Reviews - The Book That Broke the World

1.26k reviews for:

The Book That Broke the World

Mark Lawrence

3.97 AVERAGE

dracomorph's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-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: Yes

carolynnagain's review

3.75

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

haruspex's review

3.0

Lawrence is a plotter whose plot is so convoluted it ran away from him halfway through book one and he’s been chasing it into a series ever since.

lindsinmco's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional 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: No

Mark Lawrence is a masterful fantasy storyteller, but what makes this trilogy so special is how utterly unique the plot and world are. The concept here stands apart from others and actively encourages the reader into its philosophical debate about knowledge and wisdom and how they ultimately help or destroy.

This book also packs an emotional punch, and I cried several times reading it. Characters that were more minor in the first installment get their own POV in this book. From more stoic characters like Arpix to more brash characters like Clovis, watching these characters grow is so rewarding. The complexities and layers of the various characters is a joy to read. You have some straightforward “villain” archetypes, fragile men hiding behind fragile egos. But you also have much more complex villains who commit heinous acts because they genuinely believe themselves to be in the right.

The ending left me reeling. The story is so very layered and that makes it all the more real to read. I’m excited but also terrified to read the final book.

Trigger Warnings: Cannibalism, amputation

Content Warnings

januaryf's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

lizthebliss's review

3.75

adventurous emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

nosalusi_efeja's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

I wanted to read this book because I adored the first book in the series and still think about it to this day. I was so excited for the second book in the series, and I think my expectations were a little bit too high going into it, but I still enjoyed it eventually.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other’s reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she’s to return to her life. While Evar’s journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he’s never seen, Livira’s destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

The way that I personally review a fantasy book is how easy it is to get into the book and how the world building is and if I get confused that I lose the plot of the story during the book. Unlike the last book, I was slightly confused in the beginning. I think the addition of extra characters and the way that the story starts. I think I was expecting more because the world had been beautifully crafted and I think I was hoping for it to be settled back into this world, but then it was chaos and crash outs from page one. This book was a lot smaller than the first book, so it didn’t have that ease into things like the first book did.

I still want to dive headfirst into this world. I still believe that Mark Lawrence’s writing is beautiful and can be done well. I loved the small recap that Mark Lawrence did before reading this book to make sure everyone knew what had happened. I found it interesting, and it helped me to remember everything that happened before going back into this world. The storyline just felt rushed at times. I adore Livira and Evar and I was so eagerly waiting for their reunion and was so glad we finally got it. I would have loved for this to have stayed at Livira and Evar’s point of view as I struggled with the other points of view. The storyline was so interesting with the library getting more and more dangerous and with the world expanding and getting more unique, I am so intrigued on how the trilogy is going to end. This book asked a lot of philosophical questions that were hurting my brain throughout the book and had me thinking about them for days.

This book leaves you with more questions than answers and I am so intrigued at how book three is going to go and hopefully it ends with Livira and Evar living on a little island together safe from the library.

Content Warnings

story_singer_101's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional 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

On the whole, I really like this series so far. Each book is slow. There's a lot of build-up, a lot of different characters to meet and keep track of, and a lot of different times and places to sort out. And there's also a lot of mysteries to unravel and piece together and hope you solved correctly. I have to say the slower build-up worked less well for me this time than in the first one because I wasn't expecting to have so much exposition happen again. It did make the world richer and the themes more nuanced, but it was harder to get into and stay connected with for a while there.

Content Warnings

read_game_stitch's review

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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: Yes

First things first - a congratulations for book two of The Library Trilogy starting with a detailed 'The Story So Far' section!! I'm reading the trilogy back to back but having this section is still useful because of the timey-wimey plot! I love when books have a recap, and they should definitely have them for series with complex plots like this one. Here, it acts as both a recap and glossary of the terminology and of the world generally, which was really useful. Round of applause!

Ok, into the actual review of The Book That Broke The World! It circles back to the first book's plot points in several ways that made me go 'OH!', so those moments of realisation definitely continue into book two. But somehow, it feels like a different book to The Book That Wouldn't Burn - there's less to-ing and fro-ing between time periods and more focus on one or two time periods where the characters converge. There's more action scenes and you get to see the characters mixing in interesting combinations.

Both books 2 and 3 are much shorter than book 1, plus book 2 widens the scope of the story to include other POV characters, including a new character, Celcha, right from Chapter 1! I love that Mark Lawrence isn't afraid to take this story into unexpected places and just like with book 1, it constantly kept me on my toes. I can't wait to see how the trilogy ends with the next book!

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