Reviews - The Book That Broke the World

1.26k reviews for:

The Book That Broke the World

Mark Lawrence

3.97 AVERAGE

ans624's review

5.0

adventurous challenging mysterious 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: No

This is easily turning into one of my top 5 trilogies I’ve ever read! The story is so compelling and challenging in all the right ways. The characters are memorable, lovable, and relatable. The plot is a driving force but also has subtlety and nuance that makes you want to know more after every page! Can’t wait to see how it ends.

Content Warnings

lilywhites's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious 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

colinjclements19's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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: No

an_erratic_reader's review

3.5

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The second book of The Library Trilogy, while not at the same level of the first one, does a good job of moving the story forward. A new race is introduced, Livira's and Evar's relationship grows and new links are formed between main characters. We find out a lot more about the library, the Exchange and the mechanism and the third book seems to be going to be not so much about finding answers to pending questions, rather to what the protagonists are going to do next and to the general fate of the Library. What didn't work for me was first the confusion due to the non-linear narrative. There are many PoVs and they move through time over and over, to the point that I had trouble understanding WHEN we were and, mostly, whether the action was taking place before or after certain events. And then some chapters in the first half of the book, Livira's in particular, were a bit boring and repetitive, not adding much to what was going on.