The Archive of the Forgotten (Hell's Library #2)

by A.J. Hackwith

Rami slanted him a look, which from this angle was heavy with long-suffering tolerance.

Right, Rami and Hero's relationship can comfortably be referred to as "tolerable" but now I'm supposed to believe it's romantic?

“Mistress Lucille offered her help—”

Oh, fuck.

Puppy-dog eyes, terrifying with a returns cart, blue all over?”

Now, I'm imagining Tom Ellis from Lucifer.

“Have you taken leave of your senses?

This is rather formal.

Or what he could be if you allowed him.”

This feels soooooo forced.

“No, he doesn’t. He’s a literal divine being. That’s grotesque.”

First, if this turns into a poly relationship I am OUT. Second, if this turns into a love triangle, I'm out, because that's lazy and dumb. Third, NONE of these "relationships" - with the possible exception of Claire/Hero - make *sense*. If I recall correctly, in book one, Rami mostly spent time working under Uriel in an attempt to win his way back into Heaven. He was literally /hunting/ Claire, Hero, Leto, and Brevity. He didn't switch teams until the third act. Rami and Hero spent most of their time despising each other. Hero may have commented on Rami's looks, because book one Hero was a slut. Rami may have admired Claire, but nothing I remember spoke of *worship*. Now, if you said Brevity worshipped her, you'd be on the money.

Claire was idly amazed at how much she’d learned the tells of Hero’s emotions.

The fact that she's idly *anything* right now doesn't make much sense to me.

“We need to fix this! There’s got to be a fix.”

FUCK YOU. You little meglomaniac bitch.

The Library.

So much for protecting the fucking books, genius.

“This . . . we can fix this, though. Right?”

Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.

She almost felt an empathy for the husks of Verve and Gaiety.

YOU FUCKING SHOULD! YOU HELPED *MAKE* THEM THAT WAY!

“Don’t compare me to them. Don’t compare what I’m trying to do to the millions of books tossed aside, burned, left to rot in the—”

I hate her so much, and if this book weren't on the Kindle app on my laptop, I would throw it.

“Please,” Probity whispered to the floor. “I don’t want to do this alone.”

I fucking HATE THIS. I want a refund.

Her sister muse smiled, shy and soft.

Sadly, you can only get a refund of a Kindle book within seven days of purchase. OH, IF I HAD KNOWN.

“The Hellhounds will have to keep up if they want me.

So she's learned nothing. Fantastic.

The Arcane Wing wasn’t for looting—Rami

She really has learned jack shit, hasn't she?

But if it would save Hero, he’d loot it empty.

Why? You've only barely begun to *like* him.

Claire’s pet raven was waiting for him, hunched like a vulture over a leather satchel.

The Raven who looks like a vulture. Is this really the best you can do?

which reminded Rami of Hero’s copper hair.

How ... does green emerald and rose agate remind him of copper hair?

Rami had imagined shepherding the boy out of trouble.

You can not have Rami think of him as "the boy" AND have them share romantic feelings. Either he's a man Rami is attracted to, or he's a boy that he guards or mentors. He can not be both, that's wrong.

Claire’s fingers jumped along the dagger.

That had better not be the fucking dagger from the first book, because so fucking help me Odin, I will drop this motherfucking book and plaster a negative review anywhere I can so fast ...

And Hero listened.

This was the best chapter so far. 272 pages, 78%, 27 chapters in and I feel like the story might actually get going now.

I’m not, but isn’t it worth the risk?

No, it is not. Not at all.

“You are certain you have a trace?”

Why is she so fucking formal?

“We don’t have to guess.”

Honestly, the fact that this is being reiterated after we, the reader, so recently left there is annoying. This is what I mean when I say this novel is chocked full of word padding.

Perhaps it was a matter of familiarity; perhaps it was an instinct honed after three decades in the Library; perhaps it was a sympathetic echo between unwritten writer and unremembered books, but Claire knew in an instant that there’d been a loss.

Jesus word count padding run-on sentence motherfucking hell. WHERE is an editor? I'd love to know if Hackwith or her editor read any of this out-loud and realized how long-winded it is.

We are made up of those whom we touch.

This sounds like, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." While I know it didn't orignate there, every time I hear the quote I think of the movie Hitch with Will Smith, and groan inside.

The books beneath her feet were quiet as pavers.

Pavers have a sound?

“The books do this to themselves.”

I call bullshit.

“It’s a worthy sacrifice if it shifts the power in the right direction.”

This is a disgusting way of viewing the world.

He stopped, words clotted up in his throat like chalk.

It clotted like chalk?

“Claire’s here?”

Why do you keep burying dialogue in blocks of exposition?

I love how we go, mere moments ago, from "shit" being too coarse, to this.

Why wouldn’t Rami move so he could see his goddamned eyes?

Again.

I may have gotten into a spot of haunting before you showed up.”

I don't know if I'm just tired or bored, but I'm confused.

A small knit appeared between Hero’s brows

God, she really likes this word.

“She’s a lost cause!”

Ugh, she makes me sick.

“Oh, boss.”

My heart.

Nothing is so discounted, dismissed, as an eccentric woman speaking the truth.

Annnnd we're back on this bullshit again.

“Do me a favor, monster.”

That fact that she gets off so fucking easy after all that makes me low-level hate this book.

The written and the writer are the same.

This has been obvious for ages.

Apprentice Librarian Hero, 2020 CE

YES.

“Left. Along with Gaiety.”

I expect them to be back in book three. Please, no.

For things and reasons.”