Review: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Book info:
Title:  Ink and Bone  
Author:  Rachel Caine
Series:  The Great Library #1  
Genre:  YA Alternate magical reality/fantasy
Published:  July 7th, 2015
Source: Checked out from high school library where I work

Okay, this book had a lot of great ideas, and very interesting themes.  I'm not sure it was as good as I'd hoped though.  I ended up giving it 4 stars on Goodreads, but I almost feel like I would only give it 3 now, because I can't remember quite why I ended up giving it the 4.

This is a very unique story, telling about kind of an alternate universe or history, where the Great Library of Alexandria was never destroyed.  First off, that would be so incredible if that was true.  So many things that the world lost when that was burned.  In this world though, there is also magic.  Magic is used by the library, as it is kind of a governing body in a way.  It controls what people can or can't read.  Everyone has what I think is a tablet type of reader.  On there they record a diary or journal of their own life, and when they die, their journal is added to the library.  

The main character in this story is a boy named Jess.  His parents are part of a family that is very big in the underground sale of actual, physical books.  Something that is highly illegal, people are not allowed to actually own physical books.  We start the book with a bit of a flashback to when Jess was young, and then we join back in when he is of the age that he can take a test and possibly go to work for the Great Library. While it seems that would not be something his family would want, or that they would feel he was betraying them, they actually encourage him to go, to be able to help them by giving them warning when there is about to be a raid, or even inside information on how to get or steal books that customers are willing to pay a lot of money.

When Jess gets selected to go be trained, things aren't quite what they seem.  While there are some areas he does well in, there are others that he does not.  He does seem to have one of the powers that are used to take books and send them back to the home location to be cataloged and put out in a way that the public is allowed to see and use them.  But once there he first meets a new friend.  A boy who thinks he has a great idea, a type of machine that can make the books more available to everyone, not just the librarians.  Well, this may be a bit of treason here.  And it may put Jess's friend in danger.  He will also meet a girl who is being chased by the library for her own types of magical talents.  They want to lock her up in the tower.  

In this world there are book burners.  They will set up to bomb an area, and in the bombing they do kill themselves, along with taking their own journal, so that the library will not have their record.  It is all of these things, a war also going on, treachery within the library, that Jess will have to deal with.  Along with a brother that he is not quite sure if he is on his side or not.

There's a lot in this story.  And I will probably at some point go and read the sequel, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to.

Review - Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions - A collection of short stories by 16 different authors

I checked this book out from the high school library where I work because I really wanted to read it.  I'm glad I did, as I can now say I have read a story by one of the authors I'll be moderating a panel with in May, just in case I don't get a chance to read her newest book before then.  That author is Kelley Armstrong.  Along with some authors I haven't read before, there were a few of my favorite authors in this book:  Sarah Rees Brennan, Ally Condie, Carrie Ryan, and Rachel Vincent to name a few.  One of my new favorites, Kimberly Derting was also a part of this.

Some of the stories go along with series of books, such as Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers series, and Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series.  Even Carrie Ryan's story fits into the world of her Forest of Hands and Teeth series.  While I haven't read the Morganville Vampire series, and still don't know that I will, I really did like the story in this book, Automatic.  It reminded me a bit of the whole True Blood idea of making synthetic blood.  Only in this story, they were putting the blood into cans, and into a vending machine.  But something went wrong with it.  The recipe/formula was more calculated for the vampires that had been around longer, and caused the younger ones to lose themselves to the monster inside.

I haven't read Claudia Gray before, unless it was another short story, but her story, Giovanni's Farewell, the first one in the book, was one I really enjoyed.  Ravenna and Cairo were twins, who have a very close connection.  But they have kind of grown apart a bit, until a class trip to Italy.  She finds out that the little episodes her brother has are because he can hear/see what everyone around him is thinking, and it is a lot to take in.  At the same time, Ravenna learns while in one of the tombs that she can see dead people.  I won't tell too much more, just wanted to point out that I really liked this story, and now will have to read the other books Claudia Gray has written.

Another of my favorite stories in the book was Red Run by Kami Garcia.  It's based on one of those old stories about there being a ghost on a stretch of road that if you stopped to pick him up, you would die in an automobile accident or something.  I enjoyed the twist on the story that Garcia put to make it different.

The final story I'll talk about is by another author I haven't read before, Jeri Smith-Ready.  It is called Bridge, and is written in a prose sort of way.  It's about a future when people born after a certain time can often see ghosts.  And there is a ghost who wants to talk to his brother, to save his brother from killing himself out of guilt that it was his fault his brother died.

Sixteen paranormal stories, some better than others, but I think everyone will like different ones based on what types of stories and writing they prefer or enjoy.