NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bookseller must escape the infamously haunted library that holds her darkest secrets, but with a murderer in her tour group, escaping alive is not as simple as it seems, in this twisty locked-room thriller from the bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited.
Not all fairytales were meant for children.
Aria Stokes is finally feeling settled—she lives in a tiny New York apartment, works as a bookseller at a local shop, and has even taken a leap of faith in love by indulging her attraction to bookstore regular Jasper. And he seems to already know her so well.
As a Valentine’s Day surprise, Jasper gets the two of them tickets to an exclusive, after-dark tour of the Daedalus Library—the grandiose establishment famed for its immersive genre-based reading rooms and, more notoriously, its rumored hauntings. While Aria normally loves all things ghastly, this place holds more dark secrets than she’d prefer Jasper to know. Like that the last time she was here, she left a body behind.
But when the automatic-door entry malfunctions and Aria, Jasper, and the five other people in their tour group become trapped in the library, they are forced to venture through the storied rooms and hidden passageways of the Daedalus in search of escape . . . and Aria quite literally has nowhere to hide from the shadows of her past. Then the group learns there’s a murderer in their midst.
Now, as she tries to break out of the library’s intricate reading rooms, Aria has to decide who she can trust—and what secrets are best kept buried—if she wants to make it out alive.
My Thoughts After Reading:
Even though the murderous events in The Library After Dark take place on Valentine’s Day, it’s the perfect book for October’s spooky season.
As you know if you’ve read any of my other blogs, I love novels with multiple viewpoints. In The Library After Dark, we hear from everyone trapped inside the Daedalus. Somehow, despite being in the minds of 8+ people, I
1. wasn’t lost and
2. didn’t dislike a single character.
That is a feat! I tandem read this one – reading our library’s copy and listening to the audiobook. I did prefer listening because it’s a full cast narration. However, the physical copy is worth paging through for the detailed library map, guest list reference, and fairytale illustrations.
This is a expertly layered, locked-room mystery. Each character has their own history, their own reasons for being there, and something they would very much prefer to keep hidden. I guessed a couple motives but more often, I was completely surprised by the twists and reveals.
The real star of the book might be the Daedalus itself. The setting manages to be both a book lover’s dream and a horror lover’s nightmare. I wish it was a real library!
My favorite part was the chapters from a mysterious collection of fairy tales called The Dark Hearth Tales woven throughout the novel. A book within a book? Yes, please! The wood-carved rabbit story kind of broke my heart, especially when you understand the origin of the Tales.
Two things to note:
- This is definitely on the darker side with some gruesome and graphic scenes. This is NOT a cozy mystery.
- There is an underlining romance. Apparently, I like a little ‘will they, won’t they?’ with my murders but that might not be for everyone.
– Michelle
