The Library of the Unwritten

Starred review from August 1, 2019

The Unwritten Wing in Hell is home to all stories unfinished by their authors. Claire is the head librarian. Sometimes she must chase down and return characters who have escaped from their pages. When one such hero heads to Earth to find his author, Claire, her current assistant and former muse Brevity, and the demon Leto try to capture him. The trio are attacked by the angel Ramiel, who thinks they are looking for the same tome he is: the Devil's Bible. Deliberately lost on Earth for centuries, the Devil's Bible could put the power of either heaven or hell in control. Claire and her companions must find it before the two realms decide to declare war over the missing book, which could destroy Earth in the process. The group journeys through realms of the dead and discovers the secrets and truths of all involved as they work to save everyone's stories. VERDICT Elaborate worldbuilding, poignant and smart characters, and a layered plot make this first in a fantasy series from Hackwith (also writing as sf romance author Ada Harper) is an ode to books, writing, and found families.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
A librarian in charge of unwritten books gets pulled into a dispute between heaven and hell in Hackwith's debut. Claire is the librarian of hell's Unwritten Wing, meaning she's in charge of books that either haven't been written yet or, if their author has died, will never be written at all. Claire's soul is human, unlike that of her assistant, Brevity, who's a failed muse. There's nothing an unwritten book wants more than to be written, and sometimes a book is able to manifest itself in the form of one of its characters. When a young demon named Leto gives Claire the news that one such book has escaped, she knows it'll be looking for its author on Earth, hoping to convince her to sit down and write that book she's been thinking about. But when Claire, Brevity, and Leto go to retrieve the book, they are confronted by the angel Ramiel, who is convinced they have pages of the Devil's Bible. Suddenly Claire and her friends are on the run from realm to realm, trying to get to those pages before Ramiel and prevent a war between heaven and hell. There's a lot going on here, and the first in any new series has plenty of worldbuilding to cover, but it would have been nice if this sprawling first installment had been a bit more contained. The scenes with Ramiel and the other angels are particularly interesting, as are hints of political tensions between the demons of hell. Hackwith is a strong writer, and there's plenty to build a series on here, so hopefully future novels will have a narrower focus. A somewhat overstuffed first entry in a promising new series.

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Starred review from August 12, 2019
This excellent debut sends Claire Hadley, the Librarian of the Unwritten Wing in Hell, on a quest across realms to find a book of power. Claire, along with her apprentice librarian, former muse Brevity, and a young demon, Leto, have gone to Seattle, where they hope to recover a character who has escaped from one of the unwritten volumes in their charge. While there, Claire and Leto are accosted by the angel Ramiel, who demands that they return an unnamed book. Once they get back to the Library, they discover that the book in question is the Codex Gigas, a repository for Lucifer’s power—and no one knows where it is. But if they don’t find it, Hell and Heaven will go to war. Claire gathers allies, including the escaped character, now called “Hero,” and a duke of Hell who is the Librarian from the Arcane Wing. Their hunt for the Codex takes them to Valhalla, Earth, and beyond. Hackwith builds her world and characters with loving detail, creating a delightful addition to the corpus of library-based and heaven vs. hell fantasies. This novel and its promised sequels will find a wide audience. Agent: Caitlin McDonald, Donald Maass Literary.

September 1, 2019
Hackwith's debut is an engaging fantasy centered on the librarian of the Unwritten Wing, a library that houses the imagined novels of authors across the ages. Here, stories can rebel, breaking free from the page in the form of their characters. Claire is forced to take a break from her usual work repairing books to track down one such hero with the help of her assistant and former muse, Brevity, and the nervous demon named Leto who brought her the news. But soon she is embroiled in a fight between hell and heaven to capture a mysterious and dangerous manuscript; while both sides want it, Claire knows it belongs to the library and is determined to preserve it. Hackwith writes a fast-paced, suspenseful story set in an intriguing world where storytellers can duel with words and souls are not what they seem. Bookworms will love the creative spin of a library system rooted in imagination, of interworld book loans flying out to places like Valhalla, and of characters rising off the pages. Readers will eagerly await the sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)