The Library of the Dead by TL Huchu is another terrific examples of a fictional world that is out there in terms of what a reader might expect, but written with such confidence as to be irresistible.
Inventive and entertaining, the book is set in an alternative dystopian version of Edinburgh and follows teenage girl Ropa as she earns a living as a ghostalker, passing messages between the living and the dead.
In this universe, magic of various kinds is an accepted reality and the line between the ordinary and fantastical worlds is blurred. Ropa is hired by a dead woman to find her missing son, and it leads her on a path to discover the city’s dark secrets.
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Huchu imbues his strange world with wonderful and believable details, and Ropa’s blend of African mysticism and Scottish pragmatism is central to her appeal, a terrific central character for a properly immersive story from start to finish.
