The Library at Mount Char

Serious WTF in the best possible way where the less you know going in the better - which makes reviewing the thing a bit tough. It's Oceans 11 as cast by Neil Gaiman's American Gods directed by Quentin Tarantino. It's bloody and violent. Grievous harm befalls little kids, neighbourhood dogs, a family of deer, and the process of photosynthesis. The main plot resolves itself two thirds of the way through the book and then Hawkins really ramps up the WTF. Pay attention! Hawkins gives us a loopy tale that can seem unnecessarily convoluted, meting out stray bits of information throughout that will have untold relevance later. Something as simple as “it would be the last sunset he'd ever see.” can change from throwaway foreshadowing to wry observation as the book goes on. All bets are off, and the rules no longer apply. It's a horror story with fantasy elements that can be twistedly funny at times. Would recommend, just don't judge me for it when you decide to pick it up.

Oblique review and additional attempts to describe the book here: https://youtu.be/p6Nv4tIqMYw

Wow. This book surprised me in so many ways. I can't even describe properly what I'm feeling right now. I loved every second of it. It was the story that I needed in that exact moment.

I really, really liked the writing and the characters in this book. And I feel that I get the overall premise...but maybe I'm just not smart enough to understand what the whole point of it was? I don't want to go into spoilers, and again I really liked the book overall. It was easy for me to pick up and keep reading, unlike some books where it is a struggle to finish. But I feel like I'm missing some integral part that is preventing me from really understanding what is going on, and thus truly enjoying it.

This book is banana pants! A great, fast-paced read but also pretty messed up. You've been warned.

First book in quite a while that has really grabbed me. It's exactly the kind of book I like – one that plops you down in the middle of a large, well-established set of rules different from the ones you're used to – but it's an excellent example of the type.

What stands out to me is the brutality. It's never cruel just to be cruel, but it – or rather its characters – pull no punches. To be clear, though, a lot of modern work in fantasy and even other media seeks to distinguish itself by what it would like the audience to believe is realism and grit, but which is really just mean-spiritedness for its own sake, and this doesn't fall into that trap.

Great building of its own mythology and systems. Strongly recommended among other recent fantasy, from which it stands out wonderfully.

EDIT: Why did I only give this four stars my first go-round? This book is great.

Read this book!

2016 had seen the publishing of some incredible books, and this is one of the best. Reading the description on the dust jacket doesn't even begin to set you up for the support contained within the pages. It's a whirlwind of a journey as you learn more about the library and it's inhabitants, and honestly, it was hard to stop reading. I loved seeing this world, and I'm thankful to the author for giving us this look at Carolyn, Steve and the others. I'd love any future looks at this world. High recommend.

Gruesome at times but a fascinating and fresh story and plot. Just when you think the author is starting to wander, his machinations reveal themselves in a way that made my jaw drop. Not for everyone but a great read for fans of dark fantasy.

Full Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7zXGLu_1Zc

Weird, but good enough to finish.

This book is something I don't get. I don't have any idea how good it is objectively, but I personally can't really give more than two stars to it.

So basically here we have some mystical, ancient person (creature?) called Father. He can bring back the dead, live forever and ever, speak all languages, so basically a major overpowered freakshow. He has this amazing library with all his knowledge, where he raised apprentices, every single one responsible for learning one subject, ranging from healing, to war, to time travelling. But now Father is gone, the apprentices are kept away from the library by some weird force and they need to do something.

Mr. Hawkins throws you in right away, with the absolutely weird, freaky apprentices and it took me some time to adjust. Sure, it does add to the mysterious atmosphere, but I personally don't really like it when I don't know shit about what's going on. This thing stayed during the whole book is some sense, which meant that certain events get absolutely no explanation and they feel kind of disjointed, like they don't serve any purpose, just there to freak you out because you don't get it. (I'm referring for example to the sun child part in the library.) Same goes for the mentioned characters. We hear a ton about gods and Barry O'Shea, zombie townspeople, rabid guard dog entities and whatever. But we don't see much about them, it's like most of the world is hidden from us. Don't do this.

The characters we see are... not particularly likeable. The librarians are all fucked up to an extent that I couldn't really connect to them. The two humans in a more prominent role, Steve and Erwin are... well, they're fine. Honestly, none of them were completely badly written, that's not the issues, but I didn't connect with any of them enough to really care if they live or die. The protagonist, Carolyn was a bit frustrating with her disconnect from the normal world sometimes, especially at the end with her and Steve at the library.

The thing is, I don't really know what to say about it, because I don't understand the aim of the story. The prose was pleasant enough to read, in some places a bit too flowery and artsy to me, which I would have been fine with, if I understood the story itself. But the way it was just made me feel like when you're watching some weird comedy from a different country, when things happen and you are sure that the writer was doing something, but there was a huge disconnect between their intention and your perception. (So basically what happened when I showed the show The League of Gentlemen to my friends. I love it. They got nightmares. HA.)

So yeah, I wish good luck to Mr. Hawkins for the future. If he releases another novel, I will most likely read it, just to see if it was his style that didn't suit me or simply this one story. Then we see what comes after that, I guess.

Goofy revenge tale
heavy on blood, light on plot
I smell a sequel.

Okay this book just throws you right in the deep end and expects you to swim in the weird. I'm liking it though and I'm a great swimmer. Review to come when I finish this, but so far this book is great!

And done! This book is not for the faint of heart. There is A LOT of violence and torture. Be warned.

I can't really explain this book. I've tried, while I was reading it, to explain it to my husband a VERY smart man and he was confused because I would try to add details from the book but he wouldn't get them because he hadn't read the book. The best I can come up with is it's a myth story and a human story. Carolyn and her fellow librarians are humans with all their flaws and foibles. At least that is how they used to be before Father. Now they're something else still human but they know so much more and have experienced so much more in their lives then any normal human wouldSpoilerPoor Margaret given the catalog of death and having to die herself many times would drive anyone mad. Not that the rest of the children who become adults get off much lighter but I really felt extraordinarly bad for that character.. I really enjoyed Steve and Erwin too who are 100% human but somehow get sucked in to this whole situation somehow.

I'm not going to try and explain it but say I enjoyed it. Will pick up the next thing by Mr. Hawkins if it sounds as interesting as this.

I'm going to be controversial here, so please bear with me. Here are three things I want to say about The Library at Mount Char:

1. I recommend this book.
2. I do not recommend this book for me.
3. I didn't finish it.

(Don't read on if you don't want to know a little spoiler that occurs early on....)

I don't read scary books. Scary books give me nightmares. I don't like nightmares. When I got to the chapter in which Carolyn lures Steve to her room where she has left a zombified Detective Miner to shoot and kill Steve and then Carolyn places the gun in Steve's dead hand and uses it to shoot and kill the zombified Detective Miner...well, I knew this story wasn't for me. But I'm pretty sure it is for somebody. A lot of somebodies. Somebodies who love scary. And odd.

Can I do this? Can I recommend a book that I haven't read? I say I can.

WTF even did I just read? This is a super dark, but also super compelling and above all, super WEIRD read. I wasn't sure at first I was going to be able to stick with it because of the animal stuff (I really can't handle animal deaths in fiction very well), but I'm glad I did. It's unlike anything I've ever read.

Also, small gripe, but was anyone else bothered by the seeming continuity error toward the end? The beginning makes references to the 80s–80s cars in the garages, Wham and B-52s posters on the walls, legwarmers, Carolyn is only in her early 30s now, but was 8 on Adpotion Day–but then at the end he makes repeated references to Adoption Day being 1977. An error in the first printing only, perhaps?

This is not the easiest book for me to write about. I'm really torn about this. That's not exactly true. I want to be torn about it. I spent a lot of time hating this book, and the rest wanting to hate it (and coming pretty close). I took a break on page 81 to write a healthy paragraph in my notes, which included, “by page 81 or so, I really had no idea what the book was about other than some guy inflicting horrible abuse – physical, metaphysical, mental, spiritual, psychological, and any other kinds possible – on children. All of whom, for various and sundry reasons are devoted to him.” There had been at least 4 distinct places by that point where I wanted to stop reading. But I received the book in exchange for a review, so I had to press on. It was within 10-20 pages after that rant that I found something I enjoyed.

If you're reading an almost 400 page book and the first quarter is so terrible you're only reading by compulsion? It's not a good book. No matter how good that last seventy-five percent is.

And it was pretty good. There's a man, who's moved on beyond humanity after gaining great knowledge – after 60,000 or so years, he has pretty much gained all knowledge. You know that line about sufficiently advanced science appearing magical? Well, imagine that, but sufficiently advanced as to be on Doctor Strange's level. For reasons unexplained for a very long time, he took a bunch of kids on as apprentices – teaching each of them one (and only one) discipline so they'd be as knowledge able as he is (and the methods he uses aren't exactly endorsed by the NEA, John Dewey or even The Barnum and Bailey Circus). After a few decades or so, these children are grown, can almost not remember their old life – and the master disappears. Which is when things start to really fall apart. Oh yeah, there's a postal carrier and a special forces agent who's probably more skilled than Jack Reacher. And it's almost impossible to explain how they're involved.

The worldbuilding is fantastic, really, you've seen little like it. At least 3 of the characters are keepers. Plotting is careful and intricate (at times slow, at other times so fast you'll have a hard time keeping up). I can't tell you how many times it zigged when I thought it was going to zag. And each zig was completely believable and generally mind-bending. All in all, skillfully written, skillfully told. Still, not for me.

I'm not sure how to rank this. If going off of my reaction to it, I think I'd have to invent a new ranking system, something lower than no stars. But if going off of actual merit – it's probably a 3.5-4 (maybe 4.5 star). Read it at your own risk.
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I received this from the people at Blogging for Books in exchange for this review. They probably wish I didn't.

I enjoyed every minute of reading this book. Every minute, which sadly, which was over way too quickly. I was hooked right away, and then a bit confused (I created a character list and still can only count 11 librarians). No matter, this is Carolyn's story. I'm not sure when I realized I was in very capable hands and just relaxed into the story-perhaps after the first chapter. I still can't believe where this tale went. I would put this into the hands of fans of Gaiman, yes, but also fans of Holly Black, Kelly Link, and more masterful storytellers. It is a fantasy novel that forces the reader to ask big questions that is written like a thriller.

Reread in 2019. Still love this book. Still a top 10 Favorite!!!