The Archived Review

The Archived
by Victoria Schwab
Expected Publication: 01.22.13
From 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.

Midnight Thoughts

~I really thought this was an incredibly original book!  I am so impressed with Schwab's imagination, and she now has my undying book loyalty.

~Mackenzie moves into an old apartment building that in my mind was creepy, old, and decadent.  She's lost her little brother, Ben, and it's a tough move.  Although she isn't thrilled to be torn away from her best friend, Mac isn't nearly as moody and annoying as I would have been in her place.  Which was a nice change. 

~Immediately creepy things begin to happen in the Narrows and the Archives, and Mac uncovers a mystery- one she's determined to uncover. Which I think is in large part due to how her brother's hit and run killer has never been found.

~As much as I love creepy books, scary movies, Halloween, etc, I don't think I could stay in a bedroom where someone was actually murdered.  My imagination is just too out of control.

~The whole plot line of having Ben (or at least his memories) so close but being unable to connect with him, is heartbreaking for the reader along with Mac.

~This book did not have enough Wesley, but what it did feature of him was awesome:

Picture of Wesley's physical description that Instagramed to Twitter because I knew he was so Steph's type boy! Plus I've been crushing on boys with guyliner since the 80's and The Cure.

~Wesley reading Dante's Inferno out loud to Mac pretty much had me swooning.

~So many great little side characters- but I wanted more of them! More of crazy shut in blind guy, more of Wesley's moody cousin, more of the Librarians!

~This is from the ARC, so they may not be in the final version, but here are some quotes I loved:

One of them is commandeering the kitchen table every Sunday morning with nothing but a pot of coffee and a book.

"You know, the think about this book, is that it's meant to be heard, not read."

"You are crazy," he says. "You are a crazy, amazing girl. And you scare the hell out of me."

There's no sky in the Narrows, but it always feels like night.  Night in a city after rain.

"It's bad for me and I know it and I still do it, and in order for me to do it and enjoy it, I have to not think about it."

People are so beautifully predictable.

~I want to be a Keeper, but mostly because I think be a Librarian would actually be awesome.  Oh, the archives I would read!  First step: Marilyn Monroe.

~Okay, so someone dies, they become archived.  Does this mean that if indeed Jimmy Hoffa is dead (and let's face it, he totally is) that he's in the archive even if he hasn't been found?  Wouldn't this be a good way to somehow discreetly let people know if missing person's were dead or alive?  The possibilities of this world Schwab's created makes me long for sequels, but I don't know if this is that kind of book.

~I'm assuming Da's name is from the Irish form of Dad.  Because otherwise it's a dumb name, so I'm going with it being and endearing Irish nickname.

~There is a bit of a love triangle, although it didn't bother me at first because I was all "Why can't she just have both?".  Although maybe that would push this out of the YA genre and into Adult Paranormal Romance world.

~The Archived is, at it's heart, a great mystery.  It became a page-turner, although I wasn't positive after the opening of the book.  I was afraid that I wasn't going to connect, but by the end of Chapter 2 I was hooked.

The Archived gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

**Disclaimer: I briefly received a copy of this book through Around the World ARC tours in exchange for my honest review.  Any opinion, snark or wit is my own.**