The Library of the Dead

No cover — T. L. Huchu: The Library of the Dead (Paperback, 2021, Pan Macmillan)

Paperback, 330 pages

Published Feb. 4, 2021 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:: 978-1-5290-3946-7

(1 review)

When a child goes missing in Edinburgh's darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She'll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

When ghosts talk, she will listen...

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.

3 editions

enne📚 reviewed The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu (Edinburgh Nights, #1)

The Library of the Dead

3 stars

The Library of the Dead is the October #SFFBookClub pick. Overall, this was just ok for me.

Ropa is a scrappy fourteen year old dropout who is supporting her family as best she can by charging for passing messages from the dead to the living with her necromantic telepathy. She ends up taking on a pro bono case to find the child of a ghost at the behest of her Gran. I think my favorite part of the novel is that Ropa's got a frenetic teenage voice that goes a long way to carry the novel.

One element that didn't work for me is that this novel is clearly the first book in a series. It's laying out a lot of threads to pick up later. The Tall Man. The Library of the Dead itself. Gran and her magic. Sir Callander's motives and relationship with Ropa's Gran. Gran herself. The …

The Library of the Dead is the October #SFFBookClub pick. Overall, this was just ok for me.

Ropa is a scrappy fourteen year old dropout who is supporting her family as best she can by charging for passing messages from the dead to the living with her necromantic telepathy. She ends up taking on a pro bono case to find the child of a ghost at the behest of her Gran. I think my favorite part of the novel is that Ropa's got a frenetic teenage voice that goes a long way to carry the novel.

One element that didn't work for me is that this novel is clearly the first book in a series. It's laying out a lot of threads to pick up later. The Tall Man. The Library of the Dead itself. Gran and her magic. Sir Callander's motives and relationship with Ropa's Gran. Gran herself. The everyThere. This near future Edinburgh that's had a catastrophe of some sort and is decaying and flooded. The authoritarian King that gets invoked at every turn.

But the end result of all of these threads is that this book feels a bit haphazard and the plot feels loose. Some of the threads tie up to resolve the mystery that Ropa is chasing down, but a large part of the book's work feels unresolved and preparing for the rest of the series rather than furthering the main plot of the moment.

If anything, the titular Library of the Dead feels like an optional side quest that's not quite as relevant to the plot as the title might imply. Sure, Ropa gets some magical defense and offense there incidentally but I was surprised by how little the plot hinged on this. This is not a book about the library or about learning magic. (In the end, I'm not even sure I understand why this magical library was a library "of the Dead" either.)

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