak… and is sadly based on a true story! We forget the privileges that we have and though the last couple of years have been tough, it’s nothing compared to what the Parisians and many like them had to encounter under Nazi occupation.
I also hardly ever read the Author’s Notes but felt compelled this time to learn more about the real people who inspired this book and all the time and effort that went into its research.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism
Minor: Classism