The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library series Book 1)
The first in a gripping, adventurous series, The Invisible Library is the astounding debut from Genevieve Cogman.
Irene must be at the top of her game or she’ll be off the case – permanently . . .
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission – to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested – the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene’s new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she’s up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option –the nature of reality itself is at stake.
The Invisible Library is followed by the second title in The Invisible Library series, The Masked City.
Great concept, not brilliantly executed,
I donât think the reader is being deemed too thick to understand it – I think thereâs just a bit too much going on to avoid dropping in great chunks of information. Could some of the explanations not have been more delicately peppered in? Or could things actually have been shown, rather than spoon-fed, to the reader? There were often chunks of explanation or great swathes of characterâs thoughts in the middle of their speech, but by the time Iâd read all that gubbins Iâd usually forgotten what the character was saying in the first place. Sometimes it read like theyâd forgotten, too. I’m not surprised, if they had to think through all that before carrying on the conversation.
Thereâs some humour in it that didnât often hit the mark for me – this, and the sudden bloody violence, didnât seem to quite match the tone of the book. Having said that, there were a few places where I did snort out a bit of a chuckle, and the odd place where I thought the plot or characters were going somewhere particularly interesting.
Weirdly, for a book involving books, and characters for whom grammar is extremely important, the editing in this seems a bit peculiar. Quite a few times the flow is jarred by a sentence which isnât, grammatically, a sentence. I would have thought an editor would have sorted that out, unless the editor put it in.
Iâm afraid I did complain a lot while I was reading this book (loudly, to anyone who was in earshot) and it became more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. It would irritate me, then redeem itself enough to keep reading, then irritate me all over again. Annoyingly, I did finish the book mildly curious as to what might happen next – perhaps if Irene et al are tied to the one alternate world, there might be less explanation going on, if nothing else – but I wonât be rushing to read the next one.
One of my favourite heroines ever,
This is the first in a series, and Iâve already bought the next two books. The fourth, The Lost Plot, comes out in December 2017. Iâm preordering it. And we all know (because I never shut up about it) how much I love an origin story, so Iâm so excited that The Invisible Library is only the beginning. The characters are great â I think I might actually be Irene â and at this point thereâs potential to ship pretty much anyone, though no real romantic subplot, which I really loved. Itâs still all potential, and for me thatâs the most exciting part of any series. I mean, given that the characters spent most of the book trying not to get arrested/drowned/have their skin peeled off/be enchanted by malicious Fae⦠There was a lot going on.
Irene is an interested character. Sheâs practically grown up in the Library (a place outside of dimensions and time which stores fiction from alternate worlds and Librarians), so her commitment to its cause of fiction preservation is unquestioning. But she does question â mentally, at least â the motives of the Library itself, and of senior Librarians who are absolutely manipulating her and her junior peers. Her co-operation with Vale, the Sherlock Holmes-esque private detective, as they try to uncover a stolen book in his alternate, forces her to look more closely at her own motivations, and that of the Library. Iâm interested to see how her loyalty is tested in further books. I think sheâs probably one of my favourite heroines ever.
Representation:
One Chinese MC, one MC is possibly bisexual? Iâm reserving declaration until Iâm sure⦠One of the side characters is an Indian detective, another is an amputee.
Captivating and great fun,
This is a series that I very nearly overlooked! Iâm so glad I didnât. This was a really good book and I enjoyed it so much that I picked up The Masked City immediately and Iâm now loving that too! Genevieve Cogman where have you been hiding? Never mind, Iâve found you now and itâs all good.
Prepare for gushing.
The Invisible Library is a bibliophileâs dream come true â and that holds true in terms of both the book itself and the invisible library from within the pages. Where should I start â just everything! Okay, the library itself â it is a strange place that not just anybody can enter â only initiated librarians or apprentices. Itâs huge, think the tardis, from within itâs walls you can open a door to an infinite number of alternate worlds and any number of possibilities and, wait for it, when within the confines of the library, the librarians donât age! OMG â where is this library, Iâve packed my spotted hanky and Iâm going.
The plot. Irene is a librarian. The purpose of the librarians, in a nutshell, is to enter alternate universes and secure rare books and return them to the library so that they can be copied or preserved for all time. Basically, Irene opens door to all sorts of worlds, steals in, steals the book (or buys it) and steals back out. The entryways in and out are a little like the doors in Howlâs Moving Castle and are activated by a secret and magical language that the librarians use. At the start of the story Irene is sent to an alternate London to retrieve a book, unfortunately, upon arrival it appears that the book is already missing. Accompanied by a new apprentice called Kai the two now need to pick up the trail of the missing book. Of course, their search is hampered by a number of others who also appear to be on the search and pretty soon there are secret societies, clockwork alligators, fae and much more dangerous foe seeking to throw obstacles in the way.
So, the setting. The possibilities here are endless and I really hope that this means we have plenty more books to look forward to. This is such a great, fun and easy read. For this particular story we travel to Victorian London but here we find Vampires, Werewolves, fae and steampunk all combined.
In terms of characters. I like Irene. Sheâs intelligent and resourceful. Donât be misled by her seemingly young age (I think she comes across as about 17 or 18 although Iâm not 100% sure) because in actual fact, given the dynamics of the library and the length of time that Irene has spent there she is in fact older than she looks. Kai is her apprentice. He has led something of a shady past before entering the library and on top of that he has other secrets that are revealed during the course of the book. There is definitely chemistry between these two but it remains at that and the book isnât focused on romance. We meet up with a brilliant detective of the time called Vale who becomes embroiled in the search. We meet one of the fae, called Silver and then we become acquainted with a rogue librarian!
The writing is lovely, the world building really excellent, the pacing is consistent throughout and the plot is thoroughly entertaining. Ms Cogman seems to have crammed a whole wealth of ideas in here and yet, very cleverly, she has still left herself with immense possibilities for future stories. On top of that, sheâs written a story that I think easily crosses over both the YA/Adult audience. A great read, good fun and Iâm hoping this will become a series â I would certainly enjoy learning more about these characters. Oh, and I almost forgot â dragons. That is all
In case you missed the main message. I enjoyed this and would definitely recommend. Itâs not a deep thinking or serious book, itâs not grimdark but it is captivating and really good fun.