A review by meganpbennett
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A fast-paced adventure featuring a semi-mythical Library and its Librarians, who use Language to help them navigate alternate realities. It's part steam-punk adventure, part detective story, part urban fantasy and it works in a way that it really shouldn't. 

Irene works for the Library, and after just barely surviving collecting a rare book from one reality, she's sent off on her next mission, with a mentee named Kai. This alternate reality is contaminated with Chaos and has all the usual urban fantasy creatures - vampires, werewolves, the Fae - to make life interesting. Irene and Kai are after a rare and specific copy of Grimm's tales from that alternate reality. 

But when the urban legend from the Library shows up and turns out to be both very real and very dangerous, things have a way of getting even more complicated than they appear from the outside. 

Edit: August 10, 2021 : A reread of The Invisible Library was very interesting, and the clues left about several things are very, very well done. 

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