That plot point usually means a mopey main character and excessive harping on sad things. Normally I would hate this so much because I have zero tolerance or sympathy for the 'dead whoever' card. While she still mourns both of them, her brother's death has just occurred and Mackenzie is one giant raw wound. Not only is Mackenzie alone and forced to keep her Archive secret, but the book opens with Mackenzie having already experienced two losses, her grandfather and her little brother. All I wanted to do was hug her and make everything better.

(In my totally non-authorish head I think of this as 'character dust'-a magical substance only truly exceptional authors have access to and can use to sprinkle on their characters to make me fall in insta-love with them and want to shower them with all the gold stars and friendship bracelets I possess).Įrin Bow pulled this off when she had me sobbing in chapter one, and Victoria Schwab buried me in feelings for Mackenzie from the very beginning. I don't know what it is, but some authors are able to make me instantly feel for their characters despite the fact that I haven't even spent more than a few pages with them yet. So, yeah, I was kind of disappointed right off the bat, but I was also instantly hooked. She was the interesting kind of sad, like Buffy living the lonely life of a slayer (and Buffy comparisons like that are always a positive). It's exhausting! It also makes me sad to see that kind of isolation, and Mackenzie was so, so sad.īut, this turned out to be a good thing, too. I hate it when a main character has to spend so much time and effort lying to her friends and family. The fact that the Archive isn't known to pretty much anyone except Mackenzie and her fellow Archive employees didn't help things for me either.

Before I knew it, I was sucked into Mackenzie's world and I couldn't imagine setting the book in any other place. I was expecting a fantasy world, or at the very least an undefined medieval-ish fantasy-ish world like Victoria Schwab's first book The Near Witch.Īt first I was pretty bummed about this because given the choice between the real world and a fantasy world, I'll pick the fantasy world hands down.īut, I coached myself to 'just go with it' and I tried to forget my disappointment over the location and just settle into the story. I had no idea the setting would be the modern world. Book Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V.Book Review: The Fourth Stall Part III by Chris Ry.Book Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab.Author Interview: Gillian Philip + Giveaway.

Ve schwab the archived