Ink and Bone
Rachel Caine
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Grade: B
Totally Harry Potter with a big bad library vibe.
In Jess’ world not only did the Library of Alexandria survive it’s pretty much thriving and in charge of absolutely everything. They are the police state and it starts with what knowledge we get to have access to and the myriad of ways they can spy on people. Jess’ has a love for old-fashioned ink books that his family smuggles.
This gets him a prime spot as a student postulant at the library where his family believes he can be a valuable asset even though trouble with the library will having him swinging from a rope. We follow Jess and his new friends through their training with hardcore Christopher Wolfe who has some problems with the library and secrets of his own.
The good: This is a quick easy read. I really enjoyed the chemistry and the friendship between the students and Jess’ budding relationship with Morgan is quite interesting. Her predicament is a main part of the story toward the end and so far I was happy with how it played out. While some of the events where really stretching it there was nothing I couldn’t go with in the end.
The way the library put out information and people read books in the world was very Kindle/ e-reader like to me. There are outside forces such as Burners that want to take down the library and a war in Wales that I didn’t really understand that much…
Hopefully the next books will flesh out some of the world even better. The only real downside for me was the super strong Harry Potter vibes. In my head it was Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson in those roles but then again maybe that was one of the reasons I enjoyed the book.
Recommend: Yes. Overall, strong start. It has the usual first-in-a-series problems but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the characters and I’m looking forward to picking up the next book when it’s released.