A review by purnuhja
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.75

This book is so bizarre, I'm not sure how to feel about it. It is dark and fucked up and just so alien. I saw a review describe it as "this nightmarish novel is an exercise in trust" and I definitely agree. So many dark and brutal things happen, and you have to trust that it serves a proper purpose and Hawkins isn't making you experience it for no reason. About halfway through the book, I found myself thinking "the story meanders so much and why are we doing so much work for a very simple problem?" And then it all unravels in the last 30% of the book. There's so many little lines and plot points that don't make sense right away but they all find their place in the puzzle by the end of the story, and I think it works well together. The characters were also very interesting and the dialogue that was created through them around trauma, power, and cycles of violence. I both pitied and feared Carolyn.

Very dark and weird story, I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around it, but I do think I enjoyed it. Solid writing and foreshadowing with a tight narrative structure despite jumping around a lot.