The Archived (The Archived, #1) in THE ARCHIVED

Mar 11, 2014 Regan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-owned-read

Victoria Schwab crafts another beautiful and unique story.

Plus, guyliner.

Mar 03, 2014 Lexie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, paranormal

Five and a half stars? Five and a half stars.

I always promise myself that I'll learn not to write a review the moment I finish a book. And always I break this promise. This time is no different. And my thoughts are absolutely scattered.

I read "The Archived" as part of the read-a-long hosted here on Goodreads and which is still on-going (and will continue throughout most of the month of March). If you're on the fence about this book and somehow stumble upon this review - it is my sincerest recomm Five and a half stars? Five and a half stars.

I always promise myself that I'll learn not to write a review the moment I finish a book. And always I break this promise. This time is no different. And my thoughts are absolutely scattered.

I read "The Archived" as part of the read-a-long hosted here on Goodreads and which is still on-going (and will continue throughout most of the month of March). If you're on the fence about this book and somehow stumble upon this review - it is my sincerest recommendation that you pick it up. I will forever be recommending "The Archived" to everyone I meet. To paraphrase one Jesse who's been raving about it for years: "The Archived" is the sort of book which everyone needs in their lives.

Apart from the glowing adjectives I'm about to liberally bestow on it, however, "The Archived" is another thing - ridiculously hard to sum up or describe without giving any crucial details away. So in my best attempt to do just that, I will reiterate what has already been said in the synopsis: sixteen year old Mackenzie Bishop is going through a lot. After the sudden death of her brother and the passing of her grandfather, her parents uproot their collective life to move away and start anew. This would all be well and good if Mackenzie hadn't inherited her late grandfather's job as a Keeper - a guardian of the dead (not just the dead-and-gone kind, though, but the other, more mobile kind) known as Histories. And the place her parents choose as their new home is an old hotel-turned-apartment building with a rich history of its own. Mackenzie's main concern? The richer the history of a place, the more Histories she has to contend with. And not all dead like the realization that they're dead... nor is the hotel quite as it appears on the surface.

The writing style was what struck me first. Victoria Schwab possesses this unique, lyrical, poetic way of weaving a story which I feel would imbue even the most mundane of book with a touch of magic. And this is no mundane book. The worldbuilding is so intricate and so well thought-out that it grips the reader in such a way that it becomes impossible to put the book down until all the secrets of the world of the Archives has been revealed. Permeated with (highly relevant) flashbacks of Mackenzie's grandfather's lessons about the world, the reader stays up to date with everything they need to know before it becomes relevant to the plot. I'm not too big of a fan of flashbacks. In this case, though, not a sentence was amiss or entirely irrelevant. The aesthetic beauty (Pleonasm? I think so!) of these moments makes them into some of my most highlighted/underlined moments of the entire book.

And once the reaches and limits of the world have been established, the plot thickens. And boy, does it thicken. From a coming-of-age paranormal story, "The Archive" veers into a thriller/mystery domain, without ever loosing its thread or becoming too much to keep up with. I found myself suspicious of everyone at one point or another while making desperate attempts to piece together the puzzle that the characters find themselves facing. Suffice it to say, I never did - not before the very climax of the story, not even as all the pieces were laid out in front of me, just waiting to be lined up correctly. Victoria Schwab is THAT good. I can't praise the resolution of this book enough.

I tentatively purchased a Kindle version of "The Archived" a couple of months ago. Am I getting a hard copy now that I've finished? Of course I'm getting a hard copy now that I've finished. Frivolous? No. I need to have this book forever and re-read it eternally. It's just that simple. ...more

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Jan 30, 2014 Kayla rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, kick-ass-heroines, read-in-2014, get-on-my-bookshelf

ALL! THE! STARS!

For real though, this book deserves way more than five stars! It was great! More than great!

This book for me started off kind of slow. There was a lot of world building and back story telling going on. Granted, all that world building was amazing and the back story was also really important to the character so I kept trucking on and I’m so thankful I did. The concept and this world, in general, were like nothing I’d ever experienced. I love the concept of the dead just sitting on ...more

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Mar 06, 2014 bee rated it liked it

Shelves: 2014, urban-fantasy

WOW. Just wow.
I went into this book completely blind, so blind that for four chapters straight I thought that Mackenzie was a "he" and not a "she". I gathered a little from the title, but other than that I knew nothing. And I LOVED IT. The foundation and the main idea of the novel are great and very unique and the world building is very fulfilling right from the start. The writing style is very poetic and metaphorical and it took some getting used to but I liked it a lot. The characters are grea ...more

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Mar 08, 2014 Ella rated it it was amazing

I loved this book so much that I described to a friend. She thought it sound fantastic, so now she's reading it. I will have a full review on my channel. www.youtube.com/booksbyella ...more

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Mar 02, 2014 Pablo Pérez rated it it was amazing

God, this book is awesome. Even though the first 100 pages were slow, and I didn't know what was going on.... as the story progressed everything made sense and BAMMM!! I started to enjoy the book! I give it a 4.5/5 because wooah, the plot was so original and unique. ...more

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Jan 19, 2014 Jaeden Brown rated it it was amazing

Shelves: on-the-shelf, favorites

--UPDATE: 2016-- Opinion on this book has not changed. I adore this world, how it's written and the characters within. Luckily it's been a couple years since I last read this book so specific details had escaped me so I was able to enjoy a few of the small twists leading up to the big one, especially the "story piecing together" near the end. Definitely will be a constant reread for me.

--2014--.....WHERE'S BOOK 2?!?!?! SO good!!! I loved it! I fell in love with these characters, and even the bad ...more

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Mar 03, 2014 Jennifer Scott rated it really liked it

started really slow but turned into an amazing book

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Apr 13, 2014 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

*4.5 stars*
Really, really loved this book and was surprised how into it I got. Can't wait to read the sequel. Check out the full review here: http://foureyedbooknerd.blogspot.com/... ...more

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