Narrator: Emily Ellet Publication Date: June 4, 2019 Format Read: Audiobook Audiobook Length: 14 hours and 20 minutes Page Length: 457 pages My Rating: 3 / 5 stars Links: Amazon | Apple Books | Audible | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads |...
Narrator: Emily Ellet
Publication Date: June 4, 2019
Format Read: Audiobook
Audiobook Length: 14 hours and 20 minutes
Page Length: 457 pages
My Rating: 3 / 5 stars
Links: Amazon | Apple Books | Audible | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads | Google Play | Kobo | Libro.fm
SYNOPSIS
From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an “enthralling adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom.
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.
REVIEW
I don’t really pick up that many new-to-me YA books to read these days. Not that there aren’t a lot of options or a wealth of books to choose from, definitely more than the years when I was consistently reading them. But sometimes I feel like I’ve grown out of them, which is why it’s taken me so long to go back to Margaret Rogerson. I read her debut, An Enchantment of Ravens, ages ago and all I remember is that I LOVED it. Well, my library had these books in audio and I decided to reread An Enchantment of Ravens and then I picked up this one as well.
I’m glad I waited to read this book until after the follow-up novella, Mysteries of Thorn Manor, came out. Because if you told me the ending for this book ends like THAT, I would have been so mad. I’m really not a big fan of ambiguous and open-ended endings anymore, so I’m just glad there is a follow-up novella that leaves the characters on a happier, more final note.
This book is magical, mysterious, and romantic. It contains magic and deals with demons and I adore the characters. The audiobook narration is probably the worst thing about this book, so if you’re able to, I would highly recommend reading this book by text instead and skipping the audiobook entirely. Unless you’re fine with someone whispering in your ear the whole time (if you wear headphones). It drove me up the wall.
Content notes include violence, murder/death, mentions of a parent dying before the start of the book, women being labeled as “hysterical” and put away in a hospital, abuse, and being buried beneath rubble.
The beginning was a little slow. We meet 16-year-old Elisabeth Scrivener at the Great Library of Summershall. She grew up amongst the magical books of the Great Library, books that seem to have a mind of their own. She’s a librarian and hopes to one day become a warden. It has only ever been her goal in life, but like the blurb says, when she’s wrongfully accused of murder and a traitor to the Great Library, she is forced out. She gets escorted away by a magister/sorcerer, 18-year-old Nathaniel, and his demon companion/servant, Silas. They are escorting Elisabeth to the Magisterium to stand in a trial of sorts in front of the sorcerers’ government.
I think what makes this book fun for me is that Elisabeth FIGHTS. She can wield swords and actually hold her own in a battle. I didn’t know a book about libraries and books was going to have so much fighting, but there is. And I am glad for it because fantasy books with fighting is totally my thing. I’m not sure if I missed it or if it was addressed at all, but where and how did Elisabeth learn to fight like she does? Just a magical property from living with books and she subconsciously gained that knowledge? I don’t know.
Nathanial is an…interesting character. I didn’t know what to make of him at first. Coming from An Enchantment of Ravens (the books are not related in any way), it’s weird to see a love interest who is so close in age to the MC. I’ve come to like him more as the book progressed, but I do wish we had chapters from his POV too. The story is told entirely from Elisabeth’s POV.
Then there’s the best side character Silas. I loved him from the start, and no I did NOT ship him with anyone, I just think Silas is a FUN character and someone who could be best friends with Elisabeth. Elisabeth also has a friend at the Great Library called Katrien, who I actually really love a lot as well, but we don’t see much of her due to Elisabeth’s circumstances. However, we do get to see and hang out with Silas a lot in this story and I loved every second he showed up.
This audiobook is narrated by Emily Ellet, and let me just say, choices were made and not good ones. I don’t know who approved this and the story does say Silas is soft spoken, but should that be translated LITERALLY to the audiobook? NO. People need to actually be able to HEAR the audio, to hear the story, shouldn’t they? The narrator decides to whisper all of Silas’ lines and pitch her voice so quiet, that I had headphones on and I could barely hear the audiobook narration. The narrator is an absolute menace for going this route. There’s also an odd accent used in this book for the characters that seems to come and go in the audio, with no consistency. But the whispering is definitely my biggest issue.
Also, there’s a lot of obvious pick ups made in the narration, which is when narrators have to go back and insert corrected lines that might’ve been missed and messed up the first time narrating? The drop in audio snippets are SUPER obvious and it’s very bad editing. I don’t know who dropped the ball with this audiobook, but dropped they were.
The last fight scene was a disappointment, but mostly because I feel like a certain someone should’ve been killed WAY earlier. The moment was right there for Elisabeth to murder them and the whole plot didn’t have to keep dragging on (the whispering in the audiobook narration had really gotten on my last nerves at that point) and everything could’ve been solved earlier, and the story shorter. I also don’t understand why the last scene where 
redacted takes the reins and fights, why don’t we see that scene at all? The story just fades out right before the epilogue and we could’ve had a whole fight scene there! That bothered me a lot. It was like we were gearing up for an even bigger showdown…and nothing. Cut scene. We’re dropped into the epilogue and we don’t even know who’s alive or who’s dead until a way’s in and it was very disorienting. Add to the epilogue, the most unsatisfying ending I’ve read in awhile, it just felt like the author was pressed for time and had to end the book quickly.
This book on its own is entertaining and I like the characters. It was just the VERY end where I just did not like it, and I’m just very fortunate that the novella following this can act as an extended epilogue of sorts to give me the happy ending I was searching for. I highly recommend having Mysteries of Thorn Manor ready to read as soon as you finish this book, and maybe skip the audiobook. You’d be better off without it.