The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. HackwithMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was good fun! Fans of the show Supernatural and/or Neil Gaiman will appreciate the tropes of dysfunctional and power-hungry angels, an unraveling Heaven, charitable demons, and confused humans. Claire, librarian of Hell's Library of the Unwritten is a good protagonist: deeply flawed, sometimes likeable, and she develops and grows at a good pace. Brevity, former Muse (ha!) turned assistant to the librarian, is a great character, although I found Lisa Flanagan's otherwise excellent voice characterizations a bit trying here. The secure little world in which Claire has been sequestered gets turned upside down with the arrival of Leto, courier for Lucifer, and one of the most loveable characters in the book. Ultimately the three of them are joined by Hero (who probably does the most to help Claire fight her own *figurative* demons), and Andras, Claire's former mentor and a demon archivist. Their travels take them to Seattle, Valhalla, Malta, and beyond in a truly entertaining and multi-dimensional story. The hero's quest, with a lot of switchbacks and figurative boobytraps.
The humor is on point, although occasionally borders on too precious (e.g. "Interworld Loan - IWL" -- library humor!). A minor quibble regarding editing would be the overabundance of the word "worrying" as in "to worry at one's clothes"... it felt like it appeared in every chapter (an exaggeration). While a perfectly acceptable use of the word, there were points where it seemed that most of the characters expressed themselves through "worrying" at their attire. Outside of these minor issues, the writing is solid, and the world-building engaging. I will definitely be putting the next in the series (The Archive of the Forgotten) on my TBR list.
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