If you took Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and put them in a blender, you’d get something like The Library of the Dead. Ropafadzo “Ropa” Moyo is a teenage girl with the power to speak to ghosts. Ropa eeks out a meager business of delivering messages from the ghosts to the Living. Ropa supports her younger sister, Izwi, and her elderly Gran in a caravan home in Edinburgh, Scotland, living in poverty.
When a ghost begs Ropa to find her missing grandson, Ropa initially rejects the plea because the ghost has no way to pay her. But Ropa’s Gran convinces Ropa to search for the missing child. That leads Ropa to the secret Library of magic hidden under David Hume’s tomb and a confrontation with an Evil beyond her powers to contend with.
Although The Library of the Dead is being marketed as a Young Adult novel, there are some disturbing parts of the book that might upset younger readers. I found some of the plot meandering. A good Editor would have tightened up the action. But, all in all, I enjoyed The Library of the Dead. The title page says: Edinburgh Nights Book One–so I’m assuming more volumes in this series are on their way. I’ll read them. Are you a fan of The Hunger Games and Harry Potter? GRADE: B
Not a fan of THE HUNGER GAMES or HARRY POTTER or YA in general—and I gave not voluntarily read YA since I stopped working in a junior high school library in 2010. My daughters are total Potterheads—John read them all the books, they’ve seen all the movies multiple times, and I have fond memories of them dressing up like Hermione and going to the library at midnight when the last book was released—but I’ve managed to avoid reading the books and have only caught the movies in bits and pieces (“Dobby is a free elf!”). Authors & publishers keep trying to catch the Potter magic…but it’s like lightning in a bottle.
Deb, I agree with your “lightning in a bottle” analogy. The Harry Potter books resembled the Beatles phenomenon. THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD works the same side of the street that the Harry Potter books found success. According to AMAZON, the second book in the Edinburgh Nights series, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments , will be published on April 5, 2022.
Not a fan of THE HUNGER GAMES at all and never even saw the movie(s?). I did get caught up in the madness and read the first HP book but never got to the second one. I wasn’t much interested in YA books even when I was a YA myself. The only exception I can think of offhand is the Heinlein juveniles in the 50s.
Michael, like you, I read all the Heinlein juveniles when I as a kid. I occasionally like to read some good YA novels, usually SF or Fantasy.
I read the first HP book and I saw the movie of it. And I saw the movie of the HUNGER GAMES, which was so-so for me. But in general YA is a sort of neither nor thing for me. I guess the best one I’ve read was THE BOOK THIEF although I had trouble with its attitude toward the German people.
Although I am finding the animated series BLUEY on Disney delightful. A father who plays with his children. What a novelty on film.
Patti, I’ll have to check out BLUEY. I played games with Patrick and Katie, but I preferred reading to them.
For some reason I kept humming the song “Chattanogga Huchu” — er, I mean “Choo-choo” while reading this post. I’ve liked some halfway decent YA and this one sounds interesting, but thumbs down on HUNGER GAMES and a wavering thumbs up on Harry Potter.
Jerry, I’m surprised (but I really shouldn’t be) that the Korean TV series on Netflix, SQUID GAME, is a major hit program. SQUID GAME is an extension of THE HUNGER GAMES so obviously there’s an audience for this type of gladiatorial game.
I’m obsessed with Harry Potter and can’t wait for the 3rd Fantastic Beasts movie in April (it might get me back into movie theaters).
Not a Hunger Games fan but my sister likes them.
I think I have an ARC of this so will dig it out. Unfortunately, with many of these “spin-offs,” the first book might be respectable but the author can’t sustain it into a series.
Beth, spin-offs–whether in books or movies or TV shows–struggle to project even a fraction of the original source material. Readers and viewers know that. However, the most anticipated streamed series is HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, the prequel to GAME OF THRONES on HBO and HBO Max later in 2022.
If you’re going to say “ some disturbing parts of the book that might upset younger readers”, you need to be more specific. Other than that, I’m not a ghost story fan, so this would be a skip for me.
Never was a fan of juvenile SF (Heinlein for e was borderline – 60 years ago) and Fantasy is a no no for me – unless it has some SF aspects, but even then …
My wife likes Game of Thrones however what I call “action fantasy”, she has read all the books and tv series and is waiting for it to continue.
But for example Avatar which we tried to watch on tv was so boring and the tricks so abominable that after half an hour we switched of our tv.
Wolf, AVATAR 2 is due to be released in 2022, perhaps as a Summer Movie. The movie with the highest anticipation is BLACK PANTHER 2…with a November release date.
The only thing I know about Game of Thrones is that it exists! I’ve read all of the Pottter books and seen the movies, mainly because my daughter Kristine was crazy about them! The only thing that might turn me off about the book you reviewed here are the names. I can’t stand reading a book with names that are weird and hard to pronounce!
Bob, Science Fiction and Fantasy writers seem to prefer odd names.
Yes, but Potter fan (though not in Beth’s league) and also a (moderate) fan of The Hunger Games (books and movies). Also have no problem with books about people talking to the dead (Dean Koontz, Stephen King have both written those), so I might well try this.
Jeff, the only books I’ve read set in Edinburgh have been crime novels. Now, there’s THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD with a sequel on the way.
Couldn’t get past the first few chapters of the first Potter novel, seeing it as a weak imitation of Roald Dahl, so you can count me a non-fan there (have never sat through a Potter film); wasn’t too impressed with but didn’t dislike the first HUNGER GAMES film (clearly, after WINTER’S BONE, Jennifer Lawrence was the go-to actress for skinning squirrels) and haven’t tried to read any, in fact have barely read any YA since about age 10 or so…and disturbing aspects didn’t put me off (JOHNNY TREMAINE, THE LONER and JULIE OF THE WOLVES, all Newbery winners or runners-up, had some ugly violence to them, and were among my favorites). Also never a big fan of the Heinlein juveniles (TIME FOR THE STARS had annoying aspects and dissuaded me from others after the first chunk of STAR LUMMOX/THE STAR BEAST did little for me) but did like L’Engle’s first two (more Newbery love) and other YA sf, such as Gordon Dickson’s.
This sounds interesting. On a par with, say, A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA?
Todd, A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA is a couple steps above THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD. But both books deal with magical systems which fascinate me.