Title: The Library of the Unwritten
Author: A.J. Hackwith
Genre: Fantasy
Format: Paperback
Length: 440 pages
Series: Hell’s Library
Publisher: Titan Books
Publication Date: 1st October 2019
My Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
Join the library and raise hell in the first book of a stunning new fantasy series, where books unfinished by their authors reside within the Unwritten Wing of the devil’s own library, and restless characters will emerge from out of their pages…
Every book left unfinished by its author is filed away in the Unwritten Wing, a neutral space in Hell presided over by Claire, its head librarian. Along with repairing and organizing books, her job consists of keeping an eye on restless stories whose characters risk materialising and escaping the library.
When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto. But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong, in a chase that threatens to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell… and Earth.
My Review:
𝚄𝚗𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚞𝚗𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎. 𝚈𝚎𝚝 𝚠𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝’𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕.
The Library of the Unwritten is about a library in Hell, where you guessed it books that are unwritten reside. These are potential stories, not actual ones. Their authors are either living, dead or not yet born.
This book is well-written, I was sucked in from the first sentence and I didn’t want it to end. It is everything I need from a fantasy novel, and who doesn’t love a story about a library. The characters are fully fleshed out, and complete with twists and turns that you wouldn’t see coming. You know what they say…don’t judge a book by its cover.
Claire Hadley is the current librarian and she is dedicated to that role. She keeps the library in order, repairing books, and making sure they don’t escape. When characters in an unwritten novel get restless, they break free of their “cage” and try to escape. Her job is making sure they go back to their book before they do any damage.
One day, Claire and her assistant, former muse Brevity receive a visit from a teenage demon called Leto regarding a missing book and thus their quest is born. To find the book before it meets the author who’s writing their story. The trio along with Hero, a book that won’t return to his story, travel to Earth to hunt for the missing book. This leads to them meeting Ramiel, a fallen angel who is on the hunt for the Devil’s Bible. Through this story, we get to watch the characters grow as individuals and work together and I really loved the character development in this book.
This book is full of friendship, betrayal, sacrifice, and twists that you don’t expect and Hackwith left me wanting more. I am impatiently waiting for the sequel to come out so I can be sucked back into the world. If there is any book that I really think you should read, this is the one, so go ahead, leave my blog and go pick up The Library of the Unwritten.
