Review: The Library at Mount Char

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

THIS IS NOT A CHILDREN'S BOOK. I repeat: this is NOT a children's book! *cries* No matter how innocent the title is urging you to believe, this ish is not for kids. Consider me shocked. Baffled. Disturbed, even. *cries harder*

I honestly did not get the point of this book. Halfway through, I was enjoying it, while getting confused on most parts. I was happy trying to take in as much of the mysteries and intricacies of the world Hawkins conjured, because I was expecting it to make sense--to have a perceivable connection to our world. But the deeper I get into the story, the lesser I understood. The intense focus I was projecting in trying to understand the story and their world waned, until the only reason for me to keep reading was just to finish it, and not because I was still enjoying it.

This book is definitely not up my alley. This is one of those books that I'm not smart enough for. :'( And I felt so bad because I really really wanted to enjoy it. I know, I know! halfway through, I said I was enjoying it and I was hooked! I really WAS. Up until two-thirds of the book, I was determined to give this a 4-star rating. However, it feels so unfair to my other 4-star reads seeing as I did not understand much of what happened on this book anyway. So I danced between giving it 2 stars or 3 stars. I decided to go for 3-stars because I enjoyed some parts of it--the gore, most especially. I was hooked, but when I realized that most of the questions on this book will remain unanswered, I became unhooked. My interest on it went from 95% to 2% (if that makes sense at all).

I just feel a complete disconnect. Maybe I was expecting too much from this book. :( I felt no emotional connection to Carolyn despite the gruesome history she went through. The conversations between Erwin, Steve, and Carolyn are absurd and unbelievable given the situation they are all in. Maybe an explanation--a sequel, or a deeper explanation of Hawkin's "Librarian" world--might dramatically change my opinion. But even so, the fact that this book cannot stand on its own (without a sequel or an explanation) just doesn't seem worth all the confusion for me.

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I did find a few gems within this book: