I’ve never read any book like this. The concept is fascinating and leaves much to be explored. The only thing keeping me from a 5 star review is that it’s disturbing. Pretty much every content warning you can think of is in here. 

Pretty sure I just read the result of a bad acid trip and I loved it

Absolutely batshit insane.
I loved it.

Trigger warnings galore. The gore and torment is intense.
I doubt I’ll reread it, but it was a wild journey. Definitely not for everyone.

A wild ride from start to finish. This book is for the readers who grew up on stories about kids with powers (e.g. Animorphs, Percy Jackson) and who want the adult version. The type of book that I would recommend to everyone - if only the content warning list wasn’t so long!

It's pure coincidence that both my book clubs picked books with 'library' in the title in the same month, and that neither of them actually spend all that much time in a library or doing any reading. Of the two (The Library at Mount Char and The Library of the Dead), this book is far more action-orientated, which is even more surprising for a book supposedly about librarians. (At least in book form; film and TV librarians are quite often action heroes!) 

Scott Hawkins plunges readers straight into Caroline's life after Father (not her biological parent) goes missing, with only brief flashbacks to provide backstory. There's a lot of darkness in both the past and present, and it's interesting to see how it has affected all of Father's adopted children. By midway through the novel, it's obvious that there is a plan being enacted, even if the details of that plan aren't given. The introduction of other perspective characters complicates things. Erwin is even more of an action star than Caroline: a literal war hero who would feel at home in Modern Warfare or could be played by Dwayne Johnson. It makes The Library at Mount Char feel like two very different books smashed together, which certainly keeps things interesting! 

While it's never exactly clear what the 'win condition' of the novel is going to be, Scott Hawkins definitely throws in a late curveball once the titular library is actually reached. Up until that point, the character arcs feel like they're moving in a particular direction. After it, everything is up in the air and the final ending is far more bleak for everyone involved than might have been anticipated. The bleakness in itself isn't necessarily bad — Steve’s ending is beautiful, in a very bittersweet kind of way — but it does feel as though the novel swerved dramatically from the track it previously seemed to be following.

Despite the lack of what I'll call 'library aesthetic', I was never bored with The Library at Mount Char. 

 This was the book club pick for October and I loved it. That might be an understatement, this book alone justifies an entire year of meh picks and really highlights the value of reading books that are off of your radar. To my eye this is nearly a perfect book, it's got rollercoaster pacing, true-to-life dialogue, humor in spades, and the most cohesive/tight plotting of anything that I've read this year (and I finished The Culture this year). I cannot believe that outside of some technical manuals, this is Scott Hawkins' debut; this is a first try that has left me in awe.

Before I dive in I usually do this for books that need one: Here is your mature content warning, this book has basically every possible trigger under the sun, there's graphic murder and gore, rape and sexual assault, there's mass murder and violence to animals.

The story revolves around Carolyn, one of several orphans taken in by a mysterious and god-like figure known as Father. Each child is assigned a specific catalog of knowledge to master, and Carolyn's domain is the Library, a place that houses unimaginable secrets and powers. When Father goes missing, the children, now adults with god-like abilities, must confront the mysteries of the library and the past. If the summary left you glossy-eyed and uninterested I can't blame you, but this is one of those books that the blurb on the jacket won't ever be able to do justice to.

As I draft this review I think I've written the phrase "unlike anything i've ever read" at least a hundred times only to delete and rephrase as I think about it a little more. The thing is that there are works that are similar to this in premise, atmosphere, or tone; examples from my list are The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite, The Wasp Factory, The Book of the New Sun. But from a writing standpoint, this book is wholly unique, I saw it written in another review and I cannot help but agree, that reading this book is an exercise in trusting the author.

So let's talk about the writing for a second. This is a complex and challenging book, it's non-linear in structure and the story is fragmented, with flashbacks interspersed every few chapters to drip-feed the reader the backstory and context. There is a distinct feeling of unreliability in the narration, reading this gave me the sense that I never once had the complete picture and that there was something truly horrible looming just over the horizon. If you're someone who reads a lot of fiction that sense of mystery and unease usually dissolves as you get a sense of what type of story is being told, but that moment is never within reach in this novel. Just when you think you've figured out the rules of the world, Hawkins throws in a curveball that leaves you questioning everything.

Part of that unpredictability is rooted in the characters, and we have a whole host of eccentric and terrifying characters, not least of all the main character, Carolyn. All I can really say is that she is one scary-ass lady. As more of her is revealed in each increasingly horrible flashback the tension of this book ratchets up another notch as you piece together the plot and Carolyn's role in the story. It's not just Carolyn, this book reveals more and more facets of each of its characters; the more we know the more we have to take into account the effects of the horror and brutality of their upbringing. Characters that you thought you knew can change completely with a simple revelation, all of their actions and your reckoning of them completely upended and leaving you blown away in the chaotic swirl.

I don't want to paint this book as overly serious and dark, Hawkins is a master at pairing levity with horror. As much as this book made me wince and shift uncomfortably it made me laugh out loud at just how fun all this madness can be. This story jumps from one horror to another but he never fails to use humor expertly as a relief valve; the president could be beheaded in one paragraph and his head would blow raspberries and kisses in the next. Much of the humor is in the banter and dialogue which I also loved, Hawkins writes these absolutely wacky characters but gives them frank and believable dialogue with much of the humor being couched in absurdity and wit.

I've got two closing notes and that's a wrap. The first is that I loved how direct the prose was in this book, this isn't to say there is an absence of beautiful and flowery language because there is but it's only used when appropriate. The majority of this book is direct and brutal, people don't get shot or pierced through, people get "Half their guts blown out" or get their "heart and lungs obliterated, sending a good bit of tissue out a fist-sized hole in his back". The second note is that I loved the ending, it felt like every little puzzle piece fell into place and the things I took note of were addressed in a complete and satisfying way.

TL;DR: The best description I can give is that there's a team of super kids with an unfathomable and terrifying father, intense flashes of violence and mayhem paired with dark humor, and non-linear dream-ish storytelling.