“Here there be dragons.”
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn is not to be missed. My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the review copy; this book is for sale now.
Kate Quinn is a well-established author, but I didn’t encounter her work until 2024, when I read and reviewed The Briar Club. I loved that novel so hard that I was dismayed to see that this new one was not historical fiction. Fantasy? (Heavy sigh!) Oh, all right. Fine. I’ll read it anyway.
My initial impression was that this was a lazy way to build a plot. Place 1, place 2, place 3 and so on. Ho hum. But like Quinn’s version of Boston Public Library, this book is not what it seems to be on the surface. There’s also an important social message about censorship and book burning that’s built into the plot, and I don’t care how much others may hate seeing “politics” in a novel; this is a message thoughtful readers can get behind. The librarian in charge of the special section is a magnificent character, as is the fashion designer that befriends Alix. As for Alix, I love that she is plus-size!
It was a good decision.
Our protagonist is Alix Watson, a young woman that’s recently aged out of the foster care system. Her mother abandoned her when she was still small because her new boyfriend “wasn’t into the whole kid thing.” She left Alix with a couple of frozen meals and went to California.
Foster kids tend to be shuffled from place to place, seldom bonding or sticking, and so the Boston Public Library became Alix’s happy place. Now here she is, a grown woman—barely—and the library has become one of her parttime employers. She is nonplussed one day when she receives a written invitation to visit a little-known part of the library, a secret place where the books are alive and patrons may step into them—literally! Choose a story whose time and place appeals to you, and off you go.
Those looking for a coming of age story with feminist roots could hardly do better; those just looking for a darn good story will find it here. The outstanding ending pushed this one out of four-star territory and into five. Highly recommended.
Seattle Book Mama 