Monday, September 17, 2012

Libyrinth by Pearl North


Genre:  YA Fantasy
Libyrinth Series, Book 1

Description (taken from Goodreads):
Haly is a Libyrarian, one of a group of people dedicated to preserving and protecting the knowledge passed down from the Ancients and stored in the endless maze of books known as the Libyrinth. But Haly has a secret: The books speak to her.

When the threat of the rival Eradicants drives her from her home, Haly learns that things are not all she thinks they are. Taken prisoner by the Eradicants, who believe the written word to be evil, she sees the world through their eyes and comes to understand that they are not the book-burning monsters that she has known her entire life.

The words of a young girl hiding in an attic—written hundreds of years before Haly’s birth—will spark the interest of her captors and begin the change necessary to end the conflict between the Eradicants and Libyrarians. With the help of her loyal companion Nod, a creature of the Libyrinth, Haly must mend the rift between the two groups before their war for knowledge destroys them all. Haly’s life—and the lives of everyone she knows—will never be the same.

Have you ever read a book about books?  I mean besides the obvious Fahrenheit 451, I can't say I've read a lot of books about books.  And no offense to book readers, the idea of reading about a book seems kind of boring to me (I think I just dissed the whole reading community including myself by saying that).  But Pearl North completely proved me wrong with her book.  Reading about books in a fantasy world is anything but boring.

We're in a fantasy future where people are divided.  We've got the Libyrinths, the literate, whole value the written word and books.  We've got the Eradicants, also known as the Singers, who value the verbal word and music.  These two are on opposite sides of the spectrum and continue to fight claiming one is better over the other.  And really, both are two sides of one apple; they're both needed to form a complete sense of knowledge.  And the journey begins for Haly to help her world conclude with that basic fact.

Haly's world in the beginning was a little bizarre for me.  And there was a lot of description which made me feel long-winded in the beginning.  It took me a bit to become comfortable in Pearl North's world.  But once I got the hang of things, I was hooked.  And Haly has the kind of faith in humanity that I believe most of us had: that there is some basic goodness in all of us.  So of course, she's the perfect narrator for this journey.  And who's that little guy in the cover with Haly?  It's an imp named Nod.  I was so curious about him when I first saw the cover...

Honestly anyone who likes fantasy would enjoy this book.  This book will take you on a journey from the readers to the singers and then somewhere in between.


Thanks goes to Tor Teen for providing me a review copy.

Challenges:  Young Adult Reading Challenge

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...