A country where everything concentrates around huge libraries that collect, contain and lend out magical beasts bound inside books. Yan has wanted to be a librarian there ever since he was a child, after being rescued by a beast sealing unit. For his part, Tohru has lived a sheltered life where books were his only companions, so a library sounds like an interesting place to work.

Hundreds apply for the job, but only a handful is accepted. To their surprise, Yan and Tohru are both accepted. But instead of getting into a sealing unit like Yan wants, they’re assigned to PR department to wrangle school children. And their boss is a highly laconic princess.

This was a fun start to an English-first manga series. It was a tad confusing at first, but improved as it got going. Yan was a hothead who got constantly into fights. Tohru was more mysterious, with powerful magic that intrigues the princess. The ending was a cliffhanger, but even without it, I might read more. Art was good, but a bit confusing at times, as some characters looked a lot alike and speech bubbles floated randomly.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Yan and Tohru meet when Tohru is getting mugged and the mugging gets in Yan's way. Turns out they are both heading to the same place! So Yan and Tohru travel to the Spellbook Library together to take the entrance exam. Both of them pass and get into the same department, but there are plenty of shenanigans and adventures waiting for them!

A great manga for any fans of Fairy Tale will not be disappointed.

A manga set in a magical library and has magical creatures in it!!

Yan and Tohru want to become spellbook librarians. Together they take exams and get selected to become librarians. Yan and Tohru are opposites of each other; Yan is loud and Tohru is mysterious.

I liked the magical library setting, it reminds me of Sorcery of Thorns. I loved the magical worldbuilding; it has lots of magical creatures too. There were some actions in it that I enjoyed.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

I’m curious to know what will happen in vol. 2.

È un manga fantasy incentrato su una Biblioteca magica che custodisce dei libri d'incantesimi. Tutta la città sviluppa la propria vita attorno a questa istituzione e finalmente si sono liberati 10 posti per diventare bibliotecari. Il lavoro è molto ambito e all'interno ci sono vari dipartimenti tra cui scegliere che si occupano di aspetti diversi.

Mi è piaciuto molto, l'ho scelto apposta per via della trama fantasy e non mi sono sbagliata. Anche la storia è molto interessante. L'unico aspetto che migliorerei è il background dei protagonisti e li avrei voluti più interessanti. Anche se è presto per dirlo, dato che è solo il primo volume, non mi sono sentita tanto presa dai due protagonisti maschili, ho trovato molto più interessante la principessa che lavora nella biblioteca.

#thespellbooklibrary #netgalley

I really enjoyed this manga it was a fantasy it had magic and monsters it was kind of like Harry potter mixed with vampire knight I will be reading the next

I would like to thank NetGallery and
Kodansha Comics for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a fun magical story. If you like shonen manga you should like this one.

NetGalley Review

Star Rating: ★★★★★

Fantastic Read! Enjoyed the cool magic system. The characters are interesting and mysterious enough that make you want to keep reading. The only problem is that it leaves on a cliff hanger. Not just a little you might break a leg if you fall cliff hanger, but a you will have multiple minutes to regret your decision as you plummet through the air reaching terminal velocity just to splatter against the floor and die instantly cliff hanger. Great series, can't wait to read more!

Like always though, read it and decide for yourself

This was a fun manga about a special library organization where you must undergo tests to see if you can be one of the librarians and in what sector you will belong to. Spellbook librarians protect the world from spellbeasts. Keeping monsters that would wreck havoc on others lives at bay by sealing them away with special spells.

Yan wishes to be one of these librarians and so he participates in the tests and thinks outside of the box in order to pass. He doesn’t mind whichever placement he would receive. All Yan cares about is being a part of the group that saved him as a child.

When Yan joins his sector something isn’t quite right and he must help with responsibilities a bit above the usual undertakings of his particular sector. This is a fun action driven story and I can’t wait to continue on reading about Yan’s monster sealing adventures.

Had a really hard time downloading this manga but I had hopes for it and I bet I would have loved it if it let me download it. But maybe I’ll buy the book and read it that way.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

This was really cute! I enjoyed the art style and the characters. I think it's really funny how Yan is this bookish looking guy with a bad reputation for beating people up. I can't tell how old Tohru and Emel are but they look about the same age ( which looks younger than Yan. I'd say they're like preteens at best and Yan is like a late teen) so it's odd that these three are grouped together. The worldbuilding was fun. I enjoyed the idea of spellbeasts and spellbooks that keep them trapped. I'm also interested in Tohru's backstory. Where is their magic from? How are they so powerful at using it and does Emel actually know him? I want to learn more so I'm hopping whenever there's a volume two that I'll be approved for it.

I found the synopsis intriguing, especially with its focus on a library and spellbooks, which immediately captured my attention. However, I found the narrative a bit confusing at first. I was also hoping for more background on the Spellbook Library's history, but the first volume didn’t delve into this as much as I’d like.

The characters are generally likable and complement each other well. I’m particularly curious about Tohru, who has an air of mystery that piques my interest. The ending definitely left me wanting more with its cliffhanger.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read—short and captivating. I’m looking forward to continuing the series!

I picked this one up because I really enjoyed "Is Love the Answer?" by the same author. I was a little skeptical looking at the cover art and knowing it's a fantasy where Is Love the Answer is contemporary realism, but I wanted to give the Spellbook Library a try.

Yan the troublemaker's life goal is to meet the individuals who saved him from a dragon in childhood, but to do that he needs to get into the Spellbook Academy. He finds a friend in Tohru, who has the same goal but mysterious origins. Together they pass the first test to become employed by the academy.

The Spellbook Library is aggressively average, It's very similar in vibes to The Magus of the Library, but it doesn't really have the depth an excitement of that series. The character design, art, and writing is all just. . . fine. The pacing and buildup is kind of wild in that the story just starts in action right off the bat, but then basically everything else is taken very slowly. The Spellbook Library isn't bad by any means, it just was kind of boring and I'm pretty sure I already know the twist. I will say that the magic system is really cool. The idea of sealing a monster in a book as a contract is like a strange bookified pokemon and I am really into that. Hopefully volume 2 can give the series some more life.

A wonderful fantasy manga that. While not quite like Magus of the library, it is still a good vol 1 that I cannot wait for vol.2

4.5/5

I actually really liked this book, so thank you NetGalley for the ARC! It's shonen, which isn't what I typically read, but I really enjoyed it and will definitely try to continue reading future volumes.

Yan and Tohru are very interesting characters and I definitely want to know more about Tohru's backstory. The first volume ends at a very interesting point and I want to read more!! I think I read that this is the mangaka's first time writing shonen and at the same time writing a manga that debuts first in the U.S. instead of in Japan. I will say that maybe since I'm not a typical shonen reader, I perhaps liked this story more than someone who primarily reads shonen. I thought it was a good transition into shonen for this mangaka. I'm actually going to go through and see if I enjoy this mangaka's other works now!

Yes, yes, a million times yes! I wasn't even aware of how much I was enjoying this until I reached the end of the volume and screamed in frustration - I need the continuation so bad! Fantasy manga has been flourishing these past few years (Delicious in Dungeon & Witch Hat Atelier come to mind), and this is another shining example of that.
The Spellbook Library is the engrossing tale of a library whose books contain magical beasts, and of the librarians whose job is to watch over them. We follow two boys, Yan and Tohru, who both want to work there for different reasons: the former was saved by a librarian when he was a child, and the latter... well, let's say he might have a more mysterious cause for being there.
The artstyle isn't stellar, but it's still quite pretty.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

As a fan of Uta Isaki's prior work Is Love the Answer? I was excited to read her take on a fantasy manga, and the premise introduced in volume 1 did not disappoint!! I definitely have a bias towards stories about libraries and magic books, but the setting and magic system are incredibly unique from other works I've read with similar set pieces and tropes. I look forward to future volumes!

I enjoyed the first volume of "The Spellbook Library" but I hoped for it to be a bit more similar to "Magus of the Library" which to me set anew standard for manga.
Though if "Magus of the Library" is too heavy for you and you want more action shounen then I recommend this series. Though the first volume seems a bit rushed and story pieces are just a tad fast in my opinion it definitely has more action and the actual ending of the volume left me wanting to read more.

Overall I found it enjoyable but not mind-altering. A 3.5/5 for me.

I loved this manga! It's a fun read and I love the idea of things from books coming out of books and having to battle them. It's a great story, a fast read, and I loved the drawings. Fantastic start and I look forward to the next one!

This was a fun read when it got going. It was a bit confusing and a bit muddled at the beginning, but once I got the groove of the style and the artwork, the story emerged well enough and it was fun to get into.

Speaking of the artwork, as much as I like complexity, this one started out with a punch with a lot of action. That was why I mentioned a bit muddled because it started to get confusing to where I would just skim over the action parts. I had to slow down to really enjoy/appreciate the work the illustrations were working for the story. I mean, magical beasts trapped in a. spellbook?! Yes, please! But all in all, this was an interesting premise and I enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for an eARC of this manga. All opinions are my own.

The Spellbook Library sounded interesting and gladly the main plot moves slowly, since the mystery is surely interesting. Oddly enough this manga was first published in English as a test and then it will be published in Japanese. This isn't even the only one. Everything revolves around libraries and spellbook librarians that both Yan and Tohru want to be. We get to see their journey towards that goal and there are mysteries along the way and Tohru's past is something else too. I really liked the setting and the world is surely interesting, since I love libraries and I work in the field myself too. But, the superimposed humor eats away some of the pleasure and feels so detached. Especially Yan is super annoying.

The art is OK, nothing amazing, but works in the genre. Library themed stories are the best and especially when the setting is magical fantasy. I wish we get to see more of the monsters and less humor, since it feels cheap. But, this is shounen so I don't hold breath for a change. Still, I hope we'll get to enjoy the mystery a lot longer.