Rate: 5/5
Medium: Audiobook
Overview (No Spoilers):
I feel like I should start with a disclaimer for the following post due to the gushing nature of this review.
When reading this first book of The Library Trilogy, I couldn’t help but feel as though Lawrence’s other novels were all building to this one brilliant work of art where one could read The Book that Wouldn’t Burn over and over again and find new hidden literary references every time. As with all of his trilogies, the reader is continually guessing and reanalyzing former conversations with each new revelation, and due to the interconnected nature of Lawrence’s novels, there’s the added challenge of identifying the subtle links to his former stories.
The twists and turns Lawrence has in store for the reader fit together perfectly in highsight, while being delightfully blindsiding in the moment. These insights have me still pondering implications to early aspects of this story weeks later, perhaps even highlighting my own internal unintentional bias. Without giving away too much, I find myself reassessing the early assumptions I routinely make regarding characters in literature, before the author fills in the specific details. In the most vague of terms, if descriptions are not explicitly stated, how do you envision the characters, especially when they inhabit totally isolated story lines and what potential plot twists do you ignore based on the confines of your assumptions. Quite simply, Lawrence delightfully bamboozles in a straightforward, yet brilliant delivery that leaves the reader reeling throughout the rest of the read. It amazes me that Lawrence pulled off this feat with minimal misdirection, but instead relies on the reader’s own presumptions. This plot twist alone is elegantly simple, yet massively impactful. Just wonderful.
The Book that Wouldn’t Burn focuses on heavy themes, such as xenocide, prejudice, bias, and knowledge distribution, throughout. Not to mention how history is edited and narrated by the victors. Specifically, how one can find any book that agrees with their own beliefs, e.g., political stance, while ignoring the vast wealth of knowledge that states otherwise. Lawrence effortlessly interweaves these concepts into his unique story. I couldn’t help but feel a direct correlation to how people use the vast resources of the internet in the present day to validate what they think instead of open mindedly searching for an accurate answer.
The story opens up with Livira, the main character of The Book that Wouldn’t Burn, locked in a scene that will instantly pique the reader’s curiosity. As so often happens in Lawrence’s novels, just as you start to get a feel for the desperate world inhabited by Livira, her situation quickly evolves, hooking the reader even further. It is through her isolated childhood that we see the overwhelming wonder of the outside world. As much as Livira evolves and adapts to the new life she inhabits following her tragedy, we see her upbringing still clinging to her, much as the cruel jests claim the Dust will never leave her. Personally, as an ingrained rule follower, Livira’s callous disregard for rules, especially in the face of dire consequences is quite triggering, though one couldn’t help but love her fierce and determined spirit. How much more could be learned in the Library if the staff took Livira’s brave and aggressive approach?
The other point of view focuses on Evar and his siblings who have been trapped in a single, expansive room filled with books. This room is located in the Library but their only ‘escape’ is in the mechanism where they can experience any book they bring into a mysterious mechanism. Evar and his siblings emerged from this mechanism as children and were essentially raised by two mechanical beings, The Assistant and The Soldier. There is so much mystery surrounding their situation that I couldn’t help but be drawn into their prolonged plight, enamored of the vividly detailed environment of towering books.
Each chapter left our protagonists in a situation that I was loath to step away from, but when remembering the predicament that the other character had been struggling to navigate I was soon hesitant to leave their perspective. Lawrence manages to maintain this fantastic, seemingly unsustainable pace throughout this read, drawing the reader ever further into the folds instead of eliciting burnout from the ever mounting suspense.
Overall, with the elegantly choreographed twists and turns that Lawrence cultivates throughout this read, The Book that Wouldn’t Burn is Lawrence’s best work to date.
Additional Insight (Spoilers Abound):
- The prologue consists of two sentences. “The first arrow hit a child. That was the opening line.” Was it the opening line of Livira’s book? If not, what book was it? The last line of chapter two matches the prologue. Is this where the book actually begins?
- As I read I often mark sections or lines to return to. In The Book that Wouldn’t Burn so many of the revelations directly impacted sections I’d highlighted. Upon finding out the Levira and Malar were the Assistant and the Soldier, respectively, our introductions to these characters take on new meanings. For example when the Assistant is comforting Evar after his breakup with Clovis, the Assistant tells him that she wasn’t the girl for him and that girl is still waiting. Also, when Evar finds Liveria’s book, the Assistant tells him that the person who finished that book was very different than the one who started it. The Soldier telling Evar he wants to find the girl who wrote his book. With his black eyes, is this actually Malar or an escape present? That said, it definitely sounds like Malar’s sass.
- We know now that Yute’s ring holds knowledge and books. What does it mean that the moonstones set in the ring can also be found in the Dust also have knowledge.
- I totally pictured Wentworth as Lawrence’s rather large cat.
- I loved this quote from Logaris: “It grows and changes too slowly for us to see and yet we know that it was once a seed small enough to be lost in the breadth of our palm and we know that one day it will topple and die and rot away.” and “Language changes as it ages becoming unrecognizable to itself in just ten generations.”
- So many literary quotes sprinkled throughout from:
- Alice and Wonderland reference: “but at least she would have been with people who she knew there and not expected to do the impossible six times before breakfast”
- The Wizard of Oz reference: I’m not in Kansas anymore”
- The escapes remind me of the ‘demons’ in The Book of the Ancestor and The Book of Ice where they are fractions of people’s souls/personality pieces being shaved off. Especially as we know that they can ‘possess’ the robotic bodies.
- I want to know more about Lord Algar? Why is he the way he is? At this point he seems like a rather one dimensional bad guy. Or perhaps Lawrence intended that representations as Algar seems like he would fit well into current politics where personal gain and party politics take priority over general human decency and long term impacts.
- What does Meelan think of his family and his sister? What do they think of his path?
- What is Arpix’s backstory?
- Why was the escape saying Evar’s name?
- What would have happened had Evar taken Livera’s book in the Mechanism?
- Who put Evar’s book in that huge stack? What are the odds he would find it. What would have happened had he kept reading?
- Did Carlotte survive?
- I loved the addition of the Crow assistant and couldn’t wait to see how the Crow would pop up every time.
- When Evar emerged from his pool into a land where pools stretched as far as the eye could see I audibly squealed. I was seriously so excited. Trigger instant nostalgia. The Magician’s Nephew was one of the first books I read as a child that triggered a lightbulb moment where potential and imagery struck like lightning and I still think about that scene with all the pools. I think you can now appreciate my level of excitement seeing that scene brought to life again under Lawrence’s capable pen. He even includes an easter egg to cement this connection.
- Who or what is the Assistant among the pools?
- Where did Mayland go and what did he see that motivated him so? Did he see Evar while he was in other pools?
- What is the Lost Seam?
- What happened to Yute’s daughter?
- How could the Assistant and Soldier see the ghost Evar? Evar seeing into the Soldier’s essence by touching him gave new insights to the reader regarding Malar’s demons.
- What is the importance of the brass class Livera found in the stacks?
- I still struggle to wrap my head around the time travel and becoming a ghost in your own time implications.
- What does it mean that Jaspeth wants Livira? What does Jaspeth have to do with the escapes?
Vocabulary Builder:
Apropos: being both relevant and opportune
Scintilla: spark, trace
Astrolabe: a compact instrument used to observe and calculate the position of celestial bodies before the invention of the sextant
Slake: subside, abate
Eponymous: of, relating to, or being the person or thing for whom or which something is named : of, relating to, or being an eponym
Zephyr: a breeze from the west
Athenaeum: a building or room in which books, periodicals, and newspapers are kept for use
The Critiquing Chemist 