Book Reviews: The Library of Ever books by Zeno Alexander

I bought The Library of Ever and Rebel in the Library of Ever from Book Outlet before I learned of their antisemitism (Book Outlet, not the books). They are fantasy middle grade books about a magical Library and Lenora's learning to be a librarian in it and completing the tasks ahead of her. 

 

With her parents off traveling the globe, Lenora is bored, bored, bored—until she discovers a secret doorway into the ultimate library. Mazelike and reality-bending, the library contains all the universe’s wisdom. Every book ever written, and every fact ever known, can be found within its walls. And Lenora becomes its newly appointed Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian.

She rockets to the stars, travels to a future filled with robots, and faces down a dark nothingness that wants to destroy all knowledge. To save the library, Lenora will have to test her limits and uncover secrets hidden among its shelves. 

Obviously I loved this. Magic library outside of space and time? Sign me up! (Literally. Can I work there?) Some quibbles: having Lenora be a "poor little rich girl" at the mercy of her neglectful nanny does not inspire you to like her or make her relatable. Obviously neglectful/absent parents are a staple of children's literature, as only then can the adventures begin, but why make her rich? It adds nothing to the story, and it doesn't make sense with her helpfulness and responsibility, as rich kids don't learn those traits, nor is it really expected of them until they're older. I also didn't like the library staff ranking and how it was applied. There's no such thing as assistant apprentice librarians, and children cannot be librarians. This feeds into the "everyone who works in a library is a librarian" myth, which is not true. You have to have an MLIS/MLS to be a librarian. Lenora gets her status upgraded magically every time she successfully helps a patron, which, I get it, magic library, but it also rankled my librarian nerves. Also, she keeps getting yanked around to different library desks as soon as she answers a patron question, which makes no sense. Why don't they have more library staff? What rankled my librarian nerves even more was how little training Lenora got. She was placed at a desk and told how to greet patrons and then told to help them, but not how. That is not how it works!! Why does she only interact with one other librarian (the awesome Malachi) and can't work with or ask any other librarian for help or information? Our part-time and new librarians (all college-educated adults) had to shadow current librarians at the reference desk for a few sessions and undergo training in order to staff the reference desk by themselves, and they just stick a 10 year old at a desk and tell her to say "how may I help you?"?? Irresponsible. To be fair, a lot of children's adventure stories don't really have any training; the kids just promise to do something (as Lenora does) and boom, they are the wizard or king or questers or whatever. Despite my librarian rants, I did love this story, and I want to spend more time in the Library of Ever.  4.5 out of 5 stars, keeping.  Trigger warnings (that I remember): adults and robots attempt/threaten to harm a child, fantasy violence, ants, unscientific space and time travel, incorrect library staff procedures and hiring

 

Lenora returns to the magical Library—which holds every book ever known on its shelves. But she discovers the Library is under new management, its incredible rooms and corridors turned dark and sinister.

She quickly connects with a secret resistance that’s trying to free knowledge from the shadows threatening it. Her new friends introduce her to an ancient lost city, hang-gliding, and mathematical beings larger than the universe itself. And they help her face the mysterious Board of new leaders—who are leading the Library into darkness.

Now it’s up to Lenora to prove that knowledge is always more powerful than ignorance and fear.

This book is set not long after the first one, although of course the Library of Ever is outside of time and space. It picks up the thread of the Forces of Darkness (i.e. censorship) trying to misinform patrons and fight the Library and centers it as the main plot point and issue of this book. This time, the Forces of Darkness have infiltrated the Board (which is in charge of the Library), removing books and firing librarians. The tone of the book is therefore darker and more suspenseful than the first, and Lenora's fight to help patrons and defeat the Forces of Darkness feels scary and real. We are in the midst of a rise in book-banning and censorship, and it often feels like the Forces of Darkness will win. We need to fight for libraries and the right to read and remember that "knowledge is a light." Like the first book, we meet more fascinating beings and concepts and learn lots of new things. I found the sub-library of forgotten works to be fascinating and sad. May all works and knowledge come to light. 4.5 out of 5 stars, keeping.  Trigger warnings (that I remember): adults and monsters attempt/threaten to harm children, fear and (child-level) horror, censorship, book-banning, misinformation, theft, despair

 

There are two books in this series, and I need more. Zeno Alexander appears to be a fictional person and pen name a la Lemony Snicket. I highly recommend these books to anyone who loves libraries and magic.

See my aesthetics moodboard for the duology!