Book Review ~ The Forbidden Library

The Forbidden Library

by Django Wexler
published by Kathy Dawson Books
genre: MG, Fantasy,

Summary (Goodreads): Alice always thought fairy tales had happy endings. That--along with everything else--changed the day she met her first fairy

When Alice's father goes down in a shipwreck, she is sent to live with her uncle Geryon--an uncle she's never heard of and knows nothing about. He lives in an enormous manor with a massive library that is off-limits to Alice. But then she meets a talking cat. And even for a rule-follower, when a talking cat sneaks you into a forbidden library and introduces you to an arrogant boy who dares you to open a book, it's hard to resist. Especially if you're a reader to begin with. Soon Alice finds herself INSIDE the book, and the only way out is to defeat the creature imprisoned within.

It seems her uncle is more than he says he is. But then so is Alice.

My Thoughts: This is an interesting twist on the magic of falling into the books that you read. I almost liked the setting and premise of this story more than the story itself. It did turn itself around and by the end I was sucked into the whole thing.
Alice at the moment seems like the only good character. She is more of a hard worker and determined to see things through type of character rather than your typical strong female lead. At times she was naive, but somehow still managed to do what needed to be done and mostly keep her morals in place.
Other than Alice, and possibly Ashes, there was not another character that I really liked. I wished there had been more exploration into characters like Emma. We are told briefly that the reason she is the way she is, is because she possibly was a reader and her mind was wiped. This was used to scare Alice and then promptly forgotten, we never really find out if this is true. Also, how Mr Black and Mother (Ending) came to be in Geryon's control. They don't seem to be the same as the ones defeated by Alice in her books, a thread tied to her mind, that she can pull on when needed.
Overall, it was a good start to a new series. I'm interested in the world of readers that the author has created. The other old school readers who all seem evil and their apprentices that don't seem any better. There are a lot of questions surrounding Alice and I will give the second book a chance to find out more.

Rating: 3.5