The Library of the Dead

Written by T. L. Huchu

Narrated by Tinashe Warikandwa

"Narrator Tinashe Warikandwa gives dimension to the featured character, Ropa, as she makes her way in a harsh environment. Warikandwa captures the spirit of a young teen who quit school to become a ghost stalker to support her gran, sister, and self." -- AudioFile Magazine

Sixth Sense meets Stranger Things in T. L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead, a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.

WHEN GHOSTS TALK
SHE WILL LISTEN

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and they sure do love to talk. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and strength. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will rock her world.

Ropa will dice with death as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. And although underground Edinburgh hides a wealth of dark secrets, she also discovers an occult library, a magical mentor and some unexpected allies.

Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

"A fast-moving and entertaining tale, beautifully written." – Ben Aaronovitch, bestselling author of Rivers of London

"An absolute delight . . . kept me totally hooked." – Genevieve Cogman, bestselling author of The Invisible Library

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250790170

T. L. Huchu

T. L. Huchu is a writer whose short fiction has appeared in publications such as Lightspeed, Interzone, Analog Science Fiction and Fact and elsewhere. The Library of the Dead won Best Novel at the Nommo Awards, presented by the African Speculative Fiction Society. And his work has also been short-listed for the Caine Prize and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire. Between projects, he translates fiction from Shona into English and the reverse. He is the author of the Edinburgh Nights series.

Reviews for The Library of the Dead

[Billie · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Library of the Dead
by T.L. Huchu

This is the first book of a young adult series based in Edinburgh, Scotland. I listened to the audio version through Scribd and while I know the characters are Scottish and have accents, the narrator's accent was somewhat hard to understand especially through a phone's speaker. I had to restart because I couldn't understand, and slowed down the playback for a couple of chapters so I could 'learn' the accent and understand it. But that wasn't the big issue I had with the narrator, I felt as if she had no emotion for the story, and she read it like she was reading the back of a cereal box.

But for the story in general, about a girl in a future Edinburgh, (what happened to it and the rest of the world is very vague,) who can talk to ghosts and relay messages from them to their families for a price, was good. There were a lot of 'history' lessons, the MC reading out of books, including the formal that makes magic possible, that was the most boring part of the book, and I was about ready to stop listening but I only had an hour left. Plus I had the mystery solved, the who done it, by halfway.

It seemed as if the author was also trying to shove in a bunch of short stories to add to the drama, but even though they did connect to the ending and to the who and why, for me, they took a lot away from the main idea of the story because those shorts were rambled, without a lot of detail. They needed more substance. The main one could’ve made a really interesting story on its own, it could also come back and ‘haunt’ the MC in later books.

And the title of the book doesn't have anything to do with the main plot, it has to do with a side plot. Not a lot of drama takes place in the Library.

Honestly, I'm not sure how readers would take to this story, especially with the general tone of the writing, there's not much flare, and what is there sometimes is too forced, but there are some good ones that fit really nicely.

2 stars

[Danneika Graise · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting. I look forward to book 2 when it comes out