I was rather hoping for another library themed novel. This one wasn't so much focused on the library of the dead - it had a library that played a supporting role in the story, but it wasn't crucial and the title doesn't seem to match the plot or characters well. However, I did enjoy the paranormal detective/ghost whisperer aspect of this novel. Ropa can see the dead. Ropa can speak to the dead. Ropa can help them cross over. The story starts with Ropa helping out a couple whose house is being haunted by a soul who was never lain to rest properly; this story instantly pulls the reader into this foggy, paranormal realm of modern day Edinburgh. (I do like the juxtaposition between mythology and lore and the modern day technology!).
Ropa's title as ghostalker is intriguing too - it has the dual appearance of one who can talk to ghosts and one who stalks them - which in Ropa's case is true in both senses. She stalks the paranormal to solve cases, some ghosts stalk her and she can talk to them. It's a very apt title for her profession.
Ropa unofficially gets her biggest case from a ghost who cannot pay - her son is missing and she desperately implores Ropa to find him without any financial gain. Ropa is hesitant, but when more children go missing, she doesn't something foul is afoot. So she investigates and finds way more than she bargained for.
Read the book to find out what is causing such evil to pervade Edinburgh.
The narrator was perfect for this one! Loved the accent.

The Library of the Dead was fine. Very busy, very First-Book-In-A-Series, and made me feel very old, particularly via lines like "It's like that song from the olden days about the old guy who won the lottery and died the next day, flies in your bubbly and all that" that make reference to my YOUTH as "olden days."

It's a fun listen and T.L. Huchu has style, but this just wasn't up my alley.

The narrator was Tinashe Warikandwa who was super fun to listen to, and she felt really organic for the story.

I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

This was good! A bit hard to follow and I don’t really feel like a lot happened, but good. I loved the characters and loved rooting for them. Some interesting fantasy-ish concepts. Loved that the author just assumed we all believe magic is real. Definitely worth a try if you’re wanting a little YA magic in your reading life!

I struggled with this one. I love the plot line, but this book felt long winded and didn't actually get going until it was halfway through.

I loved the narrator for this audiobook, she was a perfect fit for Ropa's character. Her accent was great to listen to.

The MC Ropa, I can't tell if I enjoyed her character or not. She was written like a sassy cynical 14 year old, but at times it was a little too much for me.

Thanks Netgalley and publishers for the AudioARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu was an advanced reader copy of an audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a very interesting book with Scottish and Zimbabwean cultures. It was about a young girl, Ropa, who had to support her family and had an affinity for talking to the dead. It reminded me of other books in some ways, yet had a completely new take on it. Very intriguing story and characters. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an audiobook of The Library of the Dead in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this is a temporary DNF. I've tried the audiobook on three separate occasions and just couldn't get into it. I thoroughly enjoy the concept & am pretty convinced I'm going to love the main character -- so I requested that my library pick up a physical copy of this so I can read it soon!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This book was hilarious, loved how the characters swear often lmao, looking forward to reading more books in this series but i do feel ill have to reread this right before i read the next one

If rude and crass teenagers who curse more than sailors bothers you then this book will most definitely not be for you. That being said, The Library of the Dead follows 14 year old (Zimbabwean Scottish) Ropa who is just trying to survive in Edinburgh with her sister and Gran. Ropa is gifted with the ability to see ghosts, but it doesn't stop there. She actually communicates with them and provides services since she's got bills to pay...mainly the caravan that her family lives in.

Ropa quickly learns that the dead are talking about children that have been disappearing from her area, and she can't just sit by and do nothing. Along with an a fantastic cast of side characters, Ropa and her friends are determined to solve this mystery with a little magic as well as an occult library that is packing a lot of secrets.

Let's talk about Ropa. She's spunky, independent, fierce, street smart, brash, and most definitely not a pushover. Ropa rocks green dreadlocks and black lipstick, and honestly doesn't give a damn about other people's perception of her. Since this story is told through Ropa's lens, it's definitely an adjustment to get used to her crass, Scottish slang, but if you know Scottish teenagers, its wholly accurate.

The plot is immersive and fast paced. While I enjoyed Ropa's encounters with the ghosts, I definitely loved the library the most...I mean, duh. For an introduction to this series, I thought Huchu did a great job, and I can't wait for book two.

Fuck nuggets, I didn't know this was a YA novel when I picked it up. I tend not to enjoy those and it definitely held true with this novel.

The audio provided to me via NetGalley did not help matters. I probably would have paid more attention had I the physical copy instead. The audio was... not the best.

I tried slowing down the audio, speeding it up, rewinding chapters and I STILL could not recall the majority of its details. If I were to take a quiz on this book, I'd probably fail.

I was also distracted whenever they mentioned the main character's name since Ropa in Spanish translates to 'clothes' lol. Regardless, I didn't necessarily care about them. Priya was my favorite character ~ that is, if I haddd to choose one.

Overall, I expected more once the plot was set up. The dialogue I could remember was a bit cliche and easy to follow. Ultimately, I was disappointed by the audio format and wanted more from the narrative + universe established.

Eh - I don't feel comfortable rating this since I've basically forgotten it. For NetGalley purposes, I'll rate it a 2.

3.5/5 stars

I listened to this as an audiobook. I was immediately drawn into the Scottish setting, but it took me a while to realize that this was a post-apocalyptic world as the author only slowly gives small bits of information at a time to let us know. The main character, Ropa, is a strong and feisty teen who has dropped out of school to speak to ghosts for a living. She begins an initially reluctant quest to find a missing boy after hearing stories of multiple kids disappearing under mysterious circumstances.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and world of this book. I loved the main character Ropa. I really liked how the author portrayed her relationship with her sister and her Gran. What didn’t work for me was the meandering story. It took at least half the book for the plot to even begin, and even though I liked the world and learning about it, I was left a little bored through most of it.

I thought the narrator was perfect for the main character with her deadpan Scottish accent and Zimbabwean accent for Gran. One thing that I noticed while listening is the time between chapters felt a little longer than normal and many times I checked my phone to make sure it was still playing.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio, Tor, and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was so cute! I mean don't get me wrong, there were definitely some thrilling moments. I instantly was intrigued by the main character, Ripa, who is a witty 15 year old with a sharp tongue. She's smart, cunning, and quick on her feet.

Definitely a good read during a thunderstorm wrapped up in your favorite blanket.

Loved the narration on this YA fantasy novel. Great world and setting, especially the Library. But, the plot, such as it is meanders everywhere and never completely satisfies.

The Library of the Dead is a strong start to a series, but is not my cup of tea despite me being into spooky things. Ropa is a headstrong, spunky fourteen year old who can see and communicate with ghosts using Zimbabwean magic. In order to keep her family a float she carries messages from the dead to their living loved ones for a fee, but when she finds out a dark force is kidnapping children she must intervene. The whole premise sucked me in, and adults will enjoy this series just as much as teens. Ropa is a badass! The different underworlds she gets to explore are fascinating. I didn't like how the book is marketed to be set in modern day Edinburgh but it clearly is in a post apocalyptical setting. The plot of the book seemed formulaic, and I could predict what was happening about fifty percent in. It took me awhile to finish because even though all of the parts of the equation for this book are my jams, the sum of all the parts just did not keep me invested. I think Huchu has an amazing concept and I hope many more readers enjoy this Edinburgh.

Thank you MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for allowing me access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

I listened to this one as an audiobook and I really loved the narrator. She was the perfect pick for the main character Ropa. This book is set in Edinburgh in the future where gas appears to be gone and scientific magic reigns supreme. Ropa is a fun, feisty, strong protagonist who dropped out of school but continues her education using podcasts and audiobooks as she tries to make a living for herself, her Gran, and her little sister Izwi. She does this by ghost stalking or finding the recent dead and offering to pass on a message for a fee. I loved the descriptions of her magic which uses music played by the Mbira (African hand piano). Ropa is focused on paying clients but one ghost continues to pester her about her missing son and when she confesses this to her gran her gran convinces her to help the ghost and find the missing child. This leads Ropa on a journey she never could have imagined. I especially loved the actually Library of the Dead (although I don’t think I would want to be a card carrying member). It did take a little bit to get into the story but once I did I was hooked. I definitely will be reading (or listening to!) the next book when it comes out,

Ropa may be my favorite character of 2021.
I just love her unapologetic sassy bluntness.

Set in the not so distant future of Scotland after an event called the Catastrophe.
We follow a 14 year old girl who can talk to ghosts.
Her job is basically to deliver messages to the living who then pay her for the service.

Ropa is living below the poverty line with her Gran and younger sister and is the sole breadwinner of the family. She understands the hard realities of the world, and refuses to let anyone (especially the spirits she works with) to take advantage of her. If they can’t pay, she won’t play. But her heart gets the better of her when she decides to help one for free.

This book takes you on a journey into the world of ghosts, dimensions, magic, and more.
I found it a delight to listen to (even if I guessed the twist about ⅓ of the way through).

As an avid audiobook listener and the occasional audiobook narrator, I especially loved hearing Ropa’s hot take on the merits of a good narrator. It was totally an unexpected, but welcome commentary.

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

I received an audiobook of The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu for review provided by NetGalley. 4⭐️

WHEN GHOSTS TALK
SHE WILL LISTEN

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and they sure do love to talk. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and strength. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will rock her world.

Ropa will dice with death as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. And although underground Edinburgh hides a wealth of dark secrets, she also discovers an occult library, a magical mentor and some unexpected allies.

Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?



Okay, I love a good ghost story and The Library of the Dead delivers. Set in Edinburg after the collapse of society we follow Ropa; a fiery 14 year old that can talk to the dead. She earns money delivering messages from the dead to their love ones, for a fee. A job comes up that sets Ropa on a fast pace adventure.

I was captivated by the story from beginning to end. My only complaint is that I did not love the narrator on the audio. It was fine most of the time but there were certain parts I found myself going back to relisten to because I wasn’t sure what was said.( It is partly because of my unfamiliarity with some of the slang terms use)

Regardless, I would recommend this as read or listen especially for those that love a good paranormal story!!

The plot was interesting, and I think the worldbuilding had a lot of potential. I enjoyed many of the characters (especially Priya) but Ropa’s character was kind of flat to me, and often her dialogue didn’t ring true.

This isn’t a book I’m likely to reread, but I enjoyed it enough that I’d be interested to read future books in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The Library of the Dead is such a unique story with just the right amount of mystery, magic, and slight dystopian elements. The otherworld building was great; it was easy to understand and not convoluted, which I really appreciated. Ropa was an amazing, sarcastic, and wise main character - I kept forgetting that she was only 14!

I am very excited about the rest of the series! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen!

This is a great book, but the audiobook is just outstanding! I loved the narrator and thought she did an excellent job with the different voices. I would highly recommend listening to the audiobook of The Library of the Dead.

If I had to describe this story – and I do – I’d start out by saying this is very much a dark, post-apocalyptic fantasy, where that darkness is sometimes so impenetrable that this is a world where the light at the end of the tunnel is ALWAYS an oncoming train, and the situation is always darkest just before it turns completely black.

At the same time, it’s also urban fantasy, complete with a magic-wielding and very amateur detective and a huge mystery to be solved. But the urban in this fantasy, while it is still recognizably Edinburgh, it’s not exactly any version of Edinburgh that we know – and not just because of the magic.

See paragraph one and the reference to post-apocalyptic. Although the technology makes it seem like this Edinburgh isn’t all that far into the future, it’s also clear that some serious shit went down in the not too distant past – or not too far back along the path that is now trending towards hell while being carried along in that handcart.

Ropa Moyo is the reader’s guide and avatar in this brave new/old world. Or, at any rate, Ropa is brave while we’re sitting on our comfy couches quivering at all of the risks she takes – and especially the risks that nearly take her.

Her world is both new and old, as whatever turned our world into hers has changed everything to the point where 70s and 80s TV shows – which are still broadcast and viewed – show Ropa a world that looks like a paradise of abundance compared to the time and place she now lives.

It’s also an old world, because the “event” – whatever it was – if it was a singular event and not just a general trend hellwards – has brought back not only ghosts and the old magic needed to communicate with them and take messages from them – but also brought out all of the old magical beings, especially the evil ones – that made living beside creepy places a real peril and “may you live in interesting times” a really, really serious curse.

But the fault, the truly big evil, the really serious evil, is, as always, not in our myths and legends or, but rather as Shakespeare so famously said, “not in our stars but in ourselves.”

And only Ropa Moyo seems ready and willing to fight it.

Escape Rating A: The Library of the Dead is fantasy that is so dark it tips all the way into horror at more than one point, so if you prefer your horror-adjacency to not be quite so on the nose, so to speak, then this can, at points be a hard read – although absolutely worth persevering through.

If only to see just how Ropa manages to persevere through in spite of the odds very much stacked against her.

In fact, I have to say that I had the weirdest kind of approach/avoidance reaction to reading this book, whether in print or on audio. Actually I listened to most of this one and the reader was fantastic and if you have the time I highly recommend it.

Even though listening does highlight the “two nations divided by a common language” thing on more than one occasion.

There were many points where the horror aspects, or Ropa’s temporary near-helplessness in the face of either the situation in general or those aspects in particular, made me want to stop listening. At the same time, I was so completely stuck into the story that I felt compelled to keep going.

It was kind of a different version of a train-wreck book. It’s not that the book was horrible, but that the things that happen within it were horrible in one way or another but I absolutely couldn’t turn my eyes or my mind away. It was the whole “watching yucky things ooze” kind of fascination, but I was absolutely fascinated. And definitely riveted. Also, there was plenty of ooze.

One of the things that drove me nuts was that I still don’t know exactly what happened that tipped this version of the world onto the path into hell. SOMETHING definitely happened, but I don’t know what. Not that once the tip happened the hellish snowball hasn’t picked up plenty of speed through purely human pushing, but there was an EVENT in the past and I didn’t grasp what it was.

Maybe in the next book, Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, sometime next year. I can hope!

What makes this story work, and keeps the reader turning pages at an ever increasing rate, is Ropa. We’re inside her head and she’s telling her story, which does, now that I think about it, mean that the reader knows she survived from the beginning. But honestly her situation gets so grim at points that it completely slipped past me. Also survival alone is insufficient.

Ropa is a ball of contradictions. She is very young, but at the same time she is the primary breadwinner for her tiny family. Ropa’s ghostalking (barely) brings in enough money to pay the rent on the land under their small caravan, feed her grandmother, her little sister and herself, and pay for her gran’s medicine and her sister’s school fees. She’s walking a tightrope every second, knowing that a bad day or bad luck can put them all behind in a way that she may not be able to recover from.

If the difference between “poor” and “broke” is that broke is temporary while poor isn’t going to change anytime soon without a miracle, Ropa is all too aware that her family is poor in material goods but rich in love and that she’ll do whatever she has to in order to keep them together.

But – huge, giant but – Ropa loves her grandmother and can’t imagine a life without her. So when gran tells her to help one of the dead for free, even though Ropa knows it will set the family back financially, she does it anyway. And everything that happens after that, good and bad, is because she was doing someone a favor because gran asked her to. She learns terrible things, she uncovers horrible secrets, she saves herself and does her best to save some others, and she learns she’s way more of a magic-user than merely a ghostalker.

And it ends with both the hope and the fear of things to come, because when there’s big evil, there’s generally an even bigger evil hiding behind it. With the help of her friends, the Library of the Dead, her fox-familiar and her own sheer nerve, roiling guts and self-educated brain, Ropa will take it all on. Tomorrow. After she gets the bills paid.

It’s going to be another EPIC adventure. .Just like this one.