The Library at Mount Char

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because the book takes some unexpected turns. so many, in fact, that i'm not really sure how to review it without treading into spoiler territory. Where both rage and love can be the energy source of suns, and bitch-slapping lionesses is perfectly acceptable behavior. Or where standing up for yourself can usually mean several dozen suicides. Sequentially. For one man. his reply was equally classic: "Imagine a quilt. If you turn it over, all you can see are a mess of colors that make no sense and go nowhere. But the top side is God's side. And there you can see a beautiful pattern. That's God's plan. We don't see its beauty, but it is there, guiding us." Father" taught each of his librarians, but they were only allowed to study out of the books in their fields. Or they suffered the consequences.

Surprisingly for a book set in the US, lions play a significant role in the story! Given my knowledge of lions (gathered solely by watching David Attenborough etc) I would say that Hawkins doesn't know much about lions (I don't think the male head of the pride goes hunting with his female cub ... I think the males laze around and the females hunt). But this is a minor niggle and I may be wrong! I actually really liked the lion sections.

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Truthfully, that’s all I can really say about it without giving anything away. No spoilers for this book! A word of caution to the squeamish. This is a violent and gory book. Some might say that the author made it too violent and over-the-top but I disagree. The scenes of violence are all brutal and described in minute, gory details but it never seems like it was done to excess. Aside from the violence, there are also scenes that might disturb more sensitive sensibilities like talking decapitated heads, repeated suicides, and others. For me, all this was necessary for the reader's/listener's understanding of the world and the characters that Scott Hawkins has created. The world of the Pelapi is dangerous and brutal, and it deserved to be shown as such.

at the start of the book, father has gone missing, and without him in place the world, including our world, is in danger of his equally-powerful enemies making a power play. which would be very very bad.

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their particular lessons are harder, and turn them into harder people, prone to infighting, violence, and fear. Okay, I have to admit, in the beginning of the book to almost half way I wanted to stop reading and run away. I didn't like it or know what was going on half the time! The old man's eyes went distant for a moment, trying to remember how he knew that name. He thought about it for a while, then gave up. Carolyn might have told him that he could drive by Garrison Oaks four times a day every day for a thousand years and still not remember it, but she didn't.

This is one of those books that you read and then continue to think about long after you have closed the book or shut off the audio. I am still thinking about it and still getting things straight in my head. I enjoyed the book but at the same time, I felt like the first half of the book was totally different from the second half of the book. It almost felt like two authors got together, decided on a concept, each wrote their half of the book and then put them together and called it a novel. The girl we meet at the beginning and then that same girl at the end of the book are light years apart. I must admit that threw me a little as it didn't show her growth and progression as much as just saying this is how it started and boom......here is reality now. A central part of the world of the Pelapi is brutality. Both in the present and past torture and occasional death is something they tend to take in stride. This leads to some truly horrific moments, including one early scene which is perhaps one of the single most hideously, fascinatingly awful things I’ve ever read, not just in terms of what happens, but also in terms of Carolyn’s speculations about it, and the profound effect it has on one character and on the Pelapi as a whole.It was such a clever way to start a mystery book. It’s not a woman dead on the road. It’s not about the detective standing over her body. It’s about a woman who has just killed a detective, which sets you up for just how wild things are going to get. After each one, I'd put the book down for a second and start to rethink the story from the new vantage point that the author had just provided. in fact, i already want to read it again to see how those earlier scenes read now that i know all that i know. WARNING: this book contains violent scenes, including towards animals, which may be upsetting for some readers/listeners. at its most basic level it's a dark fantasy version of a bildungsroman in which orphaned children are schooled in esoteric and powerful arts by a man known as "father," whose lessons are dangerous and frequently cruel. they grow up in the flexible time of his library and are raised according to the ancient rituals of the pelapi, which distances them from the americans they once were. they never break into song like the charming orphans in annie,

Any complaints I might have about this book were minor. There are some long talking scenes that repeat information to characters that I, as a reader, already knew. That was fine, it happens to the best of us. The pacing of the last act runs a little long, but again, by that point I didn’t care because the book was just laying down the payoff of the mysteries it promised to solve at the beginning, and I was fine with that. There are horrible things done to people. Horrible things! But it’s not voyeuristic and purposeless. There is a method to the horror and madness, and it’s treated fairly. You start the story in total confusion and stay that way for most of the book. Information is released in tiny increments. Bizarre characters enter and fantastic events unfold; you scratch your head and keep reading. It does become clear, from the beginning, that there are realms of reality co-existing in this book. One is our normal one, going about its day-to-day business. That average world, with which we are so familiar, is completely oblivious of that second plane of existence, which is operating busily right under its radar. The inhabitants and events in this secret universe are largely unseen, and when they do collide with humanity, humanity suffers the worse of the encounter. It’s hard to know where to start with this book other than … WOW. What a trip. Imagine if the movie Mother!, Dr. Strange, and an M. C. Escher painting had a baby — you might be close to capturing the essence of this psychotropic tome. The most genuinely original fantasy I’ve ever read. Hawkins plays with really, really big ideas and does it with superb invention, deeply affecting characters, and a smashing climax I did not see coming.” —Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Beggars in Spain Warning - while there are no real spoilers here this is not intended for people thinking of reading the book. If you're thinking of reading The Library at Mount Char, please don't read this.The book has been highly successful. Its average rating is good but not sky high, and I suspect that this is to do with the way that the closing sections really don't make a lot of sense unless you are prepared to take a lot of random arm waving on board. Conclusion: I was not a fan, but a bit selfishly, I’d recommend it if only so that I can hear your thoughts. Plus a bunch of people love it – so don’t let this review deter you.