Book Review of Ink and Bone (The Great Library series)

Yay! One of my favorite authors Rachel Caine has another fantastic series I can get lost in. Even better, I can share this story world with my darling husband, our teen and our tween because it happens to be YA/Steampunky alternate reality. I love introducing my family to wonderful reads and this one definitely needs to be shared.

Check out the gorgeous cover:

It’s a brilliant, chilling, thought-provoking book. It reminded me of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Fahrenheit 451. But in the end  it’s its own story.

The central premise (and character) is: The Great Library of Alexandria still exists. As a book lover who haunts her local library on a regular basis, I LOVED this. But then, Caine takes it up a notch and turns the library into this Big Brother type of entity. The most AWESOME & original villain ever. Caine builds her world with so much skill that I could imagine her twisted reality and it terrified me.

*There are fearsome lion automatons!*

Jess, the main character, loves books...so I immediately connected to him.

"You have ink in your blood, boy, and no help for it. Books will never be just a business to you."

This is a dark coming of age story where Jess finds out about divided loyalties, what freedom means and what it costs, the difference between what is portrayed and what is real. And we are there every step of the way.

*Yes, this book made me cry.*

I'm a big proponent of #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Raising children with mixed heritages, I'm always on the lookout for stories that show a well-rounded and diverse cast. Ink and Bone delivers. In fact, diversity is a natural part of this world. The library brings together the brightest young minds from all over the world to train into future librarians.Each character is fully developed -- you know their vulnerabilities and their strengths.

The story doesn't shy away from tough topics and questions -- we see the realities of war, poverty and oppression. All of this is presented not in a preachy fashion, but presented in a tension-filled gripping read. Ink and Bone made me think and made me feel. And that is all I can ask of a good book.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this complex series.