Book 27 of 2022

I’ve just finished The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu, the first in his Edinburgh Nights series of books. This is an occult urban fantasy set in a near-future dystopian version of Edinburgh. The central character Ropa is a Scottish-Zimbabwean young girl, making a living by carrying messages between ghosts and the living. And in the book she gets caught up in way much more.

I enjoyed this a lot. The lead character is sparky and well rounded, and the dystopian version of Edinburgh is well described, and highly original, yet still very much urban fantasy as we know it. The plot zips along nicely, and the reader follows Ropa hunting for missing children, discovering a massive underground occult library, and fighting terrible horrors.

Two things brought my score down though. Firstly the underground occult library called out to me masses, but is frustratingly little explored here after its introductions. I gather it will be fleshed out more in the sequel book.

The other thing is that I found the horror in the middle section too unnerving for me to be happy reading. I was happy when that bit had passed! But then I suppose that is to an extent the measure of good writing, to affect the reader.

A strong 3/5 from me, and I will definitely read the sequel.