Oh my god, how can I categorise this book? It has EVERY genre EVER inside. At first I didn't like it, like the first couple of chapters, but I don't think I was giving it my full attention. As soon as I did, I loved it. It's terribly violent with horrific acts of cruelty inflicted on children, animals and adults but it is also light hearted and sad, and when it's over and you've dried that tear falling down your cheek, you'll still not fully know what the hell it was you just read. If I had to do the comparison it would be if Donnie Darker and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind shared a house with Hardboiled and Avengers!
Carolyn is a librarian of sorts and a master of languages, she lives with her siblings who each have a skill, some of them helpful skills some of them are bad, violent, cruel skills. But when their "father goes missing" she will have to enlist the help of normal Americans to help put the next stage of the plan into action. What that plan is though, they're not sure of yet. But what does happen is not easy and a lot of people are going to lose their lives along the way. This is quite possibly one of the hardest books to describe that I've ever read (by the way....)

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is exciting, ambitious, intriguing and unique and I loved every word.
Trying to categorize this book is something of an exercise in futility, it blends humour, fantasy and horror into something memorable and thought provoking.
Carolyn was once an American girl like any other, but that was a long long time ago, before the mysterious Father chose her and a handful of other children to become his apprentices. In his reality defying library that exists in a universe parallel to this one, each of the child apprentices dedicates their lives to studying a single subject. For Carolyn it is languages- all of them from the modern to the ancient, for David it is warfare , power and might, while for Jennifer it is healing. On pain of death they are forbidden to discuss their catalogues, or areas of study with each other , and even though Father has the power of resurrection that is no idle threat as he is more than willing to teach them very painful lessons before killing them and starting again. When Father disappears , Carolyn and the rest of the librarians know that his enemies are coming , but she has a plan to protect the Library and all its secrets no matter the consequences
This is an epic story filled with action and adventure, but also with mystery and intrigue. As the layers of the story unfold the reader is drawn deeper and deeper into a complex web of characters and timelines which somehow comes together seamlessly ,surprisingly and so so satisfyingly at the end. I realise that I am being vague but honestly I think the best way to experience this book is to just dive in, the less you know the better.
Carolyn is a fascinating character, full of contradictions and rage and yet completely engaging .and towards the end of the book I felt my heart break for her , for everything she had been through and the choices forced upon her.
This is a book that is going to stay with me for a long time, and one that I already know I will revisit and enjoy just as much if not more .
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

A very difficult book to review; all I can say is strange but enthralling. A really unique but enchanting book that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

A strange book for me. There is plenty of good points in the novel with plenty of good characterisation however I just really struggled to get far into the book. I’m not sure what was holding it back but I have my star rating based on what I did read.

What a wild ride this book is. For a good portion of this I had absolutely no idea where it was going, and that was absolutely fine with me; I was just very happy to be along for the ride.

I have had my eye on this one for so long; I've heard so many reviews (both positive and negative) that convinced me this is Exactly the sort of book I'd love. Somehow it still sat on my tbr for much too long, and I really should have listened and picked this up sooner. It was absolutely written for me.

We have characters full of sass, unique and individual and I'm obsessed with them all. A world that is strange and unusual. And a plot that is unpredictable and chaotic.

This is a hugely creative and imaginative book. Take your time with it, go with the flow, let it sink in even when you have no clue what's going on, and you will be rewarded with a hugely satisfying read. Highly recommend!

“Step into the darkness with me, child... I will make of you a God.”

The Library at Mount Char had become a bit of a TBR-resident, as a book I’ve been equal parts interested and intimidated by since its release. I had heard a lot of mixed things, mainly complaints about the story being too weird and hard to get into, leading me to put it off for so long. Let me tell you: I was doing myself a disservice, as this was my kind of weird. It all begins with a missing God, his not-quite-human daughter, and a regular Joe (actually named Steve) framed for his murder… What follows is a tale that is fast paced, dark, delicious and wholly unique in world, characters and story. I absolutely loved this wild ride from start to finish.

Hawkins shows an incredible amount of confidence and trust in the reader from the get-go, dropping you off in medias res and leaving you little time to acclimatize to the bizarre world that is unfolding around you. No time is wasted on introductions, or explaining the rules to this strange pantheon of demi-gods he’s created, and the metaphysical game of 6D-chess they’ve been caught up in for decades. Instead he introduces the game: incomprehensible universal power. He introduces the players: the Pelapi, children of the library, each with a unique “catalogue” of skills, and each a little less (or should I say more>) than human themselves. He drops you in alongside his favourite pawn and let’s you figure the rest out for yourself.
It's a risky choice (especially for a debut author!) but when done well it’s my favourite way of “worldbuilding”. And done well it was; like many other readers I was often confused, but never lost and always intrigued to see where the story would go next.

“Are you a Buddhist?” “No. I’m an asshole. But I keep trying.”

Apart from the plot and the world, what makes this book so memorable is its completely bonkers cast of characters. None of which are your typical fantasy-hero, and all of which you’ll either love to hate or hate to love. Take David; the hulking embodiment of combat, war and violence, all wrapped up in a pink tutu. Or Jenifer; the gentle-hearted healer who dips into her own medicine a bit too often to soothe her own pain. Or Carolyn; master of all languages (human and otherwise), who still fails spectacularly at actual communication. Or Naga; who is a moody lion… No literally; one of our more likable protagonists is an actual lion.
Their interactions lead to a number of absurdist situations and dialogues that in the hands of another author might have become too cookie but, in Hawkins’ quick and effortless voice, were genuinely funny.
My two complaints that robbed the book of its final half-a-star for me came to light near the end. Firstly, the final “reveal” hinges upon some wonky character-motivation that I couldn’t really understand. Secondly, and sort of following from the first one: there’s quite a lot of violence inflicted upon the (female) characters in this story, some of which is “in the name of character-motivation”. It’s something I generally dislike, and this teetered very close to the edge there. I'm chosing to keep this review spoiler-free here, but you can find a spoiler-section within my Goodreads review if you want to know more of these issues.

“Your affection is not meaningless to me, puny one. I shall devour you another day.”

I’m ending my review on this quote, as it feels fitting. The Library at Mount Char is a book that doesn’t need or care for my affection and praise. It is what it is, confident in its own unique and possibly marmite character. To me it was the right kind of strange. Only one way to find out if it’s yours too…

Many thanks to Titan Books for providing me with a finished copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I received an eARC from the publishers through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.

Wow what a roller coaster. First I was I abit bored and with the feeling of WTF! But then it got interesting, cause its unpredictable and you do not know what will happen. But stikke with a feeling of wtf is going on.

The book is crazy but brilliant. And I will deffently recoment it to people that can take abit crazy books that ain't for the faint hearted.

So all in all I felt very intertained, and therefor my rating.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this story. It has a very bizarre plot that might not sit well with everyone but it is definitely a fascinating read. From the blurb, I imagined the story to be some dark, whimsical library plot but I was very far from the truth.

This story follows Carolyn who lives with her siblings in a library. This is no ordinary library and they are no ordinary siblings. Each sibling is tasked with a section of the library and Carolyn’s specialty is in languages. They are taken care by a person they call ‘Father’ who seemed to be a powerful figure and has a hold over them. When ‘Father’ went missing, Carolyn and her siblings went on a mission to find him but they stirred up a great deal of trouble along the way which is terrifying in the presence of everyday life America.

I had no clue what was going on in the plot till halfway through because there were so many things going on at the same time? The author also just throws you into the story with no prior context so I had to piece together the plot as I am reading which really kept me engaged throughout. And it made much more sense when everything is revealed at the end.

Thank you Netgalley and Titan Books for the arc.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me - nothing against the author, but it was more of a horror fantasy novel than I was expecting! I was intrigued and the writing was very good (so definitely worth checking out if you like a healthy dose of the weird and macabre), but didn't make it very far in as it just wasn't my taste at all

There's no info dump with this story, and whilst most people hate them, I find them sometimes a necessary and acceptable evil. In the case of The Library At Mount Char I probably would have preferred a little more upfront explanation.
Honestly to begin with I was pretty lost and confused! There are a lot of characters to grasp and with minimal description aside from their names I struggled to keep them in place.

Father is missing. This is where we begin. With Carolyn covered in blood and hiding a knife on her journey to meet the other 'librarians' (12 orphaned children adopted to become students of one godly power each) and discuss their search efforts.
A search that explores the present and future, living and dead, human and animal. It seems that Father could be anywhere, anything, anyone. For atleast a third of the book I had absolutely no idea what I was reading.. but I was enjoying it even so!

Hawkins imagination is impressive, I guarantee you've never read a tale quite like this before! Once I began to pull the strands together it was refreshing to find such a unique plot.
I especially liked the communication and bond between humans and animals, as ever the found family is also a beloved trope of mine- more so in this case where not all the orphaned 'librarians-' are aligned.

The majority of Mount Char centres on Carolyn's scheming, a truly strange librarian with unknowable intentions and Steve her unwilling criminal accomplice. We learn of the librarian world through Steve's experience, I quickly became invested in his character and preferred his timeline, possibly because it was easier to understand!

To enjoy The Library At Mount Char you have to just run with it. Don't try to figure out the whys or hows. Don't expect everything to be neatly explained. Definitely don't expect to make any sense of it until the very end.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope that the ending is cause for a sequel.

The creativity of this book was fantastic. I was hooked as soon as I started reading. Every time a new story arc/flashback or character was introduced I was immediately interested and not annoyed that the subject has changed.

I felt it did get pretty wild at times and a lot of time was devoted to the tiger which I don’t think really needed to be.

As the blurb tells us, Carolyn is not so different from other humans – and indeed, she used to be a normal American kid, 25 years and once upon a time ago. Because time moves differently in the library, and after she and a dozen other children were ‘adopted’ by the… man?… they know as Father, she’s had time enough to learn every language. *Every* language: the human ones, animal ones, the mythological ones, and more.

Carolyn and her ‘siblings’ are librarians, but not in the way you or I would think. Each has a catalogue of study, and is forbidden to stray into the others. The punishments for disobeying are beyond harsh. Content warnings through the roof that there are some incredibly nasty tortures here, and often aimed at the kids, albeit in flashback. Father may not be human, and he will be obeyed.

Ooh, where to start with a review of this? I think I actually got a recommendation for it years back, but thanks to a rerelease I got to snag a copy on NetGalley – and I’m really glad I did! It was a completely engrossing read, dark and weird and wonderful. I like to think I read a lot – maybe not as much as some, but plenty – and yet this one caught me: I had no idea where we were going through most of it.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t a great plot, but that for once it didn’t seem to follow any kind of familiar path. There are twists a-plenty, and so, so much to learn about the library, and the creature(s) that run it.

I’ve labelled it as fantasy, and horror, but a lot of the action takes place in the real world. Steve is a fairly regular guy who gets caught up with ‘this chick’ who doesn’t quite know how car doors work, or how to dress normally. She’s the quiet, sane-ish one in the family, though, given her siblings can talk to animals, survive death, or happen to be the absolute ultimate killing machine. Steve is out of his depth before he can blink, but neither he nor the reader could hope to guess what Carolyn has in store for him.

I absolutely recommend this, but I do understand it’s not going to be for everyone. It’s weird. It’s got not just big but HUGE ideas, and it’s impressive that they’re handled as well as they are. It’s a lot, though, particularly the blood-drenched bits, which are significant and not pleasant. They aren’t really glorified, though: mentioned, and just enough detail to give you the heebie jeebies about how dark the author’s imagination is!

Overall, though, I was gripped. Seriously impressed with how this kept me guessing, and utterly, utterly intrigued throughout.

This novel is so weird that it's very hard to rate or review. It's one of those book that you love or hate and I supposed that I'm on the love side.
There's a plot and there're characters, something happens and then you don't know if you got it right or wrong.
I had a lot of fun and I strongly recommend to read it with an open mind and not expecting a standard horror/fantasy/etc
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

DNF 30% - I am so sad about this one. This sounded right up my alley. The synopsis gave me VE Schwab meets Stephen King vibes. But unfortunately the set up was too weird and made it difficult to follow the story.
We follow Carolyn one of the "children" of the Library. Meaning one of the now grownups who were taken as kids by their "Father". A mysterious and dark god figure. These kids each are mentally abused into studying their part of the library: biology (&resurrection), animals, languages etc. And are not allowed to share amongst each other. Its very weird and disturbing, with some dark and bloody moments.
One day Father is gone and these siblings are desperate to find him and understand.
I really think I wasnt in the right mind space for this one at the moment and might revisit in the future.

I am getting more into fantasy and thriller novels lately so I am able to tell the difference in what grabs and holds my attention throughout. This novel disappointed me sadly.
There was a lot of characters to keep track of at the start and this ‘God’ is an ass he sounds very arrogant the way this character is portrayed it is as if he is constantly manipulating these children.
The characters are written in a way where it is difficult to follow and it doesn’t hook you into the novel.
The plot is interesting however that is about it as it is not clear throughout as there seems to be a lot of views but it isn’t structured out as properly as my other reads.

This book is really hard to review.

This was an experience well worth going through. I went into it knowing very little which I think enhanced my reading.