SOLVED. YA/MG fantasy novel, heroine lives in great library where tiny gremlins who whisper to her are her closest companions. [s]

[A.]

Read sometime in middle school period (so 2010-2015) most likely though for the life of me I can’t remember well. What I DO remember is that the plot and setting was pretty striking - teenaged heroine lived in a giant library I believe, where there was some kind of institution like a religious order she was a novice in I think? They might’ve had something about burning the books in the library as well. And her friends were tiny mischievous gremlins who lived in the library who sat on her shoulders and whispered things in her ears. It seemed like they favored her and possibly only talked to/were heard by her. Magic was involved and I think she had powers specifically tied to either spoken or written/read words (more in connection with the library setting/possible evil order that burns books?). Her best friend was a redhead named Claudia or similar who worked as a servant for the order, hated them, and regularly messed up their meals out of spite (spit on a plate before putting salad on it was a specific scene I recall). She was also mentioned in passing to be aware that she liked girls, which was developed into a storyline where she went to another place and became attracted to a serving girl from another, Greek-like culture, and this girl was named Scipia or something like that. I remember very vividly a scene where she was in a bath in a copper tub with this girl and couldn’t help stealing glances at her body as they talked, and observed the way her dark hair fanned out when she slid underwater, and made comparisons of her nipples to dark rosebuds (kind of NSFW, I know, sorry!). Eventually they parted ways and Claudia believed that the girl had sadly been killed by her masters, which fueled her hatred for overseer types in general. Additionally, Claudia ended up having the power to fly this huge arcane artifact shaped like a golden crescent, which was called the Wing maybe? The Something of Someplace, and I think the Someplace might have been Tyrses or something similar starting with T. Also, the Greek-styled culture had a beautiful, intimidating dark-haired and bronze-skinned warrior-queen who the heroine came to interact closely with, and who had a formidable queen-mother whom she didn’t seem to entirely like or trust. There’s one other scene I remember also vividly wherein the queen stripped to engage in combat training in her palace. Also the heroine had a generic teenage dreamy male love interest who I barely remember except he kissed her dreamily at some point (in the library basement, when they returned to the library at the end of the story I think) and also he said “shit” at some other point. But don’t ask me what he looked like, I have no idea. (Sorry, I’m really gay, haha!)

I’ve been subconsciously influenced by this book through the years despite having had mixed feelings when I read it at the time (probably in connection with being in the closet/in denial and reading about a likeable, strong lesbian character) but I’ve only recently realized I really miss it and would like to find it again. Any help is very very much appreciated!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

About what year did you read it?

[A.]

Oh my bad! It would’ve been between 2010 and 2015 most likely, I’ll edit my post accordingly.

[Ayshe]

Libyrinth by Pearl North? Reviews mention friend Clauda.

[A.]

Ayshe wrote: "Libyrinth by Pearl North? Reviews mention friend Clauda."
Yes!! Thank you so much!

[Justanotherbiblophile]

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