The Invisible Library

Genevieve Cogman

Completed 7/7/2018, Reviewed 7/7/2018

3 stars

Books about books and libraries are always fun.  This one is no exception.  The Invisible Library is about a librarian who travels to alternate dimensions to find rare books, books that only exist in that one dimension, not across multiple dimensions.  It mixes steampunk, magic, mystery, and chaotic creatures to create a fun, easy reading experience.  It’s not a great book, and for a time after the opening scene, I felt it was a little meh, but it picks up about halfway through and has an exciting climax. 

Irene is the dimension jumping librarian.  She just comes back from one assignment to find she’s immediately given a new one.  Her job is to retrieve a copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that has an additional tale that only exists in that one dimension.  On this trip, Irene is given a trainee, Kai.  He has a few secrets up his sleeve that aren’t revealed until much later.  The catch in this assignment is that the dimension they must travel to is imbued with chaos, which draws other creatures like the Fae, vampires, and werewolves. 

The basic premise of the book is great.  It’s no wonder that the author is about to release the fifth book in the series.  It lends itself to a myriad of plots retrieving books from different dimensions.  However, I felt that this book suffered in the beginning with a lot of “start-up” issues.   We spend a lot of time with Irene getting to know Kai and getting started in the alternative dimension.  I’m not big on smash ‘em up action books, but there just isn’t that much action in the beginning.  There’s a murder, but it just isn’t that interesting at first.  It doesn’t come together until a bunch of mind-controlled alligators crash a dinner gala. 

The characterization is good.  Irene is the main character and the best drawn.  She’s smart, gutsy, loyal, and funny.  I was disappointed with rest of the characters.  I thought they were fairly one-dimensional.  There was not much to Kai.  I wonder if he becomes more fleshed out in later novels.  Vale, a Sherlock Holmes-ish inhabitant of the alternate dimension, is almost interesting.  He and Irene have several good scenes together.  Of course, there is a villain and an antagonistic librarian who round out the story. 

One thing I liked about the world that Cogman created was that it was steampunk, but not overly so.  There weren’t a lot of bustles and corsets, and women were often engineers.  While there was a Victorian sensibility to the world-building, with deference to ladies’ sensibilities, it wasn’t chokingly misogynistic.

The book starts off great, slows down some, and then picks up about halfway through.  Overall, I liked the book.  It was fun.  I think people who like mysteries will like the book as well.  I give the book three out of five stars.