Book Review: The Library of the Dead

Book: The Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights book #1) by T.L. Huchu

Cover Art and Design by Leo Nickolls

Edition: Paperback

Description:

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 begin to whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's in Ropa's city, 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.





Rating: 5 stars

Review:

The Library of the Dead was a very interesting fast-paced supernatural mystery that's set in Edinburgh, Scotland in a dystopian world as it follows Ropafadzo "Ropa" Moyo who is a ghostalker. What I found so interesting about this story is that in this world the supernatural is just a normal thing and those that have any sort of special ability have a license. And Ropa has a job using her abilities to help ghosts by relaying messages for them in order to help them cross over. Sometimes it quick and simple but other times it might require delivering several messages until the ghost crosses over. It's an interesting job, and she can make a good amount of money, not a lot but enough to help take care of her grandmother and her little sister Izwu (who I believe is in elementary school). Her grandmother also has supernatural abilities and used to do a similar job of helping ghosts. However now she has a few medical issues that make it impossible for her to be out there doing the job. Although Ropa had dropped out of high school, she is a lifelong learner. She seeks out knowledge from reading books and listening to audio books to listening to informative podcasts to reading various information online, she just loves information.

The story alludes to something bad that happened to the world, I wonder if more of this aspect of the story will be explored in the next book or throughout the series. Because I'm interested in knowing how the world ended up the way it did. Despite this being a dystopian world, there are some things that are surprisingly still available: TV, internet and cell phones. Anyway, the mystery in this story centers around missing children. Ropa ended up forgoing her usual ghost messages to try to solve this mystery. At first she wasn't interested when Nicola, a ghost who needed help finding her missing young son Oliver when the ghost wasn't able to pay. And unfortunately, this world has made Ropa and most of the people in it hardened and apathetic in order to get by. However, her grandmother reminded her of kindness and the willingness to help those in need.

The more Ropa looked into Oliver's disappearance, the more questions she had and the more sinister everything was becoming. Especially after she saw Oliver's friend Mark Jankowski who had also gone missing along with Oliver but was found later. As someone who loves learning, her best friend Jomo Maige's new job at a mysterious library would lead to her gaining a new understanding of the supernatural. It was a more academic look at it. She also met a new friend Priyanka "Priya" Kapoor who also has supernatural abilities. But will any of the clues and new information help her find Oliver?

Through out this story, Ropa showed how smart, brave and resourceful she was, while also showing her make both good and bad decisions. One of her worst decisions was when she rushed into a situation without any back up and ended up in a really bad situation. But thankfully, she was able to figure out a way out of such a terrible situation that she was very much trapped in. I thought this was a good story with an interesting mystery that had some dark moments but also some fun ones as well. I really enjoyed reading this, from the beginning to the end, I was completely drawn into the story. After reading this, I can't wait to get the rest of the books in the series.