children are abducted by a powerful man and are tasked with learning his collected knowledge of the earth's secrets. The second third had me gushing thinking I had a new book for my top 10 - I couldn't put it down! So much was happening and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next! The dogs! Lions! Hostages! Erwin! All great. Then it all went dark (literally) and I was so excited for what was going to happen next... I'm good. Still clearing my head. Thanks, though." She stretched her face into something like a smile. i think my obstacle is that with MR and slipstream, things are only just slightly tweaked, and what i relish is that unsettling feeling - that the possibility for fantastical occurrences is present, but there's still something concrete and recognizable to ground me.

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. Carolyn’s life changed forever when she was 8. That was the year her ordinary suburban subdivision was destroyed and the man she now calls Father took her and 11 other children to study in his very unusual Library. Carolyn studied languages—and not only human ones. The other children studied the ways of beasts, learned healing and resurrection, and wandered in the lands of the dead or in possible futures. Now they’re all in their 30s, and Father is missing. Carolyn and the others are trying to find him—but Carolyn has her own agenda and her own feelings about the most dangerous of her adopted siblings, David, who has spent years perfecting the arts of murder and war. Carolyn is an engaging heroine with a wry sense of humor, and Steve, the ordinary American ally she recruits, helps keep the book grounded in reality despite the ever growing strangeness that swirls around them. Like the Library itself, the book is bigger, darker, and more dangerous than it seems. The plot never flags, and it’s never predictable. Hawkins has created a fascinating, unusual world in which ordinary people can learn to wield breathtaking power—and he’s also written a compelling story about love and revenge that never loses sight of the human emotions at its heart. When we are introduced to a couple of characters from the real world, both Hawkins strengths and weaknesses begin to show. Like James Herbert or Stephen King, Hawkins is able to give a short but intensive character portrait and history making the worlds of his human characters as rich as that the Pelapi. I also really admired the way he was able to show the Pelapi through seemingly every day human eyes, and show just how twisted even the nicest of them are, Carolyn most definitely included. There are unending cruelties here. Psychotic families. Insane political machinations. Weird magic. Surprising twists. As awful as it may sound, I enjoyed reading this book! Not because I am beyond help, but the story is very enticing. It will grip you and hold you hostage until you get to the end. I am absolutely amazed by what I have just read, and I'm bumping this one up to one of my top ten novels of all time. It's just that good.

Check-In

The ending is very satisfying – things are somehow fully explained without completely closing the door on the option for a sequel, if the author can figure out a few small details. (There is no sequel announced but the author has not ruled out the possibility.) I would take a sequel, though, if anyone’s asking. And I wouldn’t let it sit for nearly 2 years on my TBR list. Ohhh . . ." the old guy said vaguely. "Right." He glanced at her legs in a way that wasn't particularly fatherly. "Sure you don't want a lift? Buddy don't mind, do ya?" He patted the fat dog in the seat next to him. Buddy only watched, his brown eyes feral and suspicious.

An extravagant, beautifully imagined fantasy about a universe that is both familiar and unfamiliar. . . . Hawkins makes nary a misstep in this award-worthy effort of imagination.You won’t be able to put it down.” — Booklist(starred review)

Develop

The The Library does none of that. Confusion cannot be productive if you have absolutely no idea what is going on! And, it's not absurdity when everything can happen, because there are no rules, no internal validity. The Library is such a messy hodge-podge, it doesn't really inspire new understanding. Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible. In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power. Sometimes they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God. Now Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library - and with it power over all of creation. unusual alliances are formed, there is a great deal of violence (for those of you with triggers - many animals are harmed. people, too - scores of them - but i know a lot of readers are more sensitive to animal deaths, so be warned), and the story is not at all concerned with who the reader may have become attached to - this is a harsh realm.