sci-fi жанра би си пожелал. Интересни герои, за които да ти пука, страховита ситуация и препускащо темпо на събитията, съчетани с превъзходното авторово въображение и усет към детайла. Като добавим изпипания стил и липсата на разтегливост в текста, се получава приятно, занимателно и дори смешно на моменти четиво. Може и по сълза да се пусне в края, никой няма да ви се подиграе. Listening to him think out loud was sort of comical, though. He got real excited when it was banana-pudding night in the cafeteria . . .” I'm good. Still clearing my head. Thanks, though." She stretched her face into something like a smile. The Library at Mount Char is an urban fantasy/horror novel about Carolyn and her adopted "family" who are studying the seemingly endless knowledge of an immortal being that they call "Father." The lessons that they learn are terrifying but powerful. Carolyn’s life changed forever when she was 8. That was the year her ordinary suburban subdivision was destroyed and the man she now calls Father took her and 11 other children to study in his very unusual Library. Carolyn studied languages—and not only human ones. The other children studied the ways of beasts, learned healing and resurrection, and wandered in the lands of the dead or in possible futures. Now they’re all in their 30s, and Father is missing. Carolyn and the others are trying to find him—but Carolyn has her own agenda and her own feelings about the most dangerous of her adopted siblings, David, who has spent years perfecting the arts of murder and war. Carolyn is an engaging heroine with a wry sense of humor, and Steve, the ordinary American ally she recruits, helps keep the book grounded in reality despite the ever growing strangeness that swirls around them. Like the Library itself, the book is bigger, darker, and more dangerous than it seems. The plot never flags, and it’s never predictable. Hawkins has created a fascinating, unusual world in which ordinary people can learn to wield breathtaking power—and he’s also written a compelling story about love and revenge that never loses sight of the human emotions at its heart.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her, all of them with powers that far exceed her own.

I'm not sure I do either, honestly. I mean, I know what he did to us, but I really don't have any idea why." I can honestly say this was one of the most bizarre books I've ever read! I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction, but this book was so unique and eccentric, it would blow the mind of even the most seasoned readers:

I finally got around to reading The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins, which had been on my TBR list ever since it released in June 2015. Thank goodness books are not buses – if you’re late, you can still catch it – because I loved this ride. So when I heard tell of a book which was apparently so hard to categorise it was said to be in a genre of its own, I of course had to try it. This wasn’t surprising. The list of things that Steve found objectionable was long and growing. It included the Library itself (“How can the furniture hang on the ceiling like that? It’s creepy.”); the jade floor (“Jade isn’t supposed to glow.”); the apothecary (“What the hell is that thing? I’m out of here.”); the armory (David’s trophies made him throw up); the Pelapi language (“It sounds like cats fighting”); her robes (“Did you borrow those from Death?” She hadn’t.); and, of course, Carolyn herself.” What is more, is that while Carolyn and her fellow Pelapi are fairly casual about some aspects of the fantasy world, there are plainly others that terrify them, not the least Father himself.The Library at Mount Char is an odd little fantasy about a tribe of orphaned children being raised in a "library" by Father, an enigmatic cult-like leader (or so it seems at first). One of the most sadistic characters, if not the most sadistic character, I've come across in fiction, Father is thousands of years old and has written the books contained in the world's largest library (the one at Mount Char), cataloging all of the knowledge of all times. When Carolyn's and 11 other children's parents are killed, Father adopts them all and begins training them to be Librarians. The ways in which he does so are..... are.... well, let's just say he would never win the Parent of the Year award. As originally conceived Mount Char was going to be more of a fish-out-of-water comedy type of thing. This REALLY old dude who grew up thinking in neolithic language had somehow stumbled on the secret of immortality and is now living in the suburbs. He's lonely because he doesn't have anyone to talk to--he's fluent in English, of course, but there's no one who understands how the world really works under the hood. So he takes these kids and teaches them in the old ways so he'll have someone to talk to. Eventually you end up with this one peculiar neighborhood where they can (for instance) raise the dead, but nobody knows how to make a phone call. I thought there was some comedic potential there. The ending is very satisfying – things are somehow fully explained without completely closing the door on the option for a sequel, if the author can figure out a few small details. (There is no sequel announced but the author has not ruled out the possibility.) I would take a sequel, though, if anyone’s asking. And I wouldn’t let it sit for nearly 2 years on my TBR list. After years of fear and torture at the hands of the Father and some of her siblings, Carolyn wants to break free from her living nightmare. She knows that she can't trust anyone, but she also doesn't know all of her Father's secrets.

Time works differently in the library at Mount Char. It is home to the Pelapi, best described as librarians. Apprentices to Father, they have been assigned to catalogs of special learnings.Funny, horrifying and original…the kind of story that keeps yanking you off in ridiculous new directions every time you think you know what’s coming next.” —David Wong, New York Times bestselling author of John Dies at the End

After several decades of learning their assigned catalog, Father goes missing, and a mysterious trap settles around the Library that causes severe harm (and probably death) to any who get too close. Carolyn and her “family” must find a solution. The knowledge in the Library is vast enough for someone to be a God and truly rule the world; it must be reclaimed before Father’s enemies can take control of it. Get the feeling I’m trying not to tell you much about the story? You’re right. That’s because I think this is a book where the less you know, the better off you are. I simply recommend you open your mind and let Hawkins take you away. My conclusions Of course, this isn’t actually a mystery book, either. The book is classified under “contemporary fantasy”, and I guess that will have to do. I don’t want to go into the plot too much because half the fun of this book is the slow, steady reveal of how weird and crazy things are. Suffice to say, I have not read anything like it before, and just when I thought I figured out what’s going on, I was sooner proven wrong. At the story’s center are Carolyn and Steve. He’s “American,” meaning “normal.” And she’s mostly comfortable in America but not really “of it.” Their past could possibly be linked, but Hawkins uses the entire book to gradually explain exactly how. In the present, however, she’s inwardly devious with an outward innocent streak. And her foil Steve is equal parts naïve and steely jawed. Monthly Group Themed Read. Each month our members select a small set of related books to read and discuss as a group. See our bookshelves to see our past reads.

Reader Reviews

Carolyn can barely remember being American. When she was eight, on the day her parents died, the nearly omnipotent being she calls Father took her and eleven other children to become Pelapi; that is librarians, to guard The Library which exists outside normal time and space and each master one of the twelve catalogues which contain Father’s vast knowledge. Under Father’s brutal instruction, Carolyn and the other Pelapi have gained fantastic powers, though at costs they cannot fully comprehend. When Father goes missing however, reality hangs in the balance, since cruel though Father could be, there are worse things even than him, dark and hungry beings which have been waiting. Not the least of these are the Pelapi themselves, such is Carolyn’s psychotic brother David, adept in the arts of war and murder, or Margarette who walks the land of the dead. The Library at Mount Char is the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. I feel like I used that exact same line in another book review recently, but I lied if that's the case. This book really is the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. If I use that line again in the near future, please remind me that I'm lying about that book, too. I think I've made my point way too clear at this point. I've gotta stop using the same word multiple times in the same sentence even if the meaning is different. i think my obstacle is that with MR and slipstream, things are only just slightly tweaked, and what i relish is that unsettling feeling - that the possibility for fantastical occurrences is present, but there's still something concrete and recognizable to ground me. A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children. The book follows Carolyn, a young woman who has had a curious life. She was a normal, American girl until her parents died, at which point she – and other young orphans – went to live with Father, a man with unlimited power and knowledge. He brought them to live at his mansion, taught them to speak Pelapi (his ancient langauge), and sequestered them from American culture. Father set each of his newly adopted children to learn a specific section (“catalog”) of his Library with basically two rules: do not fail, and do not learn anything outside of your assigned catalog. The orphans do help each other when possible – assisting with some lessons, and helping with the after-effects of other lessons. Turns out that it is super helpful to have someone around who has been studying resurrection when you die.