Review – The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Title:  The Archived

Author:  Victoria Schwab

Pages:  328

Series:  No, standalone

Genre:  Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Publisher:  Hyperion

Date Published:  January 22, 2013

My Rating:   ****

Goodreads Summary:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

My Thoughts:  I was really interested in this book when I first heard about it.  When you read a LOT of books like I do, sometimes the plots seem to follow along the same lines.  The Archived is completely different from anything I have read before.   The concept of the story is very creative.  It started off kind of slow at first, but I kept going and I’m glad I did.  I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading the second half of the book in one night.

Likes:

• Dead people stored like library books on shelves.
• The hotel and it’s past was intriguing.
• My favorite character was Roland.  He was a mentor and friend to Mackenzie.

Dislikes:

• Slow start.
• Confusing at the beginning.  Keeps talking about Da, but never explains his relationship to Mackenzie until about the middle of the book.

Would I Recommend This Book?  Yes.  It’s the first book I have read by this author but if you can get past the slow start, I think the rest of the book will draw the reader in, with it’s intriguing plot and uniqueness.

About this Author:

Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say “tom-ah-toes,” “like,” and “y’all.”

She also tells stories.

She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.

Other Books by This Author:

• The Near Witch Series
• Vicious
• Warm Up
• The Unbound (The Archived #2)