#a.j. hackwith

I really enjoyed The Library of the Unwritten so much more than I anticipated. With a very enjoyable plot, likeable and unique characters and alternating perspectives between several characters. This is a book that truly needs that alternating perspective to allow readers to see that not everyone is what they appear. To humanise them. To only present one perspective in The Library of the Unwritten would do the characters a disservice. Because the characters are a ragtag group (aside from Claire and Brevity) no one knows or trusts each other. That switching perspective allows the reader to see when the characters move from ragtag travellers to little found family. As the groups split up it allows for everything to be seen and if not understood at least known.

On the characters. There are six main characters. Hero a fictional character escaped from his book. Leto, a demon of Entropy, an amnesic demon. Andras Hell's Arcanist, a demon. Claire, Hell's Librarian and former human. Brevity, a failed muse, Claire's assistant and trainee librarian. Finally Ramiel, an angel looking for redemption. No two characters are the same, their motivations are different and you do get physical descriptions of them all allowing for visualisation. Claire is something of an intriguing character. She has a lot of layers, secrets and a past that comes back to haunt them. She is self sentenced to 200 years as Hell's Librarian. Bonus points for creating a soft coded demi character. Leto's whole arc broke my heart a little but I do like how twisty it is. He is so incredibly soft and sweet. Hero is the character that has the nicest development arc. He also is one of my fave types of character complicated, full of redemption and a prism. (This sort of character is why I love Sherrilyn McQueen so much).  Brevity is so, so bubbly but has her human flaws. I think her full backstory will likely come out in one of the later books. Not going to go into Rami or Andras because spoilers.

The story is one you will either enjoy or not. It asks you to follow it down the rabbit hole, check your faith and belief system at the door and believe in the world Hackwith created. If you have strong religious (and I mean any religion here really) views I would advise avoiding this series. While The Library of the Unwritten only challenges perceptions of Christianity and Catholicism (and those based thereon) it does make illusions to others. While I know some people even with strong views will be fine others will take offence. I say this but religion doesn't play a massive part, it more dictates the surrounding politics. Another warning for suicide is alluded to not shown but it is a key moment. The plot is strong enough and with enough going on that while I thought I had it figured out I didn't. Each of the characters has their own moment of strength and weakness that we as the reader see. The ending pulls together all the learnings from throughout the book into a climax that becomes somewhat bittersweet. And kinda left me think what if? The plot is just fun. It's always moving, always surprising and I'm really hoping that A.J. Hackwith can keep it up in the second book.

I want to add just briefly that the lore which I appreciated is revealed through quotes at the start of each chapter. Quotes are taken from journal entries by the various Hell's Librarians and their trainees from many, many years. This is a similar style to Neal Shusterman's Arc of the Scythe (first book Scythe). I always did like that way of revealing the lore of a series. Rather than just giving a massive just dump of lore somewhere for the reader to absorb. There is other lore given as the reader needs it but not as much as I initially expected for a book so heavily built on the other.