This book was not for me, although to be fair, it was mostly well written. I think it was confusing at times but maybe that was because I hadn't initially realised that it was fantasy. My sincere thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

As a bookworm who doesn’t love a book set in a library?? Great story and premise with some great twists and turns along the way!

Brilliant book. Loved the plot and the characters. Some things are never fully explained but that just adds to the mystery!

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't what I expected from the blurb presented to me.

I'm not a huge fantasy or dystopian reader and this is where this book sits. The book is set in an unnamed country; although I projected Wales and specifically Aberystwyth as the town, based on the author's name and being Welsh and knowing about Aber and the National library! We are sometime in the future after an illness has spread. People are now afraid of germs and paper is banned due to the fear of it spreading germs and diseases.

The book is well written and does a really nice job of setting the scene of the town and the library itself, although again, maybe I was at an advantage knowing Aberystwyth.
It does a good job of character development and description, other than with the two main characters, which is such a shame. I was confused for a long time with the twins, and remembering which was which - this may have been a plot device, but for me, it stopped me from being able to immerse myself fully in the book, until well over halfway through.

The book was enjoyable and there were some interesting comments on the place of books, authors, reviewers and women in society.

I received a copy of this book from the published, via NetGalley for review.

At the start of the book, we are introduced to twins, Ana and Nan, who work at the library. It comes to light that their mother had committed suicide, seemingly as a result of constant bad reviews by critic, Eben. Whilst Eben is researching to write their late Mother's memoirs, the twins are out to seek revenge through a carefully crafted plan.

I had SUCH high hopes for this story. I adore books and libraries are one of my favourite places, so the thought of reading a thriller set in a library made me very excited. I did enjoy it but it certainly fell flat in places for me. The Library Suicides was very slow paced, bordering on a little boring at times and I wasn't overly keen on any of the characters. I did find the premise of moving towards a paperless society very interesting and thought provoking, but that was only a sideline to the main story.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Not a huge fan of this to be honest. I wanted to like
It so much but I just don’t think it was executed very well despite the very promising premise.

This is the first book I have read by this author. It is rather different to my usual reads, and gave me lots to think about. I felt that the style of writing and plot direction was quite testing at times, but the further through the book I got, the more I enjoyed it.

I started to read this book and felt in the beginning it was difficult to get my head around and even having finished it I still feel confused. The twins Ana and Nan have decided that Eben, a critic, was the reason why their mother committed suicide and they were determined to make sure he got his just deserts. Elena, their mother, was an avid writer of sometimes controversial subjects which Eben latched onto. Ana and Nan (who I did not take to particularly) are identical twins and do everything together including working in the same library. They planned a scenario to deal with Eben but needed help. They manipulated Dan a security guard at the library with the promises of many favours. I did persevere with this book but I cannot say I enjoyed it particularly. It may be the fantasy aspect of the book. I did not understand the non use of paper until part way through when that could have been explained earlier on to avoid even more confusion. I do not like giving a too negative review as so much work is put into writing a book but I am sorry to say this book was not for me

I like libraries and murder mystery stories but found this book very hard to get into. From the start it's obvious Nan and Ana are hiding something and planning revenge for their mothers death. Ebden, the biographer and critic hides a secret and is desperate to get access to the archives. The library employs some very odd characters including the twins but they manage to overpower all obstacles in their way to get access to Ebden, who is having problems of his own with revelations made. Chaos soon ensues and we get finally to a murder.
Rather slow tiresome at times but I got to the end.

The description of this book isn’t very accurate. It chops and cha yes genre so many times.
After you get through the first 150 pages it becomes enjoyable

A really good idea but sadly not that well executed. The book is much more than a standard thriller but doesn't really fulfil its potential. Somewhat repetitive and over long. I wasn't really that keen on any of the characters

The Library Suicides is a classic slow-burn thriller.
The story commences with twins, Ana and Nan deciding to take revenge on the man they blame for their mother's suicide. Offering Eben the opportunity to review their mother's journal, the twins slowly trick him into entering the library. Eben jumps at the chance as he believes the diary entries will prove that he is not responsible.
And so begins a complex web of storylines with grief, love and revenge taking center stage.
All of the characters are truly flawed and the author does not shy away from their errors, instead she embraces their flaws and uses these to show how relationships can break down and the divisions that appear.
A highly unusual story.

This book is set in a dystopian future in a library in a small un-named country, Twins Ana and Nan are the daughters of a novelist who committed suicide after the Smotherhood crticised her books. They are seeking revenge on Eben, the critic. The story is set in the library when Eben is invited to read Elena's diaries. Dan, the security man, is, unknowingly, part of the twins plans. The idea is interesting, but the book felt quite long and repetitive, so I skipped quite a lot in order to finish it.
It was good to be introduced to a new author, and a whole range of Welsh writers and performers in the acknowledgements. I will be finding out more about these artist.

An unusual mystery set in a future society following a great pandemics. There were so many great elements to the story that were not explored to the full potential. For me it was a disappointing read.

I ended up slightly disappointed by this one. I also had a vague feeling that there might have been a better story lurking behind the story that the book puts front and centre. The Library Suicides is an entertaining enough read nevertheless. At times, a little over-worked, which made it a little confusing and too contrived in parts. But that was just me, and I certainly would not put anyone off reading this one. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for a no obligation advance copy.

Title: The Library Suicides
Author: Fflur Dafydd
Release date: 19/01/23

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the chance to read this ARC ahead of its release next year.

You can read the synopsis on the book's Goodreads page and elsewhere, so I won't rehash it in detail. TL;DR: a pair of twins plan to trap and confront the man they believe drove their mother to suicide, but their plan is disrupted by factors and people outside their control.

I never like to be dismissive of an author's hard work, so I'll start by saying that The Library Suicides is a solid read, which I enjoyed. So much so that I read it in (almost) one sitting. There's a lot of good here.

*potential spoilers ahead - not of the active plot, more around the world it takes place in*

However...the world-building is perhaps a little sparse. I actually live in a coastal town in Wales, so half the work of imagining of what this location is like is already done for me - but the book doesn't really fill in any gaps. This is, of course, the author's prerogative - maybe in order to focus our attention on the library she chose to leave the world outside it deliberately vague, as is also shown in the lack of country names. That in itself did begin to irk me though - as if 'the small country', 'the neighbouring country' etc were just placeholders for names she'd not yet decided upon.

With the proliferation of Welsh fore and surnames used, and the author being Welsh, I figure that 'the small country' is actually Wales and 'the neighbouring country' England, though why this is shrouded in semi-mystery is...a mystery to me. There is one brief moment when mention of the twins' native language is made - specifically that it isn't English - but this is never mentioned again and I found that jarring. It seemed an irrelevant detail to insert, or maybe was included with the intention of further development which was then decided against, leaving this odd standalone mention? The word that's discussed does appear Welsh, which made me wish all the more that the author had just named the countries for what they are instead of trying for a more anonymous dystopian vibe. Description of the library itself is wonderfully detailed, but that just makes it feel even more at odds with the vagueness of everywhere else.

I would also have appreciated more detail on how this alternate version of our world came to be in the scenario it finds itself - the Great Sickness, the population shortage, the paper ban and suchlike are often alluded to, but not really explained. Again, this is author choice I know, but I found myself wondering how it actually played out to end up as it does. Panicking about germs on paper to the extent that this version of the government does feels somewhat antiquated, particularly as we've just lived through a pandemic where it wasn't exactly an issue. Did the alternate-world scientists all regress to the Middle Ages?

Admittedly, I'm being picky here, as these are background niggles in a book that overall has a good plot, with well-written and well-paced action and interesting, believable characters. I'd have liked to feel more immersed (which I couldn't because of those aforementioned niggles), but I still found it more than compelling enough to keep turning the virtual pages to discover what will happen. I enjoyed how my sympathies would jump between characters as we learnt new things about them - the balance between good and bad, hero and villain is a fine line, and this was managed cleverly throughout. The ending really stayed in my mind for some time, though obviously I won't spoil anything.

NB There were a number of formatting issues in the version I received (random incorrect line breaks, missing dashes in hyphenated phrases, some typos), though this is my first ARC so I don't know if that's usual and which will be fixed before the final release (?).

As I liked it but didn't love it, I give it three stars.

The story is set in a dystopian future, following identical twins Ana and Nan, librarians who are seeking revenge on the man they believe is responsible for the death of their mother. Their story is interwoven with Eben, the literary critic keen to clear his name. And Dan, a security guard with a criminal past that he is keen to move away from.

I was intrigued by the setting of this dystopian future, and would happily read more stories set there. It had an Orwellian 1984 vibe, where they frequently make mention 'the neighbouring country'. There, they have dealt with the fall-out of The Great Sickness differently to how the 'small country' is dealing with it. In the story's setting paper is banned, and owning it will result in a severe punishment. The library has been digitising all novels, which is why the setting of a library is so significant.

The story almost lost me at the start, as we get to know the characters, and the unhealthy relationship between the twins who both seek to prove they are two halves of the same person, while also trying to find their own identities. I found it difficult to empathise with, or even like, any of the characters, perhaps with the exception of Dan who's 'origin story' is never fully explored or explained.

There were some problems with the formatting of the digital copy, which I assume is just an issue stemming from reading an advanced copy on my kindle. It did disrupt the flow somewhat, so I hope this is fixed when the book is published.

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a review.

The first chapter of this book really caught my attention; it was intriguing and different and made me want to read more. However, the rest of the book felt more haphazard, with a real midge modge of interesting ideas, set, surprisingly to me, in a dystopian near future.. The convoluted plot seemed to get in the way of any further discussion of these ideas including sperm donors, digitisation, disease control and the role of the State which I think would have added to the narrative
Sadly, I also found the storyline difficult to follow and felt I never really got to know any of the characters or their motivation.
Thank you to netgalley and hodder and Stoughton for an advance copy of this book

A great read creating a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere in the same way The Handmaid's Tale does and just when you get a feel for what's happening there are twists and turns aplenty. I didn't see the end coming at all! I kept thinking that this is one of those books just waiting to be a TV mini-series, and it has been!

Ana and Nan Oodig are identical twin sisters. This dystopian story plots a day in their life, in a unnamed country, perhaps sometime in the future.

I really don’t quite know how to review this book. The plot line was full of potential and the idea of all the events taking place on one day was a good idea, very 24! Sadly the book fell short of what I expected. It was far too wordy and too meandering. The characters were awful, with Eben being possibly the most boringly pathetic character I’ve read for some time.

With apologies to the author, I did want to enjoy and looked forward to reading, but not one for me.

1.5* rounded up to 2*

Thank you NetGalley.