The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

This book was something else.

I picked this up at the library mainly because I saw it mentioned on twitter by a pretty fantastic author Victoria Schawb (her latest book This Savage Song I'm sure you've heard about). She said it was one of the best books she's read lately so of course, when I spotted it in the flesh, I took it home to read.

According to my library, this book is science fiction. Part of me agrees and part of me doesn't think this is like any science fiction I've read before. It feels a little more fantasy with some mystery to me, but what do I know!

It's hard to explain the story to you so I'm not going to try. It's more than what the cover says it is, but it's so hard to explain even that. I suggest you look this one up online if you are curious.

Right off the bat, the very first sentence had me hooked. I had to know what was going on, I had to know more, I needed to read the whole thing. You're thrown into a story, almost in the middle, and you are to just follow along, believing everything you are told as a fact. This book shows you a different look on the world, on life in general, and takes you on a journey of the strange and different. Of strange and different characters, with strange and different paths in life.

There's murder, violence, love, friendship, magic, gods, power, family... everything. There is everything.

Some of it was hard to read and I did skip over a couple pages here and there but it's so worth the read. It's so weird and different that reading it is a totally different experience. It's the kind of book that you enjoy reading, but that you come out the other side of not knowing if you really like it, if you know what I mean. I am so glad I read it, and I would totally recommend it, but its a little darker and tougher of a read than most.

Apparently this is the first book by this author and holy crap, that's one hell of a first book. The way it was finished leads me to hope that there may be a second book which would be totally great because I have so many questions!

Recommendation: Read this. Just... read it. Honestly, it's nuts and weird and strange and great all at the same time. Do yourself a favour and just read it.