Review :The Library of the Unwritten By: A.J. Hackwith

In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.
Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing-- a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.
But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell….and Earth.

Yoga when I was younger, in my teens, I read mostly sci-fi, and even today, if I want to escape from reality for a while, I almost always go with a “hard” Sci-Fi or Fantasy. The past few years, though, I swelled the whole hustle culture thingie and read books of self-help and self-development books like crack.

Then the pandemic came, and I was not all that interested in the whole self-help stuff, and I found myself gravitating to hard sci-fi just as I did in my younger years. Although The Library of the Unwritten is not hard sci-fi, it contained enough of the elements that I like to make me want to read it.

I have to admit that before I had started reading, I was iffy about this book. I know it had rave reviews, but we have all had that experience of a book that is all hyped up, but it just didn’t hit you that way. Then you start second-guessing yourself. After that, you vow not to be swayed by the masses and instead stick to your comfort genre. When you find yourself at the end of your rope..trying a new Genre is not advisable. I know I have done that to myself. Earlier in January of 2020, I was diagnosed with Three autoimmune disorders. I tried to suffer through the pain, but I have a shallow threshold, so when my Psoriatic Arthritis flared up, I had a book on a new productive ( i am a productivity nerd) framework. I realized that no matter how many products frames works I read, that would never really help now. Instead, I had to find a way to live and thrive even on the days when just getting out of bed seems my major accomplishment of the day.

BUT with books such as The Library of the Unwritten that “allow” me to escape into a whole new world, I deal with everything much better. The way this is going now, we all could use a little escape.

and now I will tell you what I loved about this book

The library is in Hell.

I grew up right smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, so I figured that all books must be in heaven because we all know that Hell is a pity of unbridled misery, so why WOULD books their ability to entertain be in Hell? Well, friends, these are SPECIAL books. You know how some of us have a story inside of us that wants to be told, but we never get around to writing it.

GUESS WHAT?!?

Those are the books that go to Hell.

The plot is written so well that it sounds believable.

I know I know you are probably thin HOW but all are based on some origin story from the group over the years. If you can broaden your minds, it makes a lot more sense. If you are a person that is Hell-bent on see it the traditional way, then this is not for you. If you are super religious, then the whole sci-fi and fantasy genre is not for you.

That setting tho

I will be honest… I have never thought of Hell the way that the blood describes it. People here in the South always paint Hell as a misery pit and all of that.   The Book of the Unwritten takes a whole new way of describing Hell. Such as “political parties” demons a fall of that. It is easy to see that the author A.J Hckwith went to great lengths to make what is by now to me: is a tired ole trope of all things not perfectly aligned to the western Judo-Christian ways something from Hell.  That top alone gets me soooo mad. I am not going to lie, I was super nervous before reading the book, but you know what? The version of Hell that the A.J Hackwith dreams up had goy to be one of my very faves. The world-building n the book was right on point.

And let us not forget the characters.

The characters seem to be hit or miss with every book. I know some of y’all are asking how I would know what a  well-spoken dialogue as if I were unable to hear one sound If it was pre-2016, you would be right. Still, my trusty implant worked very well, so I was able to hear stuff  (so that you know, my results from the implant is far from average), BUT I soon realized that what I heard from real I’ve human beings is not what a lot of authors wrote. I have since become quite picky about that, so if I say I like the dialogue, then I love the book.

This is going to be in the top ten favorites in December, I can tell.

Rating Report
Writing
Pacing
Cover
Overall: