Snap review and chat today is about ‘The Library of the Unwritten’, a first in series book, written by A.J. Hackwith. Described as:

“It’s like The Good Place meets Law & Order: Bibliophile Crime Unit. This book is so much fun.”

Seanan McGuire

“A muse, an undead librarian, a demon, and a ghost walk into Valhalla… what follows is a delightful and poignant fantasy adventure.”

Kit Rocha

The blurb

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 organising 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 thoughts:

I loved the idea of this book: the library setting in Hell; an Unwritten Wing for unfinished books; a librarian watching and hunting book characters; an escaped Hero! Merging the undead, ghosts, book characters, demons and fallen angels in a fantasy adventure seemed great escapism.

And it was, for the most part. I’d certainly recommend this book to fantasy bibliophiles, it’s full of what we delight in: musty and bountiful shelves of books in Gothic underworld arches; there’re battles between good and evil, with an extreme amount of blurring the lines; a potentially catastrophic battle keeping the boundaries intact between Heaven, Hell and life on Earth, and some fabulous characters with bucketful depth between them. I loved the idea of book characters coming to life, every bibliophile’s dream. Hackwith certainly plays about with this idea and our perceptions.

Overall, this books does get a thumbs up from me for its creativity. I did enjoy the descriptive escapism it provided, and the biblio-fantasy world; it would make a great film! Looking forward to seeing how the ‘Hell’s Library’ series develops. It’s fun, creative, some great humour and a solid mystery at its core. Oh and I love the book cover design it’s a fabulous addition to my little library.

With thanks to Titan Books for the gifted copy.