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jayisreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.0
I’m not sure where to begin with this book. The Library at Mount Char is weird. A lot happens that will make you experience a range of emotions which, admittedly, tend to be unpleasant. It certainly fits into the horror genre for disturbing imagery, but I wouldn’t necessarily call this a “scary” book (though I’d take my opinion on this with a grain of salt; it takes a lot for me to find something terrifying).
It really wasn’t until the second half of the book that I felt any kind of investment in the novel and understand what was actually going on. Until then, I found the first half incredibly slow and frustrating. The premise of the novel itself was interesting, especially for knowledge seekers who would love to be true masters of one particular topic. The idea that you pour through every imaginable book for that one topic has its appeal to a certain crowd, though the question is at what cost? If Hawkins could have revealed a little more of that at the start of the novel, I think I would have felt more invested from the start.
I felt that there was a bit of deus ex machina happening towards the end of the novel, but not to an extreme that would have made me hate this book. I still had questions even after finishing, but I get the impression that Hawkins wants his readers to sit in that unease in all the strangeness that happened in the novel.
I hesitate to recommend this to anyone, not because it’s bad, but because it’s definitely for a specific audience, which I think I wasn’t exactly part of. If you’re queasy with graphic descriptions of violence, I’d strongly recommend avoiding this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide
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