The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (Website, Goodreads)Published by Penguin on June 14th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Pages: 352
The first installment of an adventure featuring stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who with librarian spies!
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.
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
I read the summary of this book, and immediately knew that I wanted to give it a read because 1. Parallel Worlds and 2. A book about books and 3. Spy Librarians!
Irene is a spy for the “Library.” The Library collects fiction from the parallel worlds and stores it… Irene and others who work for the Library are sent on missions to collect these works. In this first installment, she’s sent with her mysterious assistant Kai to an alternate London for a specific work. When they arrive, they find that the book has already been stolen and they’re not the only ones who are looking for it. Adding to their challenges is the fact that the London they are in is filled with supernatural creatures and magic. Kai himself is hiding a big fact about himself and Irene isn’t sure who she can or should trust.
I do have to admit that the beginning of this was a bit slow to start, but I think I attribute that to the fact that there is a lot to learn about the Library and those that work for them. I will say that by the end I really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to picking up book 2. I think that my favorite part of this though were the characters that Cogman has created. They were all so unique and fun that I loved getting to know them, and it was so fun seeing them interact and get to know each other along the way too. Irene, our main character, was such a strong, intelligent, and determined woman, and I loved seeing her make her way through this London that is filled with vampires, wizards, werewolves, faeries and so much more!
If you’re looking for an intriguing read with some incredibly unique characters and a Sherlock like plot, then you definitely need to grab this book!
Thank you to the publisher for the copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Recent Comments