A review by pragreads
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

3.0

“Why did no one ever tell us the library was real?”
“Because, my dear,” replied an ymbryne, “it wasn’t allowed. It was safer to say …”
The ymbryne paused to catch her breath.
“… that it was just a story.”
Just a story. It had become one of the defining truths of my life that, no matter how I tried to keep them flattened, two-dimensional, jailed in paper and ink, there would always be stories that refused to stay bound inside books. It was never just a story. I would know: a story had swallowed my whole life.

Library of Souls: A random list of thoughts I have about this book
- This is not YA, it is middle grade. More specifically, a [a:Rick Riordan|15872|Rick Riordan|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1383677264p2/15872.jpg] inspired middle grade trilogy.
- The writing reminded me a lot of [b:Shatter Me|10429045|Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)|Tahereh Mafi|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1310649047s/10429045.jpg|15333458]. My brain is probably making wild connections, because Mafi & Riggs are married, but Jacob gave me strong Juliette vibes.
- The first 20% or so dragged on and on and on and on. It took me one week and two other books to actually get into the novel.
- Infodump. No, no, no. I do not care about the history of peculiardom, or a cave of departed peculiar seconds souls.
- THE ENDING!!! I loved it so much. My rating is 1 stars for the actual story, and the rest for the ending. The way Jacob's parents were handled was, quite frankly, hilarious. I just wish there was an epilogue with Bronwyn & Emma & Horace & Olive and all my little babies living with Jacob.
- The pictures. Oh, the pictures improved this story greatly. I'm not sure if Riggs pieced the story together after collecting the pictures, or looked for specific pictures with the story in mind, but they were a major asset to this novel. It's basically a more elaborate version an exercise I used to do in middle school, where there were a bunch of pictures or words given and we would have to make a story out of them.
- Overall, I'd say the flaws outweighed the strengths of this series, and though I don't regret reading it, it wouldn't be on the top of my list if I were recommending books.