Parliament looks like a wounded animal sunk on its haunches after the hunt, just before it expires. It was made by a shell from a Challenger tank when separatist MSPs holed up in the building, rejecting the crown’s authority after the restoration. As it turns out, the Scottish dystopia he imagines remains a backdrop to the main plot, but a backdrop that is vividly rendered, with brief descriptions that indicate a much more intricate history that I’m sure we’ll discover more about in later books in this series: ‘ The concrete walls of the now-old “new Parliament” are marked with graffiti, and there’s a gaping hole through the main entrance, called “the king’s knock”. When I heard that The Library of the Dead was not only an urban supernatural novel but a dystopian one, I wasn’t sure whether Huchu would be able to handle all of these elements in the same novel. However, when a ghost appeals to her to find out what happened to her young son, who has mysteriously vanished, Ropa finds herself becoming involved in a dangerous mystery that will take her beneath the streets of Edinburgh and into the Library of the Dead. Her interactions with the dead tend to be short and sweet – after all, the more messages from the afterlife she can pass onto grieving relatives, the more money she can make, and she has to support her gran and little sister. I highly recommend The Library of the Dead.TL Huchu’s debut novel, The Library of the Dead, one of my most anticipated 2021 releases, is narrated by a fourteen-year-old Scottish-Zimbabwean girl called Ropa who can talk to ghosts. Genevieve Cogman, bestselling author of The Invisible Library Ben Aaronovitch, bestselling author of Rivers of LondonĪn absolute delight. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?Ī fast-moving and entertaining tale, beautifully written. And although underground Edinburgh hides a wealth of dark secrets, she also discovers an occult library, a magical mentor and some unexpected allies.
Ropa will dice with death as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues.
It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children - leaving them husks, empty of joy and strength. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker - and they sure do love to talk. Huchu's The Library of the Dead, a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.
0 kommentar(er)
