Book Review: The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman

Oh my goodness but I love love LOVE this series!! Genevieve Cogman has done an absolutely brilliant job writing an omage to libraries and readers and lovers of language… The characters are marvelous, the ongoing developing story is a long-range marvel of intricate back and forths that are teased out from book to book. Additionally, each book has a delightfully new angle of its own that brings together character development and backstory revelations while still providing a new and entertaining mystery to be resolved.

In this latest installment, Irene and her fearless companions are confronting enemies they thought were long gone, and their arrival on the scene is both unexpected and delightful at the same time. As always the writing is brilliant, the characterization is incredibly complex and delicately managed, and the whole thing was a delight from page one until the very end.

I cannot wait for the next book in the series! Incidentally, I also have to go back and re-read all the earlier ones – while I continue to read these books as they come out and thoroughly enjoy each one, I suspect there are small but interesting things that I am missing along the way – the storylines and character development are so involved here, that I’m very curious to see what I find when I go back and start the series again… Unfortunately time is not on my side these days, so I haven’t been able to do that yet – I had hoped to do it before this book, but there was just no way it was going to get done.

Incidentally, I wouldn’t recommend starting this one mid series – it’s one thing to go a year or more between books, it’s another entirely to jump into the middle of something this highly involved. Don’t rob yourself – start with book one and savor every bit of the journey… You won’t be sorry!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

The Dark Archive releases in the US on December 29, 2020.