Edinburgh Nights, Book 1: Library of the Dead

E. Hawes: What a fun and slightly disturbing adventure with a unique perspective!
A bit of dystopia, magic, horror, friendship and the paranormal all mixed into one.

United States on Oct 11, 2023

Amazon Customer: A different kind of fantasy, the classic underdog but with a twist. A lot of unanswered mysteries, open avenues to be explored in future books. A more komplex and promising storyline :) Love the cutie fox.

Germany on Sep 17, 2023

A RobertsKindle Customer: There's absolutely no way to summarize this so here goes....

I made the mistake of finishing another book and rolling right into this one and was unprepared for the emotional impact. Had me reeling and the dissonance was harsh. But after a sufficient pause I came back to this story and was sucked in. So, its after the Great War, which is the result of climate change, greed, and otherworldly shtuff, and Ropa is a teenage dropout whose brilliant mind is consumed with the day to day reality of providing for her Gran and sister, making sure her equally brilliant sister goes to school, doing her job of running messages between the living and the dead, and listening to podcasts on every subject. In the middle of all this a ghost asks her to find her living son, free of charge, and when she takes this on, her life changes radically.
Not the first time this has happened but it's the first time it's because of her actions.
In a sense this is a coming of age story but really more if a coming into her own story since at her age she's taken on more responsibility than some adults. She's brash, rough edged, cynical. She's also loving, kindhearted, compassionate. At first Ropa...

United States on Aug 24, 2023

Arthur R T Dickey: A fascinating milieu, loads of mysterious back story on the world that is cunningly hinted at but left largely un-explained, a charming viewpoint character, again with visible, yet un-plumbed depths.
Heading straight to the sequel, me 😁

Canada on Jul 14, 2023

Katathome: This book was too good to put down, and I had to keep reading from the very first sentence, to the last.

It has a slightly dark tone to it, and it reminded me strongly of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, that is one of my all-time favourites.

Ropa is in her mid teens, but reacts to all that happens to her, as though she were a fully grown adult, but, although Rivers of London is set in a modern London, with a fully grown adult male as the main character, Peter's reactions to all that he sees and hears were of a similar vein to Ropa - who lives in a rather reduced Edinburgh, in a timeline other than our own.

I imagine that this, plus growing up with a Gran steeped in the mysteries, gives Ropa that advantage.

Ropa really is a strong character, despite her youth and who, although reacting to the 'Otherness' of her life in a rather prosaic manner, makes the reader feel as if she has been tempered by life, in the same way that iron and steel are tempered by fire, to make a blade bend under pressure, rather than shatter.

The way that she protects her ailing Gran, and little sister, is wonderful, though I imagine her Gran hates it that she...

United Kingdom on Mar 05, 2023

TeeMee-Kraftqueen65-Obsessive Reader: Borrowed from the library as a digital loan, and so glad I did.

Well developed characters and plot line. Can see the expansion of the series, even though most of the major dramas that had developed throughout the book were nicely wrapped up.

I was also very pleased to not have the book end with some huge cliffhanger, like so many authors are wont to do.

I'll definitely be anxiously awaiting the 2nd in the series.

I was lost a few times because of some of the British slang that was placed throughout the book. There seems to be a huge influx of British authors being published in the US as of late, in print and digital format. Some of the terms I could figure out, whereas others threw me off center, and I had to actually try and get back into the storyline.

The world building obviously is always a tougher spot for any author to try and develop. This one seemed to give off a vibe of current, and even older eras, with a mix of a future dystopian feel. Made it harder to imagine, as well as trying to continue to roll with the given scene at hand.

Couple of turnoffs for me were the following.
I'm not too sure what age group this is geared...

United States on Jan 20, 2022

Heather @ Just Geeking By: The Library of the Dead was an absolute delight to read from start to finish. Ropa is such a spirited protagonist who lives in the future, an almost dystopian time when the cities have been abandoned. I say “almost” dystopian because the world that Huchu has created is not the apocalyptic future that we usually see in books and films where nuclear war or disease has decimated the world. It’s almost subtle changes at first that give it away. People still live in houses with all the mod cons we take for granted, it’s only when Ropa has an altercation with the police, and she refers to the motorised vehicles they used to have that I realised we’re not in Kansas any more Toto!

Huchu doesn’t make a huge deal about what happened, and I’ll admit that I struggled with that a bit as I read The Library of the Dead. As a reader I like a clear picture of what is happening, what has happened and where we are. I kept trying to put the pieces together, scrambling for crumbs of information, and it’s only now as I sit down to write this review that I realised why there’s so little information about the before time; it doesn’t matter. I don’t know whether Huchu thought...

United Kingdom on Dec 21, 2021

carriele1216: 3.5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book and so I found it difficult to rate!

The good:

1. Love the main character Ropa. She's feisty, street smart, loves her family, sassy, and bold. So much potential there but the story itself held me back from fully connecting with her.

2. The book is creative and imaginative. Set in Scotland, the reader gets glimpses of the culture and environment and that's really cool. It's difficult to narrow down a point in time. It seems almost post apocalyptic and yet in some ways also set in the past. The vibe is good though. The reader gets a clear picture of the dreary world Ropa lives in and the struggles she endures to survive but also sees the disparity in that others have wealth and a much easier time.

3. The premise of a Library of the Dead is a good one. The set up is cool and the location and how to get into the library is even better.

The bad:

1. I'm not sure what the target audience was for this book. In many ways, it seemed too mature for YA. There was a fair amount of profanity (which I realize isn't a deal breaker for YA but using MF and saying "eat my vag" isn't typically language I...

United States on Jul 11, 2021

M Yon: Ah, libraries. Are you one of those people who enter a library almost with a sigh of relief, with a feeling of "coming home"? Even now, when much of my reading is done digitally and with my own physical copies, walking through the doors of such a place makes me smile. Because, you know: books! Untapped knowledge, things to discover, to educate, to entertain, all in one place.

What that also means, I guess, is that a book with a library as a setting already starts with an advantage for me, and I suspect for some others. (Which makes me think: there might be an article in there somewhere...)

TL Huchu’s debut novel not only has a secret library as a place in its pages but is proud enough to have it as the book’s title.

Teenager Ropa Moyo is a precocious girl. She lives with her Gran and her younger sister on a caravan park in some sort of alternative or future Edinburgh. (In some sort of creepy Prisoner-like way the traditional greeting seems to be “God save the king” to which the respondent reply is “Long may he reign.”) Her background seems rather typical of many in this future. Having given up on school, but independent enough to realise that she...

United Kingdom on Mar 13, 2021