Book Reflection: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
This book was…okay. It’s my first Kate Quinn, and I’m not sure this is her usual genre. From the bookstore I work at, it seems she generally sticks to Historical Fiction?
Basically, blah main character Alix has a crappy life and finds herself pulled into another dimension that’s an enormous library, where vulnerable people can be rescued by books (In some cases, literally - the books eat people.).
There’s some kind of cool stuff, where Alix and The Librarian have to go into a Sherlock Holmes book to warn someone who is hiding in that world. But Quinn sticks to our main lame character, not the legendary detective.
My main takeway was the hope that a parallel universe/limbo loophole exists where we can have endless refreshments and stay as long as our TBRs remain unfinished.
HOWEVER!
As I was reading, I kept wondering if Kate Quinn ever read any Jasper Fforde, because hot damn, his series on time-traveling Literary Detective Thursday Next was so creative, clever and unbelievably entertaining.
Best line in the book...
It was the fourth time I'd passed a book floating open in midair all by itself next to the shelves, a page periodically turning.
"Those are the ghosts," the Librarian said, checking something on her green tablet.
"The what now?"
"People who die with too many books on their To Be Read stack sometimes end up here. The ones who don't feel they can pass over until they catch up on their reading."
In The Astral Library, Alix stumbles on a place that is able to both identify and shelter people who need it most, ultimately, letting them choose which stories of old to hide in. (Which was maybe the only other interesting thing about this book - where would you choose to live out your days? The books I read are…not ones I would choose to live in. I would NOT do well in Westeros, but maybe the Practical Magic world?)
Anyway - maybe you read The Astral Library and loved it. Cool! You still need to get your hands on some Jasper Fforde, because it’s hilarious and way better and we all love books about books.
You Should Definitely Read Jasper Fforde’s More Awesome Series on Literary Detective, Thursday Next Instead of The Astral Library
Read This Next
Jasper Fforde’s 8-book series (Book 8 is coming out later this year) takes you into the books to have intereactions with the actual literary characters. Thursday Next has to:
Rescue Jane Eyre from a hostage situation by a criminal who wants the novel to have a miserable ending (Book 1 - The Eyre Affair)
Bring Hamlet to our world because he ‘wants to see what people think of him’ (Book 4 - Something Rotten)
Has to bring evil Jack Schitt back from Poe’s The Raven while being apprenticed to Miss Havisham as part of becoming a Jurisfiction agent (Book 3 - Lost in a Good Book)
Hey look! You can buy this right now from me…
Honorable Mention
*Side note: He has another wicked series, The Nursery Crimes, where Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt has to investigate all inquiries involving nursery rhyme characters and other PDRs (persons of dubious reality).
Check out The Fourth Bear, where Goldilocks goes missing after investigating a hot story on cucumber growers, and DCI Jack Spratt has to find the murderous, psychopathic sadist and cake/biscuit, The Gingerbreadman before he kills again.
Get it here - The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde