Where did the magic come from? How do Obscurists exist? How did the governing system of the Great Library come to be? I don’t know when Caine wrote these books in her career timeline, but there were inconsistencies in the writing, not just with the world building but also with the characters, that at times made it difficult to form a clear picture in my head. That said, I wished that we got more of a backstory to how this world came to be. There is a great deal of Egyptian influence in society and I thought the world that Caine built around this alternate history was unique. As is to be expected in a world that’s highly regulated, there’s rebellion in the form of book smugglers, Burners, and even the likes of ink-lickers (that are seriously disgusting). The descriptions of this alternate world and its current events were simultaneously beautiful and horrifying. I enjoyed these parts because they gave us more of the back story and ‘behind-the-scenes’ events that happened in real time further on. At the start, the epigraphs were about historical events that you don’t learn the importance of until further on in the story. The story alternates between regular chapters, told from Jess Brightwell’s perspective, and epigraphs. “There are three parts to learning: information, knowledge and wisdom, A mere accumulation of information is not knowledge, and a treasure of knowledge is not in itself, wisdom.” The pacing was slow and I found myself getting lost in the details of this alternate world, but I kept on reading because I was hoping that it would pick up and I wasn’t disappointed!

I admit to having a difficult time getting into the story initially. How could my interest not be piqued after reading this blurb? Caine presents such a fascinating retold history wherein The Great Library of Alexandria is the most powerful entity in the world and knowledge is highly regulated.

The great library series rachel caine