These books continue to just not be what I expect. Which is on me, but I am always hoping for a grittier story. I do think the premise is unique, it's just a bit more quirky than what I'd prefer from this idea.

Took a while to get through this title, wasn't as intrigued as the previous volumes but had comfort in the characters we've followed since book one. Enjoyed this author's ideas and will probably continue to read their books in the future.

I absolutely loved this book and the trilogy as well. The characters and writing of The God of Lost Words is clever and quirky, leading the reader to being immersed and invested in the lives of the characters and outcome of the story.

I sadly did not find this sequel to be as compelling as the first two books in this series. I found myself particularly attached to two characters who didn't get as much attention as I had hoped, though that is something that can happen when a book has a larger cast of characters. Writing was still fantastic, I just wasn't as hooked on the story.

This book was unfortunately a DNF for me. I really enjoyed the first two, but by the time I got to the third, it felt slow and repetitive. The stakes did not pique my interest like they did in the first two.

An unexpected book. I did not realize it was part of series when I originally requested. I have since been on a journey to read the previous books so I could properly review this one. I have enjoyed them all, and while they may not have been my favorites I would still recommend this series to others.

The God of Lost Words is the third, and unfortunately final, novel in A.J. Hackwith's Hell's Library Series. I say unfortunately here because I'm not ready to say goodbye to the series. Oh well, at least I can always reread it, right?

The Library of Unwritten has not been the same since Hero's adventure kicked off a series of unexpected events. Unsurprisingly, this means that the Library is in danger once again, and its librarians and wards must work together to find a resolution.

This time, the threat is all too real and likely to destroy them all, should they not find a solution to all the threats that keep popping up.

“Listen. That's the part of the librarian's job that everyone forgets. Listen. Listen to your books, listen to your patrons. Listen to your enemies, even; when they're maddest is when you know you're doing something right. A librarian's job is to listen. A library's job is to be a place where the hopeless can feel seen and heard too.”

Wow. A.J. Hackwith has done it again! The God of Lost Words ripped out my heart, stuffed it in a book, and then proudly showed me the results. But seriously, this book is fantastic. It's a love song for readers, with many references and heart-wrenching moments strewn about for good measure.

In other words, it's perfect. Again, my only regret is that it's the conclusion. But all good things must come to an end. Now, I'm going to stop whining about this fact and move on to my actual review, sound good?

The concept of the Library of Unwritten has fascinated me from the start. This fascination grew as we learned that there's more than one library, each focused on another forgotten branch of lore and tales. It's a beautiful idea if a bit melancholy.

The God of Lost Words brings all of these elements into a single place, providing readers with ample opportunity to learn more. It also puts our favorite characters (Claire, Hero, Rami, and Brevity) back into the forefront, which I greatly appreciated.

In truth, the ending was...perfect. I wouldn't have expected things to end this way, but I can't deny the logic behind everything that happened. It's the natural conclusion to this tale, with everything settling in a way that feels right. I'll be sad to see the series go, but I will have to look forward to what A.J. Hackwith writes next!

Do we get the answers we’ve been yearning for? No! Do we at least get to see Lucifer or God? Nope! Will the ending satisfy the loyal readers of this series? Also no!

Here’s what I thought of The God Of Lost Words:

Story & Pacing
We’re shown if no place is hosting the Library, it will require a realm, gatekeeper, and a god to exist independently. We learn as we go:

Things that aren’t commonplace and would be difficult to find. Oh, goodie, I thought.

What our heroes are trying to do has already been tried and the then-librarian was taken down brutally. Woohoo, juicy!

Also, all deities have vanished and left their respective kingdoms to survive on their own. Noice, finding a god is going to take a miracle, I was thinking.

And then every problem the protags face gets resolved very very easily. What the? Remember how Claire had pet names for Lucifer, hinting to familiarity between them? Well, guess what? You won’t find out how that came to be or anything else that’s spicy because Lucifer NEVER shows up!

Characters
As surprised as I had been when Remi developed feelings for Hero, imagine how I felt when the author introduced polyamory into the plot. With *clap* no *clap* groundwork *clap*! To me, Remi and Hero seemed more like an actual couple than any of the mess that was the relationship between them and Claire. The thing is Claire is an extremely unlikeable character. She doesn’t believe in communicating or even opening up to someone. That was true for her in the first book and she spent most of it looking down her nose at Hero. She might not have been scoffing at him in this one, but all the hints that occur to Hero about what she’s actually feeling vs. how she’s acting outwardly come out of nowhere.

The evolution of Rosita — I forgot her name — into an annoying all-knowing oracle was yet another turn off. She seems to know the future but we don’t find out how or why, so she says prophetic stuff to get the characters to do her bidding and it is hella annoying!

Oh, and Brevity develops powers just in time to solve even more problems. Abilities that no librarian, including veterans like that guy from Valhalla and Claire, has even heard of.

Humor
There wasn’t much humor in this one, except for what we gleaned from Hero’s sunny personality.

Something Special
The quotes at the beginning of each chapter had worked for the first two books, but they seemed repetitive and held little to no value in helping the story move forward.

Final Word
A great premise that deserved a better conclusion.

I have loved this series since its opening words and while I’m sad it’s done, I think THE GOD OF LOST WORDS was the most fitting of endings. The larger world of the libraries, the importance of books, of words, and of love woven together to create a brand new good… I definitely cried at the beauty and power of this masterful creation.

Oh, and yes. I do ship it. All of it.

And I can’t wait to lose myself in whatever Hackwith creates next.

This was an enjoyable end to a great series. I see a lot of opportunity for off-shoots and related stories but was very satisfied with the ending of this particular series. The author did a fantastic job of bringing an intriguing and interesting world to life and filled it with characters that I grew to love throughout the series. Everything you could want in a unique story, and more.

Hell is coming for the library. Claire and Hero set out in an attempt to get the libraries of the other realms to ban together help in the fight against Hell while Brevity and Rami hold the fort. This is a powerfully emotional story about belief, love, and faith. Topics I don't usually go in for but sometimes a book finds you when you need it the most. I think this was a great conclusion to the series though it was also a little bit heartbreaking.

4/5 stars. I loved this series so much. The idea of a library in hell, yet not beholden to Hell, with librarians and boos full of stories untold, unwritten, lost, etc. The exploration of afterlives and afterworlds, and especially the concept of Death (aka, Walter, lol), was exceedingly fascinating. This book was a lovely end to a great series, though not my favorite of the series (as last books generally aren’t), and I’m sad to leave this world behind, but so glad to have gotten to read it.

I am very late to post my review of this book, so sorry about that. But, I would like to thank NetGalley and Ace nonetheless for giving me the opportunity to review this title.

Now, after pushing this off for a little while due to a slump, I have finally arrived at the final book in this series. This book confirmed to me that, while the concept is interesting, the series was just okay. My feelings for this series, and this book, mainly come down to the way the story was laid out, and the characters. I was simply left wanting just a bit more.


Writing:

As always, I found it rather easy to fly through this book. We've got our normal POVs with the reader following Claire, Hero, Rami, and Brevity. The librarian logs are still there at the beginning of each chapter as well, so the consistency is nice.


Plot:

The story picks up a month after the events of the last book, and like the last one, the story picks up the pace pretty much immediately. While sometimes it is good when authors waste no time getting straight to the story, a little room to breathe would have helped. As for the plot itself, it felt a bit...convenient, like everything that happened, in the end, all came down to plot convenience. What I mean here is that the library was put in a terrible position and saving it was an absolute longshot, but plot convenience occurs.

Following a whole lot of plot convenience, we get to the end of the book which was...something. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but it wasn't the kind of ending I was particularly looking forward to, but that is just me. The ending also felt rather abrupt as we were just left hanging there a bit.

There were also some gaps in the story that I either missed, so the fault is on me, or it was just kind of ignored. For example, Poppaea Julia is a former librarian who is heavily mentioned through the log entries at the start of the chapter. In one of the log entries, she referred to the books in the library as resident souls, as was discovered at the end of the last book. My question here is that how did no one realize this? Were her entries burned, or did not one single librarian read her logs? Again though, I could have just missed the explanation...but it is a question that plagues me.


World-Building:

I didn't talk about the world in my last two reviews, but will now as I do have questions about it, and there were things that I would have liked to know. This is the kind of series where I would like to see a spin-off, or at least an appendix, that breaks down how expansive the world is since not many places are mentioned in the series. I want to know what the different wings are and how many have been abandoned.


Characters

My feelings for the characters remain unchanged still. Claire and Brevity I am not as fond of, but Hero and Rami are fantastic. Aside from that, I have some minor complaints about the characters, but some of which do contain spoilers though, so I will not go into it here.

Now, my first complaint about the character would be that there is a lack of thinking. When something big occurs, the resulting damage probably could have been lessened if they took a couple of minutes to just pause and reflect. My second complaint would be that the author has a tendency to just throw a new character right in at the beginning without much introduction and context. In the last book, it was Probity, and in this one it is Malphas.


Concluding Thoughts:

A lot could have been done with a concept like this, but it just didn't go all the way. While I enjoyed myself enough, I would have liked for the story to slow down a bit to give it room to breathe, and I would have liked for the gaps in the world to be filled. Should the author ever come out with a companion novel, or more lore about the world, I would definitely read it though.

4 stars

The Library of the Unwritten has erupted in all-out war and former librarian Claire, angel Rami, librarian Brevity, and dashing Hero must face down Hell in the ultimate battle for its survival. Having learned the dangerous truth about the power contained within the pages of the books they have been sworn to protect, the group has accomplished what they set out to do, but the secret is out and now threatens the sanctuary they hold. To face down hell itself and its intent to harness the library’s power, all of the various wings must band together to fight back against a terrible onslaught. Searching for a way out of the war they now face, Claire is led back to the legacy of previous librarians and one who sought to create a separate realm. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the group will turn to the past and to one another as they aim to find an unthinkable way to remake their world entirely.

The God of Lost Words is the pivotal finale to the Hell’s Library series, one that emotionally scarred me in ways I did not think possible. Ever since reading the first book close to two years ago, this series has laid claim to a place in my heart that it will never relinquish. While there were many ups and downs across all three books in the series, I am happy to say that the ending fit right into that. The previous two books appeared to be building up to an epic struggle between hell and the library, one that finally peaked in this finale. Relationships also grew here, taking root into something far more profound for our cast of characters. Found family has always been a trope that shone through in the story, but it took on a whole new level as the characters were called to fight for the library’s future. In conjunction with this, I loved the examination of the truth of the library and its potentially lasting consequences. A.J Hackwith has always been good at pairing the action and character-centric moments in step with one another, which was done exceptionally well here. The small kernels of romance incorporated throughout the story only uplifted this all the more. I really do love all the characters, and this felt like a fresh start for many of them, even though it was actually the end. My favorite character though will forever be Hero. His character arc completely took me by surprise and I adored all of his quips and jokes thrown into the melee. With the ending unveiled, it’s no surprise that this left me in a puddle of emotions. Hackwith has constructed a truly satisfying ending to this trilogy, full of all the wit, magic, and gravity that it deserves.

This review is posted on Goodreads as of 1/13/22

I love these characters so much! This final installment was just as action packed and fun to read as the other two. Hackwith does a great job creating a whole world where you would least expect to find it.

I requested this ARC a long time ago, fully not comprehending that it was the third book in a series. Of course I went out and bought the first two books so I would be all caught up. Seriously, best "Ooops" ever.

The Library of the Unwritten (a.k.a. Hells Library) is where all the unfinished books from Earth live. Unwritten books are a pure potential and tend to wake up when they get restless--stories are meant to live in the world not on a shelf.

The concept of sentient books and libraries isn't exactly new, but the way its done in this series was completely original. A book can literally walk around in the form of a character. Not only do stories have power, but they are woven into the heart of the libraries as well. Without spoiling it for you, I'll just say that throughout the series there are several ways in which different types of stories are honored that are quite touching.

A God of Lost Words gave me the tender moments between the characters I needed, with some added romance that I was absolutely was dying for. Not all of these characters are easy to love. They're complex and flawed but that is exactly what draws me in.

A.J. Hackworth is a brilliant wordsmith. I breezed through the first two books and purposefully savored this finale. It might not have been the ending that I picked but it felt right once I sat with it. I'm going to miss this world and these characters now that it's over.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @berkleypub for this ARC, A God of Lost Words is out now!

Why you should read this series:
✨Fresh takes on conventional archetypes
✨Imaginative sentient libraries (plural!)
✨Angels and demons
✨Cinnamon rolls
✨Queer love stories
✨Found family
✨Books that literally have a life of their own

Another great book in this series! Can't wait to read more from AJ Hackwith!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

While not quite as engaging as the first book, The God of Lost Words was a fitting conclusion to the trilogy. Hackwith found a nice balance between the four-person main cast (book 2 kind of left Brevity in the dust but she's back and as wholesome as ever). There are also a lot of really awesome conversations about what makes a family, what makes a story, and why stories and families are important.

Also wholesome polyamory! And of course the briefest of snippets about how important it is to find onesself in a story.

I think the larger cast - namely the other librarians - wasn't used to the greatest effect. Hackwith picked a favorite (Bjorn the Bard) and just kept using him over and over to stand for the larger group, which is less fun than getting to meet a whole host of new and interesting characters. But, again, the story was much more about our main four and they were handled brilliantly.

The next time anyone asks for a book recommendation, I am going to hand them the full Hell’s Library trilogy.
The God of Lost Words by A.J. Hackwith is an emotional journey of love among people, and amongst books. Entering this story we know that Claire and her new after-life-family must find a way to trick Hell to save the library. In this series we’ve learned that the library is so much more than a collection of unfinished books. It’s a sort of haven for authors, characters, and readers alike. The only trouble the library has are the evils of Hell trying to take control.


Claire and Brevity naturally take charge to come up with a plan, and Ramiel stands sentry to protect them all with his sword. Hero runs off to be… a hero. I love his quick quips and humor that he uses as a defense. He was once an arrogant King and the “hero” of his book. Without his book now, he’s learning to be a new version of himself that wasn’t written. He’s learned of love, for Ramiel and for Claire. He has so much to lose if Malphas takes the library from him and his family. With that at the forefront of his mind, we follow Hero through a dark and emotional journey to save them all.

“I’ve seen enough revolutions in my time to say it with some authority: rebellions are built on love and hope. You can’t reject the status quo unless you are hopeful enough to imagine something better.”

It was amusing that in all of the Hell, it was “Death” that was the kind neutral one. He couldn’t outright help Claire, but it was clear that he wanted to. A lot of us fear death, and rightfully; however, In The God of Lost Words, we accept death as necessary. Life can’t exist forever. Similar to the understanding that joy cannot exist without sadness. It isn’t quite understood how Claire earned a place in Hell’s library for her afterlife, but her after-life is glorious in my opinion.

“A library is people. Just as much as it is books and archives. You want to know the heart of a library, don’t look at its most famous books; look at the people it serves. Who it comforts, who it protects. The heart of a library may be its books, but its soul is its people. Humans and stories, impossible to separate the two.”

Hands down, this is one of the best book series I’ve ever read. Ever. The God of Lost Words by A.J. Hackwith was a beautiful conclusion to an epic storyline. Come on… a library hosted in Hell but with librarians, muses, and fallen angels that deserve way better than the realm of Hell for home. There’s love, family love, romantic love, queer love, diverse love, book love… it’s all there! I’m so incredibly proud of the character development of Claire, Brevity, Ramiel, and especially Hero. Book characters are alive! Stories are rewriting themselves. There’s just so much to love if you’re a book nerd like me. If I were given a choice, I’d want to spend my eternal life in The Library of the Unwritten. It sounds a lot like Heaven to me.

A satisfactory conclusion to a good, although not overly memorable, trilogy. I personally don't think the story should've been dragged out this long, but this ending made sense.