Book Review: The Library at Mount Char

 

“Mount Char: Haven’t finished it yet, but already have something to say”

"For the love of strange, weird and unusual books I've ever read."

I look at my bookshelf, there are four or six books still in their cages. I bought it all in July, haven't read it till now. Even though my ego of collecting books without reading it --at least for one year after keeping it-- doesn't seem to bother me to look out for another prey.

Hmm, what should I get this time? Goodreads moment has come!

After being introduced to Lovecraft, finished Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation, and re-read Junji Ito's Uzumaki hundreds of times, my thirst for weird fiction became stronger. I’ve read so many weird stories that it feels like the alien itself who wrote the book. Deep dive into the worlds of the unknown. 

"THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR" by Scott Hawkins. His fantasy debut.

Users said that this is the most bizarre book they ever read. I'm in! Only a hundred first pages and I already have an urged to write something.

It's indeed strange. The world of this book is very surreal. 

“A missing God. A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.”

A story about Carolyn and many other children who have been abducted by the man they called Father after their parents died. The children keep hidden in the places called Garrison Oaks. There, all of them are taught to be "Librarians" by Father to gain Godlike power. One kid, one catalog to control specific aspects of the universe. They were forbidden to learn anything outside their catalog. Now, Father was missing. They looking for him to find that their place lies the secret of the universe.

How Scott Hawkins represented the Librarians as powerful beings with supernatural force and infinite knowledge beyond human comprehension, was amazing. What humans are capable of, the boundary between humans and God is well described in this book. 

“You? Really. Interesting. Tell me, David, why do you think that I did not teach Margaret of Gahn ayrial myself?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Because I did not wish for her to learn it!” Father thundered. – 

Father didn't want his children to get overpowered by their ability. The children not allowed to learn beyond their catalog is the same as we as a human not allowed to questioning somethings we cannot understand about this universe. 

Knowledge is the most lethal weapon. 

Know-nothing could harm you 

but knowing everything could also make you lose sanity, 

then what will you choose?

I need to continue to read it again tomorrow. 

Gadis N, twenty years old ordinary human, sipped a coffee and makes poems about voids.