The Library After Dark - Ande Pliego

THE LIBRARY AFTER DARK

ANDE PLIEGO

**

In the centre of New York stands the city’s most notorious library.

It has a history of mysterious disappearances and freak accidents. But tonight, it opens its doors to welcome a group of strangers for an exclusive after-hours tour.

The famous author. The journalist. The professor. The bookseller. The architect.

They are here to see a legendary book – one of the most valuable in the world. But each visitor also has other, more sinister reasons for being in the library after dark.

As the tour takes them deeper into the building, one of the guests meets a gruesome, inexplicable end – and the others realise they are living on borrowed time.

The search for the murderer forces them to confront awful truths about themselves and decide which secrets are worth dying – or killing – to keep.

MY REVIEW

**

A crime thriller/mystery/horror story set in an after-hours tour of a library? Count me in!

An exclusive tour of a famous and mysterious library after dark sees six guests fighting for their lives to glimpse a first edition of a book of dark fairytales.

Andre Pliego’s first novel ‘You Are Fatally Invited’ was a three-star read for me – I absolutely loved the premise, which feels quite familiar to the plot of this novel. I loved the idea of an after-hours tour of a library and there’s actually a lot more horror elements to this book than I was expecting, which I enjoyed. I had much of the same issues with this novel as I did with the other one though. All of the characters felt very similar to each other which made it hard to sort out their motivations from each other. The plot of this book also felt a lot less defined; I really struggled to work out what was going on by the end of it as the author threw plot twist after plot twist at the reader and hoped they would keep up. I still don’t really understand the relevance of the book of dark fairytales which felt like a major plotting issue. By the time we’d finished with the shock reveals at the end of the chapters, I found myself not really caring about any of the characters – they all had secret identities and horrible secrets so I found myself unable to root for anyone.

Although I loved the idea of the setting of this grand library with a lot of themed rooms and secret passageways, it seemed to be very impractical in terms of everyday use, and I struggled to picture a lot of it. The chapters are also interspersed with short stories from the dark fairytale book. I initially liked this, but they didn’t seem to go anywhere or build to anything, and I found towards the end they interrupted the flow of the main storyline too much.

Overall, The Library After Dark is a great premise but suffered a lot of the same issues I had with You Are Fatally Invited – a confusing plot, vague characters and a setting I could not easily get immersed in (even more egregious as it’s a library!). Thank you to NetGalley & Random House UK – Transworld Publishers – Bantam for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK

Waterstones