A J. Hackwith does sound really interesting and unique worldbuilding here. While the story felt a little slow at first, the pace picked up nicely and was well maintained for the last 80ish%. I really hope we get to explore some additional realms in the next books and learn a bit more about the magic systems as a lot of the 'magic' in this book felt very convenient at times with no real explanation of the rules (except for the blue flame lighters!) ( )

A very cute book. A bit different than the usual librarian trope. It didn't hook me as deeply as I would have liked, but it was still a fun read and I'll try the next one. ( )

This was good fun! Fans of the show Supernatural and/or Neil Gaiman will appreciate the tropes of dysfunctional and power-hungry angels, an unraveling Heaven, charitable demons, and confused humans. Claire, librarian of Hell's Library of the Unwritten is a good protagonist: deeply flawed, sometimes likeable, and she develops and grows at a good pace. Brevity, former Muse (ha!) turned assistant to the librarian, is a great character, although I found Lisa Flanagan's otherwise excellent voice characterizations a bit trying here. The secure little world in which Claire has been sequestered gets turned upside down with the arrival of Leto, courier for Lucifer, and one of the most loveable characters in the book. Ultimately the three of them are joined by Hero (who probably does the most to help Claire fight her own *figurative* demons), and Andras, Claire's former mentor and a demon archivist. Their travels take them to Seattle, Valhalla, Malta, and beyond in a truly entertaining and multi-dimensional story. The hero's quest, with a lot of switchbacks and figurative boobytraps.

The humor is on point, although occasionally borders on too precious (e.g. "Interworld Loan - IWL" -- library humor!). A minor quibble regarding editing would be the overabundance of the word "worrying" as in "to worry at one's clothes"... it felt like it appeared in every chapter (an exaggeration). While a perfectly acceptable use of the word, there were points where it seemed that most of the characters expressed themselves through "worrying" at their attire. Outside of these minor issues, the writing is solid, and the world-building engaging. I will definitely be putting the next in the series (The Archive of the Forgotten) on my TBR list. ( )

See the full review and more here!

Recommended: Yes!
For a world full of creative systems and imaginings, for a a breakneck adventure that goes between realms and countries, for the best trip to Hell or a library you'll probably ever have

Thoughts:
So if I liked it so much, why not five stars? I just want to get this out of the way so I can gush about everything I loved. I didn't feel very attached to the characters, for whatever reason. There was plenty done to build them, it just didn't click for me. Rami and Hero were my faves, but even then it was still a bit lukewarm. Claire did nothing for me, and with her being our main leading lady, that took away from it a bit.

But you know what made this OUTSTANDING? So many things. Let's see if I can cram them all in here. Most importantly, the wildly creative imaginings of systems. By that, I mean things like how and why there's a library in Hell, how to get between the different realms of belief, how and why unwritten books awaken into their characters, what happens when you die... y'all, this got serious. The cleverness and creativity that went into so many aspects of the worlds we see blew me away, and more impressively, there didn't seem to be any plotholes or gaps in the designs that exposed them as untrue. I could solidly believe that there's a library in Hell.

I had so much fun exploring the details of this book. While it was funnier than I had expected, and significantly less dark and violent (for something set in Hell and about the Devil's Bible, who knew?), it was still a powerful adventure. There was darkness in it, but more of the personal kind. I mean, remember, Claire did end up in Hell. There's a reason for that.

Also, this whole book should make you commit to finishing every story ever no matter how badly. Don't leave your poor characters to rot!!! Nanowrimo folk, I'm looking at you! ( )

Excellent, libraries, fantasy, books ( )