The premise of this world Thomas has created is fab: a world where fictional characters go to live after their stories are done. And there's a central Archives - a library that contains every single book. And there are librarians who work for the Archives to maintain order and research the world, etc. The main character, Tari, is not allowed to be a librarian because she's a book person, instead of a someone who was born in the After. But she fakes a past and an identity, and gets into librarian school.

Sounds super interesting. Unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired. Other reviewers have noted the pacing issues, with all four years crammed into under 200 pages. I could have forgiven that, except the plot was practically non-existent. It's boring to read about someone going to school. The world-building was interesting, yes, but it seemed like the entire point of this book was the world-building, with only an afterthought to a plotline other than Tari goes through four years of school.

It's obvious that Thomas put a lot of thought into the world she created, and I would be interested in learning more about it. But unfortunately, world-building does not carry a story.

This is the kind of book that makes me a little bit sad. The concept of this book is a really good one. There is a world that exists called the After into which all literary characters go when their stories have ended. Good idea, great in fact. What makes me sad is the execution. Unfortunately, the author is not as skilled as her concept is. The plot is almost non-existent and the pacing is pretty awful. This very short book covers four years, jumping from year to year with little or no coherent structure. Also, the characters are very one dimensional and too perfect. All in all, not a great read, but I do really like the idea.

This was so quick I honestly just don't have an opinion. Almost too fast paced. I'm not sure what it was about the book, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I felt like DNFing constantly, but really, didn't even get to DNF since it's just a little over 120 pages. Some others may like it if you're looking for a REALLY fast YA book, but I'm one of those people who LOVES getting involved in the story. The MC herself was fine, I just wanted for more from this first book.

If you’re looking for a REALLY QUICK read then this book will fit your needs perfectly because it’s roughly 125 pages so you’ll get it done while waiting at your next doctor appointment. The term ‘fast paced’ was made for novels like this as you’ll be racing through time in the character’s world so quickly you’ll risk whiplash going through the twists and turns of the story.

It’s only the first in a new series so it’s not written to give you a full view of the characters, their motives, psyche or provide some big moment where you’ll connect. Instead it feels it was meant to just whet your appetite, give you a small taste of what is to come particularly so you’ll be willing to check out the much larger world she’s building; go to her website lifeintheafter.com and sign up for her newsletter to stay informed and check out the first book in the companion series for a larger view.

She has an interesting concept, it reminds me a bit of something Marissa Burt did years ago with her two book series where you get to follow what happens to the characters outside of what we as readers see on the pages of a book. It was nice to see librarians painted as something other than little old ladies out of touch with the world, no offense to little old lady librarians intended by the way. So it kind of had this flair I’ve seen before in the TNT show The Librarians who are portrayed more Indiana Jones like which is probably why I was drawn to checking this story out.

As a fantasy novel, in case you didn’t get that from the synopsis that used the word ‘magic’ in it, your idea of realism will have to be suspended as you slowly learn what the rules for this world are and it’s going to take a while to get a full grasp on what those are because, if you remember from what I said earlier, the author didn’t fully develop all of her world or the characters in this book. This is one of those times where you’re going to be in for the long haul and will need to withhold final judgement until more of the books are released.

Patricia Thomas seems to be trying to do something big here and this book is only giving you one tiny piece of it. If you’re part of the Netflix binge generation then you may need to wait until more of the series is out or you’re going to feel frustrated and might react negatively to this right now whereas if you have more at your disposal your view would change.

I did like that it’s in first person so you get more of a feel for what the main character, Tari, is going through. She seems to have this innate need to protect those around her from busting out her first aid knowledge to hiding poor decisions and questionable behavior done under the influence of alcohol to minimize the damage that could come from judgmental authority figures.

As she’s constantly trying to maintain a façade and hide her past her psychological development wavers and changes depending upon who she is with which is an accurate reflection of someone who is trying to be liked while maintaining a lie to those who she’s come to care about. I felt Thomas did a good job showing the war Tari’s personality and psychological development is having with itself as she has to hide the experiences she’s accumulated lest she’s found out.

I plan on reading the other book she’s written in the companion series and follow her work so I can see where she’s going to take this series as my curiosity has been piqued.

This is my review from Goodreads (and may be cross-posted to my blog once I'm no longer on hiatus).

'Apprentice' suffered from the same problem as the musical 'Fame': it squashed a four-year period of character and relationship development into a very short space of time, to the point where it was difficult to know why I was supposed to care about any of them or to engage on an emotional level. The book is barely 150 pages, which means it races through, covering a year in the space of a few pages, and while this prevented it from becoming boring, it also made it hard to get into any depth.

This book features a magical library (a little bit like The Invisible Library, but different) in a world populated by fictional characters living lives after and outside of their original stories (a bit like The Eyre Affair, but not). That concept was very cool, and the nature of the library means being a librarian is presented as badass and hard work, which as a librarian, I'll always appreciate.

However, I think the concept was the strongest thing about this book, as I didn't really engage with the writing style -- partly due to the extreme rapidity with which events unfolded -- and the characters mostly fell flat for me, as they seemed somewhat unconvincing.

One of my biggest issues was that the main character was supposedly 27, but she didn't feel it at all, in voice or tone or behaviour. The setting probably contributed to this: she's an apprentice, and the school-like environment and references to studying are always going to give off a college vibe. However, the way she behaved around other people, her general voice, and the fact that when there is an alcohol-induced mishap she won't admit to the presence of alcohol (she's 27, I'm sure no one cares!) made her feel a lot younger -- more like 17 than 27. Okay, so I'm 21 and I might not be the best judge, but I don't know, it kept throwing me off and it undermined her as a character, which was unfortunate as she was the most developed of the cast.

On the whole, this was an interesting book but it didn't quite live up to the expectations created by its premise, and so was therefore a bit disappointing.