The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins – Review

Published: June 16, 2015

Publisher: Crown

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 390 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:
Carolyn’s not so different from the other human beings around her. She’s sure of it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.

After all, she was a normal American herself, once.

That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.

Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.

In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn’t gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father’s ancient Pelapi customs. They’ve studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.

Sometimes, they’ve wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.

But Carolyn can win. She’s sure of it. What she doesn’t realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she’s forgotten a great deal about being human.

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This has got to be the weirdest book I’ve ever read. It doesn’t defy summarization but it really is quite hard to wrap your mind around how strange the book is from a summary. In short, this is about how one of God’s apprentices kills him and then goes about solidifying their power to prevent another of the apprentices from usurping them. It sounds rather Machiavellian and very much like chaos in the heavens, but it’s actually just chaos for all the poor Americans who get caught in the crossfire, especially Steve. 

Twelve children of a variety of ages get adopted by a man they simply call Father after an unspecified event that leaves all their parents dead. He assigns each one a codex that they are to master – healing, war, languages, math, etc. – and reading outside of one’s codex is punishable in terrible ways. Carolyn specializes in languages and is our main character, though there are several other POVs introduced a bit later on. Carolyn has secretly been studying outside of her codex for years and it seems that she may have been the one to kill Father. She’s unassuming in comparison to some of her siblings, like violent David who studies war. Carolyn is clever and secretive, and has had hate in her heart for years since Father barbecued two of her best friends. They were deer, but that kind of thing sticks with a kid, ya know?

The other two POVs are Erwin and Steve. Steve seems to be just some random guy that Carolyn meets up with in a bar and then bribes to break into a house. Poor guy doesn’t know the mess he’s about to be dragged into, but it ends up with him in custody. Erwin is a renowned military hero who reallllly doesn’t want to talk about what happened at Natanz, but nobody really takes the hint. He’s visiting Steve on behalf of the US government to question him about the bizarrely dressed woman he met at a bar and see what he might know about her. 

Even though this is a very strange story with some interesting tangents, everything is actually connected and makes some sort of sense by the end of the story. The Library at Mount Char is not a book for the faint of heart, the easily offended, or probably the intensely religious. There are multiple scenes filled with blood, gore, and corporeal punishment that goes way beyond the norm. Now, if you want a book that’s absolutely going to make you go “WTF” this book absolutely might be your jam. I wouldn’t say I loved this, but it is memorable and stands out from a sea of books that all largely have the same handful of plot points organized in different ways.