Book Review: The Lively Library and An Unlikely Romance

The Lively Library… is a novella that uses animism to create a narrative of books coming to life. A young man inherits a library and sets it up despite his wishes to the contrary. He and other library members are unaware that the books of the library come alive at night. The story from here on involves many different plots that arise and resolve fairly quickly. It is a quick read but could have been fleshed out more.

I liked the first half of the book much more than the rest of it. The description of the various sections of the library was a good start to the book. The plot seemed interesting at the beginning but it soon got boring. Towards the end, there was an attempt at mystery was quite simplistic. The book left me with mixed feelings. To me, it seemed that this may be due to a confusion about the target reader group. The first half seemed suitable for readers of all age groups but the second half seemed suitable only for younger audience. Besides this, I did not come across any grammatical or typographical errors. This made for a smooth and quick read.