Book Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Book: The Archived (Book #1 in The Archived series)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 4.75/5 stars- chillingly dark and imaginative

Synopsis: (as found on Goodreads)

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Review:

Oh my goodness. What a deliciously dark yummy book. The idea is fresh and exciting, the characters deep and interesting, the plot tense and exhilarating.. wow. 

A library of the dead, a unique and original idea and Victoria Schwab pulled it off pretty brilliantly. 

What I really enjoyed about the writing of this novel is how there's the past memories that carries the present story. Mackenzie's memories of her and Da learning about how to be a Keeper help us understand a little bit of the current storyline and give it background and information. It was a fun way to add it in and reveal background information that doesn't like tell the audience outright in a really obvious lame manner. 

The plot is was great- dark and twisty, but not very mysterious. I wouldn't consider the plot of this story "predictable" in any way, but it didn't unfold like a mystery to me- there wasn't really any foreshadowing (that I caught anyways, I could have missed all of them to be fair) and each clue just came in and out and just slowly clicked into place until the final piece clicked and boom- the final picture finally makes sense. And the ending of that mystery was wrapped up pretty quick- I wanted a more action filled, butt-kicking situation. But that's probably just me, and plus it made me cry out anyways... (*tears remembering at what happened)

The characters- Mackenzie, the poor damaged soul, I loved watching her grow stronger and became more accepting of her fate as a Keeper, and the way her life was going to run. She was a great character to watch mature.

Wesley. OH MY. I haven't come across such a fun character for so long! He's possibly one of the few love interest that have actually caught my attention and made me totally die for scenes between him the main characters- I haven't come across new love interests like that for so long. I love how he and Mac's relationship in no way overrides the story and in fact, strengthens her character and makes his character so much more lovable. I would like to complain though that there wasn't NOT ENOUGH OF HIM. When you have a character like him, YOU MUST HAVE MORE. Like any other book, I wouldn't care, but MORE. MORE. PLLLLLEASE.

Overall, The Archived is a beautifully dark and vividly imagined novel, I'm excited for the next novel. (And more Wesley. Please tell me more Wesley.)