Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and Sourcebooks Landmark for my advance electronic copy. My opinions are my own.

Seven students gather for a special ceremony in the basement rare books section of their university library. They have pieced together what they can find on the Eleusinian Mysteries and are implementing it together to free themselves from the fear of death on the eve of graduation. But they've barely started when something goes wrong, and the first student falls dead. Trapped together until morning, their fear of murder rising, will they be able to survive until morning

Full disclosure: I'm not a horror fan. And I somehow missed that this one was a thriller with a hint of horror. It was a bit "Lord of the Flies" and more disturbing than I'm a fan of. I was expecting something more like "And Then There Were None," so I was thrown once I got into it and had to recalibrate. Having said that, I also need to say that Jurczyk did an amazing job at creating atmosphere, had perfect pacing, the characters were well-developed, and the plot was engrossing. There was jealousy and stupidity and hubris in spades, the perfect mix for a horrifying night, locked-room thriller (and maybe horror too?)

What a disappointment this book was! I’m so mad at myself for wasting my time on it. I could have dnf’ed it, but I kept hoping that somehow it will surprise me in the end. But I was wrong.
All the characters were getting on my nerves from the first pages. All of them were unlikable, plain and excruciatingly stupid. I don’t understand how almost all of them ended up being academics. The sheer stupidity of their actions made me cringe every single page. I think they all shared one brain cell.
The plot had so many plot holes that I could see the milky way 🌌 through them. Everything felt like a fever dream but in a bad way. More like a fever nightmare.
Majority of the things that happened were so random and unnecessary. Actually, all this book was unnecessary.

The night before graduation, seven students contrive to spend the night in the basement of their university’s rare books library. One of them want to perform an old Greek ritual and has convinced the others to participate. Before they can even begin preparations, though, one of them drops dead, resulting in a lot of finger-pointing. Since there’s no way out until morning, they’re stuck – and grow more panicked as the body count rises.

I read this author’s first book, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, when it came out two years ago and, despite its current low rating on Goodreads, liked it enough to look forward to reading her next book. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as her first.

I didn’t really like or care about any of the students involved, so I really didn’t care what happened to them. The story jumps from character to character, making it hard to keep track of what was going on, an essential part in solving a mystery. I can’t say how I would react in a similar situation, but I was appalled at how quick they were to accuse each other of being a killer – and how quickly they ganged up on one person if someone else had what appeared to be a convincing argument. When it was revealed, the solution seemed far too simple and hard to believe at the same time.

I’m not sure that I will read any more books by this author, but if I do, it will be after hearing what other readers think.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Actual rating: 2.5

Eva Jurczyk's sophomore novel, That Night in the Library, is a locked room murder mystery by way of a dark academia thriller. Seven students meet in the basement of a rare books library with intentions of carrying out an Eleusinian ritual the night before graduation. When they begin to die one by one, survival becomes the top priority.

Every character was incredibly messy in this novel. Ordinarily, I would be welcoming of that in a dark academia. I love morally grey characters. But much of this misadventure was an acid-fuelled fever dream, very nearly literally. I really didn't connect to any of the characters and the pacing was rather odd. The novel began very slow and became the unstoppable wheel once it gained speed. Mostly, the events of this novel could have been prevented in so many ways that this was just the perfect storm of nonsense to lead to the various deaths.

I was interested to find out the cause of the first death, and was pleased with that particular twist. The rest was just... a lot that was unnecessary.

Overall, this one wasn't for me, but I can see where other people might appreciate more of the literary styling than I did.

Title- That Night in the Library by Eva Jurczyk

Publication Date- 6/11/24

Publisher- Poisoned pen Press

Overall Rating- 3 out of 5 stars

Review- Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, the premise sounded amazing and the synopsis really appealed to me. Unfortunately the reality did not quite live up to the hype for me. In this story we are following a group of seven students on the night before their graduation. They get together in the basement of the rare books library to perform an ancient ritual. Locked in, they soon start to realise that they may be in trouble and as the body count rises they must figure out how to survive the night.

Let's start with the positives, the setting is suitably atmospheric and creepy and the action is well paced. I was never bored with this ‘locked room’ mystery and wanted to continue reading right to the conclusion. I enjoyed the Greek mythology sprinkled throughout.

Where this story fell a little flat for me was mostly the characters, they never felt fully realised or realistic and I found it hard to care about any of them. They made terrible choices but were also strangely bland. On top of that, the dialogue between them didn’t feel natural nor were their motivations for being there. This book seems to be confused about what it is trying to be, it’s a confusing mix of mystery, literary and horror and doesn’t quite hit any of it’s targets. I’m not mad that I read this book but I am a little disappointed that such a fantastic premise fell short for me.

I was lucky enough to listen to the audiobook of this locked room mystery as I read along. This book was good but it didn't wow me as much as I'd hoped. I LOVED the library setting for the locked room. I'm not a huge Greek mythology fan but I did still enjoy this element of the ritual. With lots of gory parts and a great ending, I do believe the writing held a lot of promise. I look forward to seeing what the author writes next.

An entertaining twist on the trope- it's a locked library thriller! Seven grad students, a midnight ritual, and murder. It's gothic, it's creepy, it's well paced- and it will keep you guessing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I was really intrigued by the premise of That Night in the Library. I loved a locked room mystery, and what could be more creepy than a dark library after hours?

I struggled at first to follow the different characters and their stories, which made it a bit harder to buy into the story. Some of the more graphic deaths felt a bit more out of place and gratuitous than I expected.

Having said that I think the author did a great job of establishing the creepy library setting. The characters felt self indulgent and pretentious, making it really hard to know who you could trust, and elevating the suspense. The discomfort I felt reading the story reminded me of reading Lord of the Flies for the first time. The second half was fast paced, with lots of tension, though I would have loved to see what happened after the end.

I was lucky to enjoy this as an audiobook and ebook. The narrator did a wonderful job in building tension and pacing within the story. The cool characterisations made the outcome of the story all the more chilling.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

I'm a big fan of locked room mysteries and campus novels, so I thought That Night in the Library would be perfect. Seven students lock themselves in the library basement overnight to reenact a ritual meant to banish fear, but then, one by one, they start dying.

The setting is interesting and the idea is good, but the pacing and characters leave something to be desired. There are bursts of frenetic activity that punctuate the otherwise monotonous action; the characters point fingers, scramble around in the dark for a while, and find one of the fellows dead. The characters are also a bit flat, relying on one or two personality traits, which means their motives are strange even when explained. Why are they at this fear-banishing ritual in the first place? The explanations are pretty weak.

There is a lot of potential here, particularly if the pacing was a bit more even. I would certainly read Eva Jurczyk's future work.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

It's the night before your college graduation and you are invited to spend a night in the basement of the library to perform a ritual. All you have to do is fast for the entire day. Sounds like a cool adventure...until someone gets killed! Keep an eye out for this book - it will be available from your favorite bookseller on June 11. Thanks to NetGalley and Eva Jurczyk for giving me a copy to review!

I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. I felt like I couldn't connect with the characters and sometimes I was just plain confused with what was going on. There were too many twists and turns for my personal liking.

I really wanted to like this more than I did! 😩 The story had a great premise. At the points where all the action was taking place, it was really good! ❤️

But interspersed were backstories of the characters that I feel should have been given more in the beginning. This resulted in action, slowness, action, slowness…made the story drag a bit. 😵‍💫 There were also a fair amount of pages dedicated to the story of William E Woodend, who donated his money for the library, and I’m not sure it really added much to the story except to point out how much of a jerk he was. 👀

The twist at the end was good, but I was left scratching my head at the last chapter. 🤔 Not saying anything so I don’t spoil the book for anyone! 🤐

Not a bad book, it’s just not one of my favorites! 💔 It may be a favorite to someone else though so if you’re curious about it, check it out! 🤓

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

Anything described as a locked room mystery will get my attention.

A bunch of pretentious college students have a party in the library basement: drugs, sex, ritualistic sacrifices you know… who will make it out and who is doing the killing?

I could not get into this at all. I wanted to but the characters were insufferable and all the same and it just dragged until the end.

Thanks to netgalley and Macmillan audio for an eARC.

Put on my DNF list. I had high hopes for this book but the character development did not develop quick enough for me to stay interested. Got about halfway through and found myself no longer anticipating what happens in the end.

I really tried to like this. To Jurczyk’s credit, I read it in less than a day, and I was excited to see what happened next. However, the suspension of disbelief became too much for me, and this devolved into a pretentious college-kid Lord of the Flies. While there are a lot of nuances to paranoia and the influence of hunger and substances on the brain, the characters’ choices seemed bizarre, and even the more realistic ones seemed to lose all their wits for no reason. The twist was interesting, but I’m not sure it was an adequate payoff for the rest of the events.

This disappointing book wants to be both a locked room mystery novel and a horror novel and ends up being not a very good example of either. The premise: seven (obnoxious) college students gather on the eve of graduation to reenact a Greek ritual in the locked basement of the library, and one of them ends up dead, is great. Very promising. However, the descent into cartoon violence and Lord of the Flies style mayhem is very poorly motivated, and none of the decisions these (insufferable) characters tracked as believable to me.

The further I got into the book the more annoyed I got with it. As I had signed up to read a locked room mystery but instead I was stuck reading the literary version of a Saw movie. And maybe that should be laid at the foot of the marketing department, but it made for a very unpleasant reading experience for this reader.There’s almost no part of the implicit murder mystery bargain that this book actually fulfilled, at least for this reader. The one exception being the clever murder reveal at the end, which it still managed to botch. John Dickson Carr would be ashamed of this novel, and that concept deserved a better writer.

It would be one thing if I could say that this was a good example of a slasher novel, but the prose was uninspired (but not unreadable), the plotting and pacing is average at best, and I think both thriller and mystery fans are going to be unimpressed. Unfortunately this is the author’s second book so I can’t even chalk it up to the book being a first effort. If you really want to know what would happen if Quentin Tarantino directed Hercule Poirot, you can give this a try--otherwise your time is better spent elsewhere.

I received an advance review copy in exchange for this honest review.

Thank you NetGally and the Publisher for the eARC

The Night in the Library is a dark academia locked room mystery - think Ninth House, meets any locked room mystery, really. The concept is very cool and the writing is consistent with the genre. It can be a little pretentious and grandiose, but these characters are "intellectuals" and everything that implies. It works.

I would recommend to this to seasoned readers and lovers of dark academia though. I'm not sure it'd be universally well received. It requires the reader to know the genre, know that these are characters that are too self-absorbed to realize they're outcasts, that libraries aren't places of learning but of secrets, and that being unlikable when you're a 22 year old, self-described genius at a rural liberal arts college is not a red flag.

The premise is simple, seven students sneak/break into the university’s rare books library after closing hours on the eve of graduation. Their intention is to perform a Greek ritual, however things go wrong when one of them mysteriously dies and the rest are left to fend for themselves against an unknown murderer (while being trapped inside with no way out). They don’t really know each other, they have been experimenting with drugs, it’s all bad no matter how you look at it. I love a “locked door thriller” and I was looking forward to reading this book. I found the pace to be really uneven, some chapters slow, others with almost too much information (it was hard to keep it sorted). There wasn’t a lot of character build up, so I really didn’t have “feelings” about the characters specifically. Although there were twists, they didn’t seem to be connected all that well. The ritual was pretty much non-existent, and that part I was excited to see how it went. Overall the premise was good, the blurb brought me in, but the story was not executed properly for me.

I will honestly admit I struggled with this.

The main problem was that I just could not connect with the characters - I am not sure if that's the way they are written or if it's me, but yeah. Maybe it is the way it was written, the chapters are really short and we skip around and although I had no problem following the story or anything, it just didn't sit well with me. I did love the setting, an old library behind the closed doors, all the books, rare books!! and even the ritual part was intriguing, though it didn't really play a central part as I thought it would.

All in all, the synopsis and the premise interested me so much! But the execution... I think it could have been done better.

7 students are locked into the basement of the library for a night. Little to most know but a killer is among them.