I’m suffering from post-book syndrome. Another brilliant work by the one and only Ms Genevieve Cogman with the brilliant third volume of the Invisible Library saga. Twice as packed with action than the first two volumes put together, a lot more trouble and difficult decisions for Irene. A mind-blowing finale felt me completely breathless, shaking and crying that I have to wait until December 2017 for the next novel!
Our hero, Irene, is currently suffering from her early behaviour towards the disregard of Library rules. As punishment, she is sent on minor missions with her friend and assistant Kai while taking residence in the world of Vale, the great detective. But since when does the life of a Library spy runs smoothly? When the doors to the Library start to malfunction and explode all together, Irene must use all her wit and her ability to prioritise to: escape a building on fire, retrieve a book from the Crystal palace in Saint Petersburg, save the life of a dear friend suffering from Chaos contamination, save the Library from complete destruction in the hands of ex-librarian and traitor Alberich and, in the bottom of that list, if possible, not die in the process. What can possibly go wrong?
Just like the previous books, The Burning Page had me gripped to its pages right from beginning. As I didn’t have to wait very long for the action to start and to see Irene and Kai at their best when things go horribly wrong. I really enjoyed seeing that development of Irene’s relationships and how they change her. She was used to being alone and in the third novel she still struggles to balance logic with emotions. Kai has also grown since the first book and after his near-death experience in the Masked City, I definitely saw the change in him towards Irene and Vale. Vale is a difficult character to analyse being the Great Detective with super-power of deduction. I was surprise to see his interaction with Irene and I can wait to see how their relationship will develop in the next books.
The villain is revealing himself to be quite frighting and unpredictable. I really enjoyed seeing more of him in the volume, I definitely like the depth of his character. Alberich is a complete mystery and even though his plans seem to be very straight forward I can’t shake the feeling that there is a lot more behind that faceless shadow. In some parts of the book he really made me question if there is some truth in what he says, because, really, why would he lie about it?
The plot was amazing written, it’s getting more and more complex and even so all the loose ends are perfectly tied by the end. The explosive and unexpected finale left me breathless, a bit sad and a whole lot of surprised! Just… Wow.
Definitely counting the days for the next book “The Lost Plot” coming out in December 2017!
Book Traveller 