The Library at Mount Char | 
pickA five star book that I cannot tell you anything about. This novel was so odd, graphic, and perplexing that I‘m left with no words to describe it. Definitely weird fiction. Loved it, hated it, couldn‘t put it down, begged myself to bail, guessed the ending, never had a clue of how it would end. It‘s like Schrödinger‘s cat but in novel form.
pickRarely do I grab a book to read over and over. The exception is the fantastical-witty-inventive-disquieting #TheLibraryatMountChar. It‘s not quite horror, more surreal. Characters, motivations, and little details further plot and enjoyment. 100% recommend. Absolute treasure of a novel. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📖 to read.
pickI don't even know how to review this one except to say it was one of the best books I've read this year, but also BRUTAL.
Basically, a bunch of children are raised by their "Father", who might be a god, and are trained in a single subject, such as languages, animals, reincarnation, murder... And maybe the world might end? Or maybe the god might retire? Or maybe a man in a tutu might murder everyone? Come for the violence, stay for the feelings!
pickSo original and intricate, and I loved the cosmic horror worldbuilding so much. A great concept and really well executed in so many ways but it was so odd it was hard to follow sometimes. I feel like I need to reread it in order to really understand what was happening.
#scarathlon #skeletoncrew
Starting off today‘s #scarathlonsprint with some cosmic horror and scream 2 on in the background!
Thanks for hosting @Laughterhp 🎃
#scarathlon #skeletoncrew
pickCombining fantasy, horror, and humor this novel tells the story of Carolyn, one of twelve librarians who have been raised by a mysterious and powerful being called Father, who has gone missing. Each librarian has a different catalog of knowledge and abilities, such as languages, war, death, animals, and healing. • A bit tedious and long = 3-Stars
so-soThis was an interesting and unique story, but I‘m not sure I liked it. I drew some parallels to Christianity, like the manna, but I was disappointed we never met the iceberg. Really disappointed. I thought it was too long, and came close to bailing.
30 book recommendations in 30 days...
Day 12: This novel is for a very specific audience, but I really loved it. It is very bizarre and very dark, so if that's your thing, definitely give this one a try. #30recsin30days
bailedI should have trusted my instinct and never purchased this book. When this came out, I repeatedly saw a lot of praise for this book. I didn‘t think it suited my interests and avoided it for a long time. Most likely, there was an Audible sale and I decided to purchase the book because the cover was cool and the title had the word ‘library.‘ I‘m such a sucker, I know.
Full review at https://abookandadog.com
bailedDNF'd
Another disappointment. The premise and general outline of the store are fascinating, but this is easily the most violent and most crude book I have ever attempted to read. I called it quits around page 140 when somebody shot a beagle. Just, no.
If you have a higher tolerance than me for torture and the f-bomb, you may enjoy it, but it ain't for me.
pickI had heard just enough to know The Library at Mount Char would be a weird, dark, trip into a bizarre world, and it certainly was that. There is absolutely no way to try and sum this one up. Although nothing like Geek Love, I still felt some serious Geek Love vibes, and I totally loved it! Not sure what that says about me though 🤔 Makes me want to light up my creepy beeswax Medusa candle and start on my next book, Moon of the Crusted Snow.
#OminousOctober #Day29 #Dusk #Day30 #Haunted #Day31 #Undead The last 3 prompts I‘m sliding in for #Scarathlon First is Dusk with the tagged book & it‘s spectacular cover, 2nd is Haunted with a gothic The Silent Companions & it‘s haunted protagonist & finally Undead with 13 Bullets by David Wellington & it‘s animalistic vampires. #TeamSlaughter 16pts
📙The Library at Mount Char
💻 Mercedes Lackey
🎥Last Man on Earth
📻 Lewis Capaldi
🎶 Landslide by Dixie Chicks
#ManicMonday #LetterL @CBee
MidWorld Press - Library at Mount Char - by Scott Hawkins - I pre-ordered the special edition hard cover on 3/11/2022 … I received it 7 months later & couldn‘t be more pleased. Red satin ribbon permanent bookmark, 4 full color full page images, the end papers have a texture, signed by the author & it‘s limited to 500. Good book!
pickIncredibly violent, incredibly dark, but also fantastically, almost charmingly, humourously fuckin' weird. It flabbergasts me to say I think this is a new favourite. It might be "compulsively readable" as one blurb on the book suggests, great pacing, but for your mental health, I suggest mini-breaks. My one gripe would be the strong, and I would argue LAZY codification of people dressing outside the norm = freaks/other/dangerous. ?
FANTASY NOVEL™:
"'Is he the one with the tentacles?'
'No, that's Barry O'Shea. Q-33 North is the sort of iceberg with legs, remember? Up in Norway.'
'Oh, right."
?
#Alphabetgame
#LetterJ #LetterK #LetterL
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks ⚘️
Catching up!
J- Jem and the Holograms Graphic novel
K- Really great novel
L- One of my most favorites. Also one of the strangest books I've ever read.
#wondrouswednesday
1. My parents
2. Neil Gaiman
3. No. But now that I‘m back in the states, I hope to find one.
Thanks for the tag Sherri! Who wants to play? Consider yourself tagged!
pickThis dark, riveting, unforgettable book has layer after layer, peeling back secrets to the very end. Carolyn & her siblings were adopted after their parents died, & raised in a library containing the secrets of the universe. Now Father is missing and control of the library is up for grabs. Imagine if the father in Umbrella Academy was a cruel, sadistic god, his punishments unthinkable & his control absolute. As brutal as it is brilliant. TW: rape.
panI had already bailed on an “L” book for my #alphabetchallenge using my stacks, so I pushed myself to finish this. Should‘ve bailed! The story was disjointed and characters not developed. I was hoping it would all come together, and it did in a very unsatisfactory way. The concept of the library catalogs was interesting, but wasn‘t explored enough to keep my interest. Not for me. 1/5🦨💨
so-soThis novel has an interesting premise and characters I miss now that I'm done, but the story itself drags. It reads like a much longer book than it is. I'm not sure what it is that Hawkins does here, but the scenes just seem to unfold excruciatingly slowly sometimes. Maybe it's all the asides? Also, there's a spot about 3/4 through that's clearly an ending, but the story keeps going. It's also kind of gross.
panI wanted to love this so much but it was just too damn disjointed for my tastes. We're tossed into the book at the beginning, which reads like the middle. It didn't really come together for me at all, despite hoping and praying it would eventually all make sense. A few scenes gave me hope, but otherwise, it was not for me. I didn't care about the people. On audio, a lot of the dialogue sounded stunted, with lots of OKs and Yeahs. ⬇️
Two hours in and I'm not really sure what's going on yet? Is my attention wandering or is this by design? It's rated highly by my fellow Littens so I'm hoping it's going to start making sense soon. 🤞
#LittensDressedInBlood #Day18 #ComeLittleChildren This was one of the first recs I picked up from Litsy in 2016, the cover is one of my all time favourites. I think I may reread it for next months #Scarathlon Carolyn & her dozen siblings were all just human once, before Adoption Day & the coming of Father. Brought up in his library, they don‘t get out much, until Father/God goes missing & the battle starts to inherit his library & power.
pickWow! I really enjoyed this book. I obviously wasn‘t sure what to expect. I‘ve been into books about gods lately, so this one fit my current mood.
There is a lot of violence, death and animal killing. Normally I‘m not okay with it, but the dogs were really violent and vicious so I wasn‘t invested in their safety.
This book had a lot going on, but I enjoyed the journey and seeing how everything connected.
#Booked2021 - library in title
I‘m only 9 pages in, which is as far as I made it the last time I tried to read this one. So we‘ll see 🤞🏻
It‘s also way too hot to have a fire right now (so humid out) but we‘ve been building this for like a month! We are going to suffer and enjoy it 🤣
pickWhen this first came out, Litsy was *full* of WTF reviews. I‘m finally catching up. This was weird, inventive, creative, and sly. The author puts a lot of elements just under the surface and lets them bubble slowly to the top. I loved crazy Carolyn, despite her psychotic tendencies. And Steve really tries to understand her, impossible as it is. 💯 unique!
Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2021 #booked2021 #libraryintitle
pickThis book was unlike anything I‘ve ever read before. Trigger Warnings for everything...read at your own risk. It definitely paid off at the end and I was always invested, if often confused. It‘s like a heist movie but played at the level of gods. 🤯
I read this for the #Booked2021 prompt “title includes library or librarian “.
bailedI just can't. Too much language on the verge of blasphemy. I wish I could ignore it because the fantasy seems to be something I'd enjoy. #NewYearWhoDis @BookishBelle
pickFinished March‘s #bookspin selection. WTF was that? It was weird & dark & violent & funny & absurd. There were so many different things going on that I have no idea how the author kept up wit it all, but it all came together in the end. It was absolutely banana pants and I loved it. All the trigger warnings on this one, but if you‘re ok with that, it‘s fantastic!
pickSo I was recommended this book by a colleague.. and without really reading the summary, asked for it for Xmas. I assumed it was historical fiction .. turns out it‘s horror/fantasy fiction .. but man was it great! Want to read a book that really makes you wonder .. this is the book. No idea too “out there” that‘s for sure!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I'm posting one book per day from the ever growing unread stacks in my personal library. No description or explanation, just books I own and plan to read. #tbr
Day 12
Just one new #library book today, and it‘s about a library!
Sadly today‘s library visit also involved overhearing one of the staff trying to get a difficult patron not following public health regulations to leave.
I started this book super interested but I'm such a mood reader and after about three chapters, really struggled with it because it wasn't what I was wanting to read right now. It was due back at the library and I couldn't renew it because somebody else requested it. So I returned it and I'll come back to it later when I'm more in the mood for it.
"Carolyn, blood-drenched and barefoot, walked alone down the two-lane stretch of blacktop that the Americans called Highway 78. Most of the librarians, Carolyn included, had come to think of this road as the Path of Tacos, so-called in honor of a Mexican joint they snuck out to sometimes. The guacamole, she remembered, is really good. Her stomach rumbled." What a fantastic opening to a book. Thinking of tacos makes my stomach rumble too.
pickGreat audio book. Definitely weird but I love that stuff.
pickI was wary starting this book because of how bonkers everyone says it is but I was completely ensnared from the first page and ready to go wherever Hawkins led me. I loved every minute of this wild and violent ride and ended the book with a smile on my face still hungry for more.
This book showed up on Libby for me this morning. It sounds so intriguing and dark:
Carloyn knows she‘s a little bit…odd. But she figures that‘s only natural when she‘s spent her life locked away in an infinite Library, forced to study at the feet of the man who might be God. She‘s seen her share of terrible things in those years, even died a few times herself. Now "Father" has gone missing and the Library is left unguarded. #screamathon2020
pan#Unpopularopinion again... I just couldn't get into the story at all 🤷♀️ Even though I liked the idea of the different catalogs, I guess I just suspected it to be something totally different... 😔
Neither could I connect to any of the characters. They just went on doing what they were doing, while I felt like an unwanted outsider...
@TheAromaofBooks #BookSpinBingo
https://www.luulit.com/product/library-at-mount-char-audible-audiobook-unabridge...
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...
And here's my list for #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin and #BookSpinBingo for September. Already looking forward to reading those!
But I'm way behind with my reviews... I should hurry up now...
@TheAromaOfBooks
pick🎧 Well that was the oddest book I‘ve read in a long time!! Loved it. Beware there‘s lots of swearing, graphic violence, gore, child abuse. I was about 2 hours into the book and I was utterly confused! It explains itself just keep listening as I‘m certain if those triggers didn‘t warn you off ... you may like it. If you want to know more check out the summaries on good reads! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/6
My favorite book (well, one of them) made #1 on this list of non-Stephen King scary books!! ❤️❤️❤️
Here‘s the link if you want to see the other nine:
https://listverse.com/2020/03/02/modern-horror-novels-better-than-stephen-king/?...
