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A review by simonlorden
That Night in the Library by Eva Jurczyk
3.5
I received an ARC through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
That Night in the Library is a fast-paced, locked room thriller taking place during one night... yes, in a library. Seven people gather in an old library basement under several levels of concrete to get high on drugs and recreate an ancient Greek ritual. Because that can never go wrong. And suddenly, those few hours until morning seem impossibly long.
It wasn't clear to me from the blurb that pretty much the entire cast is on drugs for the entirety of the book. This definitely makes the whole thing feel like a fever dream, complete with hallucinations and erratic behavior. It also gets pretty bloody and gore-y. There are even some fun trivia moments about old libraries and old books.
The ending has a good callback to the beginning and wraps up the story nicely - I certainly didn't expect those last few sentences.
I suppose my only complaint is that the drugging kind of provides a "good excuse" for the murders, so it felt less "real" to me. It was still an exciting read, but probably not something I'd re-read.
That Night in the Library is a fast-paced, locked room thriller taking place during one night... yes, in a library. Seven people gather in an old library basement under several levels of concrete to get high on drugs and recreate an ancient Greek ritual. Because that can never go wrong. And suddenly, those few hours until morning seem impossibly long.
It wasn't clear to me from the blurb that pretty much the entire cast is on drugs for the entirety of the book. This definitely makes the whole thing feel like a fever dream, complete with hallucinations and erratic behavior. It also gets pretty bloody and gore-y. There are even some fun trivia moments about old libraries and old books.
The ending has a good callback to the beginning and wraps up the story nicely - I certainly didn't expect those last few sentences.
I suppose my only complaint is that the drugging kind of provides a "good excuse" for the murders, so it felt less "real" to me. It was still an exciting read, but probably not something I'd re-read.