I couldhave done with a little bit more background on the dystopain setting of the libray- everything was a bit vague and initially difficult to follow but that was perhaps intentional to draw you in with a myriad of questions.
\With a cast of flawed individuals the story follows the crusade of Ana and Nan, set mostly within the walls of the library where they work.
The plot is well thought out, the characters are all easy to dislike and the narrative, althoughunreliable, is told well from the viewpoints of Ana and Nan and as the truth is revelaed you have a real "aha- now I get it" moment!

This book sounded amazing but fell flat for me. I felt it quite repetitive and it just didn't flow for me. But I enjoyed the general premise.

The description of this story caught my eye and it mostly lived up to the promise of it.
I liked the confusion that identical twins bring to a story. I liked the story very much but found it a bit hard going about half way through with a decent enough ending to it.

I really wanted to like this book but ultimately felt it was disappointing. I felt that the themes were either excessively laboured and somewhat didactic (doubleness/otherness) or left too obtuse - big country, little country, great sickness etc. Having said that, the writing was engaging and was generally well paced. Definite flavours of Orwell and Atwood in places with the occasional hint of Kafkaesque experience of living through an only partly understood nightmare. Lots of interesting ideas but it didn't quite hang together for me. I would be interested to read other work by the writer though...

Twins Ana and Nan are lost and angry after the death of their mother. Everyone knows she was driven to her death by the literary critic, Eben. They’ve bought Eben to the library where they work to seek their revenge but their plan soon starts unraveling.

I found the start of this book slow and the characters were all really unlikeable which for me makes it really hard to enjoy a book. Also it all seemed such a stretch that they would go to those lengths to get revenge on one person.

Thank you @netgalley @hodderbooks for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a well written and descriptive book set in a timeline where there had been a great illness and now paper was banned as they digitalised everything. The story was interesting and kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next, and I really enjoyed how it was set in a library.

This book was as intriguing as the title and description made it sound. Plenty of twists and turns, dark characters, surprising secrets and tension that bubbles all the way until the final pages.

This book is described as a thriller with a difference and it certainly fulfills the bill. It starts off quietly like a firework when the blue touch paper is lit and then rockets along with lots of twists and turns along the way. Ana and Nan are identical twins with Ana being the older by 12 minutes. Despite this, Ana has always tended to defer to the whims of her younger sister. When their mother Elena commits suicide, Nan blames her death on the unfair and vitriolic criticism made by a reviewer called Eben and she convinces Ana that they need to get their revenge. They hatch a plot to capture Eben by allowing him exclusive access to their mother's diary to enable him to write her biography. Their actions unleash a chain of events which they did not foresee with tragic consequences. This book will make you look at libraries and their custodianship of books in a whole new light.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. Some spoilers follow.

I'm honestly not sure whether I enjoyed this book or not. I read it in one sitting because I wanted to see how it ended but the two entirely different plotlines side by side didn't really work for me.

The twins' relationship was strangely co-dependent whilst also showing a desperation for individuality at times that was always swiftly stamped out by the other twin. I found Ana to be frustratingly naive in comparison to Nan's cold calculation. I liked the exploration of each twin's relationship with Dan but the usual amazing, not really painful at all, first time sex trope grated on me.

The main revenge plotline fell a little flat for me. The two big reveals felt very convenient and almost thrown in just to create conflict. I cannot stand the plot device of one character just refusing to listen to another and find out basic facts before making a life changing decision.

The sub plot about what the library's true motives were, whilst it did eventually tie up into the main storyline, I found a bit frustrating in that I thought those ideas were more interesting than the entire revenge plotline. I would have preferred the story to follow that angle in more depth particularly the reasons behind what was being done and how it affected the country as a whole. As it was we only got scraps of what was happening outside from our hugely unreliable gaggle of narrators.

Some interesting ideas that could have blossomed into great world building if the scope of the book had been widened.

I really liked the cover and description of this book but unfortunately didn’t enjoy much about the story. It was ok and kept me interested but I think that was because I wanted to know more. The back story and a lot of information felt lacking. I kept waiting for details to expand on the year, neighbouring countries, the great sickness, etc but I’m still waiting.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy.

Ana and Nan are identical twins working in a library which they hope to use to revenge their mother’s suicide. They believe she was persuaded to end her life because as a novelist she was being hounded by bad reviews from one particular critic. He decides to clear his name by exploring the papers their mother donated to the National Library. That sounds like a good enough start for a story but the library setting doesn’t make sense. It is conducted as if it was a maximum security prison with armed guards including Dan on work experience from a real prison. He is one of the better drawn characters. The whole thing climaxes with the armed twins locking up the visitors to the library in a very unlikely setting. I continued with this book only because I was committed to reviewing it.

This is a difficult book to synopsise without giving away too much of the story but what I will say is that this was not what I was expecting!

Whilst there are a number of books about identical twins around, this was definitely a gripping read which I would recommend to all.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the author, netgalley and Hodder Stoughton for the chance to review this book.

I was initially attracted by the plot description and the cover, it seemed like a book that I would enjoy. I was a little confused at the beginning as I wasn’t sure where the book was set but I soon got into it.
The characters are all flawed and the author does a great job of explaining why throughout the book. I enjoyed the twists and turns and I did not expect the ending! An interesting storyline which I could imagine happening in the future (the no paper and electronic only) that I am glad I got to read.

The Library Suicides
by Fflur Dafydd
Earc:NetGalley
Publisher:Hodder & Stoughton.
Publication Date : 19 January 2023
Genre: Mystery and Thrillers

I found the first part of the book to be a bit confusing.
Once the scene popped into my head, it was fine, so maybe it was just me.
I liked the scenery, the serious illness, the paper ban, and the library.
Those I didn't like so much, I walked from lookout to lookout and didn't find anything I liked.
The story unfolds at a slow pace, but there are some small twists along the way, some of which were predictable.
D was so much fun to write that I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Thank you to the Author, Netgalley & Hodder Stoughton for the chance to review this book.
@HodderPublicity #NetGalley #bookstagram #bookreview #goodreads #thelibarysuicides

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review
This book is set from the POV of Ana, Nan, Eben and Dan - all flawed characters and the author does a brilliant job of letting you inside their minds.
Quite confusing at the beginning as it doesn’t explain where it’s set or what the year is so I found it hard early on to get a feel for the book
Having said that I found this book very intriguing and hard to put down, and it climaxed perfectly at the end to make a really good story.
This is beautifully written and I look forward to reading more by this author

I found the opening part of this book a bit confusing.
That may have just been me, because as soon as I had the scene set in my mind, the rest was fine.
I liked the scene it set, the great sickness, the banning of paper, the library.
The people I didnt so much like, as we went from one view point to another, I couldn't find anything about any of them to like.
The story unfolds at a slow pace, but it has some small twists along the way, a few of which were predictable.
I enjoyed the writing enough to look out for Dafydd's next book.

What initially attracted me to this one was the cover, the title and then the description. It left a lot to the imagination and was rather creative luring me to want to read it.

It was well written and descriptive and I found it easy to visualise what was happening. The setting seemed quite like ours to be honest but set in the future where paper is no longer allowed and physical books are a thing of the past. Everything is now electronic.

None of the characters were nice people therefore it was hard to connect on that kine of level however I feel this was probably what truly set the scene as it was hard to decipher what would happen next as they were all so unpredictable.

I also felt the story was quite a slow burn at times and sometimes felt a bit drawn out but this didn't take away the fact that I was invested to see what happens in the library.

Overall an interesting story with a few plot twists to keep you guessing I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you to the Author, Netgalley & Hodder Stoughton for the chance to review this book.

A well written and very thought provoking read that engaged me all the way through. I am not going to ssay anything else as I feel like I had the best experience with this book by going in blind. I will say though that I really enjoyed it and I am still thinking about it now.

Christine Harman rated a book really liked it
1 minute ago
The Library Suicides by Fflur Dafydd
The Library Suicides
by Fflur Dafydd
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With thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this ARC copy.

It is difficult to write about without giving away too much of it . It features two sisters who feel that their mother was driven to suicide by a book reviewer. We follow the view point of the four main characters. I struggled a little with the fact that the countrys were referred to as the little country and the neighbouring big country and references to the government.
This made it feel very Orwellian. It was difficult to feel for the characters as they were not particularly nice people.

Although I think the countries were ones I know well it felt like a make believe world far away from where we are now. I found it tedious at times and it took me 12 days to read this book whereas some I will read in 4 or 5
days. some of the passages are somewhat long winded and loses the thread of the story.

I'm glad that i read it as it is a divergence from the usual books Iread. I feel this would appeal to someone who likes to read books to make them think and as a possible future for the western world with their reliance on digital media

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

I was able to read this eARC with thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton (Publishers), in exchange for a review.

I was drawn to this one instantly for a number of reasons - the title, the cover, the description, all of which were creative and left a good first impression. Further, the author being Welsh (which I was able to glean from their name) did make me want to read this one; a little bit of nationality bias there, I'll admit!

To preface, this review is entirely my own opinion, and just my experience with the book. I feel that perhaps, despite my initial attraction to the novel, it was just not the story for me, and that's okay!

Firstly, this book is really well written. The descriptions of people, places and books were wonderful, and really helped me, as the reader, to visualise what was happening. I found the writing style well suited to me, and easy get into in that respect. Unfortunately, the story started a little slow for me, and I found myself struggling to get through it; there were pages and pages that seemed somewhat superfluous, not really serving to progress the plot. Whilst I don't usually mind stories that are introspective and heavily focused on the character's inner thoughts, this one just relied too heavily on that for me.

Once the story got underway and the plot started to move along, it was more enjoyable and less of a struggle for me. But it still felt slow getting there, and getting to the meat of it, dragging on in places where I felt there wasn't such a need for it. None of the characters were particularly likeable, and I didn't really connect with any of them, which made it more difficult; and the outcome, the ending, just didn't really satisfy me because of this. I wasn't particularly happy or sad or bothered about what happened to any of them, truth be told.

There were some plot points that I thought were really interesting, including the setting - not specifically described, but seeming to be a world like ours, though in the future, where paper is apparently a near extinct resource, and books are a thing of the past. The plots surrounding this were deepened at points in the novel but, unfortunately, they weren't developed enough at all, or even one of the main plotlines of the story. I feel for me personally, I would have preferred to have focused on the political, world building side of things than the drama which WAS the focus of the story (which I didn't find nearly as compelling, or interesting).

All in all, this was a book I thought I'd like and really wanted to like, but came up lacking. Maybe just not the story for me; I am sure others would certainly enjoy it, and the talent of the author is certainly evident. I would give a different book by the author a chance, even if this one fell flat for me.