Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Book That Wouldn't Burn

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The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence

6 reviews

dkamada's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Time is trippy and so is love

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eviethebookworm's review

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-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? No

3.5

I have so many thoughts that it’s hard to articulate them all.

But first, let’s discuss what the book is actually about.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is about a vast and eternal library. The two protagonists begin in opposite situations – Livira begins having never stepped foot inside the library, while Evar begins having never stepped foot outside of it.

Both their stories intertwine with each other through time and worlds. Everything comes back to the library and the knowledge it holds – and whether it can be truly harnessed before fire ignites.

Livira and Evar are juxtaposed in a way that conveys the extreme nature of the library that is the anchor point for the narrative. Livira is endlessly curious and adaptive. Evar is penned in by his circumstances. They really are like two ends of a spectrum in that one is forced to explore and the other is confined.

Lawrence incorporates several contemporary literary references that tie our own world in the fantastical one he has created. Nods to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz reinforce the theme of entering a world beyond your own. Although giving The Raven the true name of [spoiler*] is just ridiculous. I immediately fell out of the book.

I did struggle with the pacing a fair bit. The beginning had a good flow but it waned as the pages went by, and it didn’t pick up again until almost three quarters of the way through. This came down to information and detail being repeated unnecessarily. Something mentioned in Chapter 20 doesn’t need to be retold in Chapter 24. It makes for a dense read, which left me wondering if I got my hopes up too soon in the start.

Having said all that, the big reveal was both infuriating and riveting. All the foreshadowing clicked into place! But a lot of the foreshadowing was smothered by the aforementioned density of the bulk of the novel. The last 150 or so pages convinced me that it was worth sticking it out. Which was a relief.

If you enjoy a high fantasy novel that hones in on the concept of knowledge, then go for it! Just know you’re signing up for a hefty boi that can feel cyclic. But it all ties into the theme, really. It’s a great think-piece of a tale – something that will have you pondering the nuggets that the author has woven into each chapter.

Review TL;DR:

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Strongest elements: Multiple POV narrative, prose, literary referencing.

Content warnings: Fire injury, blood, gun violence, racism, classism, slavery, kidnapping, murder, war, injury detail, genocide, death of a parent, death of a child, grief.

Similar titles/authors: The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins.

Genre: High fantasy

*Edgarallen

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peregrinwho's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The first 20% of this book can seem slow, with Evar's chapters in particular being repetitive, but only because they're setting up a world, characters, and several questions. After that point that feeling falls away as answers start to come, and it's really difficult to put down the book so you can chase more of them.

Everything I thought was set up for a specific pay-off later was indeed paid off. It gave me so much joy to see the story unwinding to those points and being able to scream, "yes! I was right!" as characters solved the mysteries. A satisfying story with a fun journey. I laughed, I cried, I sat staring at the wall contemplating some of the author's words like a nexus point as the world turned around me. Can't wait to follow these characters into the next book💜.

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dani_reis's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
Most definitely the best book of 2023.
I am undone knowing this is an unfinished series--and would do anything to reread this for the first time all over again.
Audio ch 41 I think restarted near the end. If you encounter that chapter: skip to about 7 min left and you'll be where you need to.

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literatellama's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious slow-paced

2.75

The pacing was very weird. The author really took his time on some portions of the book which did not turn out to be essential, and then powered through some really complicated stuff.

the whole time travel thing was ok when they were visiting other places as ghosts, but it got really confusing towards the end when Livira gets trapped as the assistant

. There was a good twist which I enjoyed, but I don’t think I’ll be continuing this series.

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sophieamreacher's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book made me feel stupid. I enjoyed the mystery and cycle of everything but the slow pace and philosophy was a bit beyond me.

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