The Astral Library (Kate Quinn)

The publisher’s presentation

Have you ever wished you could live inside a book?

Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are doors to new worlds.

Alix Watson knows one thing: unlike people, books will never let her down. Working dead-end jobs to make ends meet, she takes nightly refuge in the reading room at the Boston Public Library, dreaming of far-off lands.

Until she stumbles through a hidden door and is transported to The Astral Library, a place where the lost find sanctuary within their beloved stories.

But when a shadowy enemy threatens to destroy the library, Alix must flee from danger through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen and the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes’ London as danger closes in …

My reading review

I have read a few of Kate Quinn’s books and I trusted her that this one would be good, although I am not a fantasy novels reader at all. I was very curious to see what this book would be like.

I was really amazed at the imagination that went into this story. Many of us bookworms have this dream of jumping into and living in a book we like. The main character of this novel, worn out by years of foster care, struggling with three jobs to make — or not — ends meet, finds herself in the Astral Library by a little stroke of magic. There, many people are welcome to seek refuge in books but dark clouds form over the library and Alix finds herself embroiled in a very complicated power play.

This story is full of great characters, references to many books, paintings and even games. It is a bit of a hyperactive universe with really a lot of twists and turns and surprises. It is also a book that advocates for libraries and the need to keep them accessible to all. It criticises the obsession there is today about monetisation and optimisation. The author even appears as a character in the book, but you need to read to the end to get to it.

I stayed engaged all along and enjoyed reading this book, which is another opportunity to praise the writing talent of Kate Quinn.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for having given me an copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

You can read about Kate Quinn’s journey to write this book in this interview and listen to her in this video conversation.