The Archive of The Forgotten is the second instalment in AJ Hackwith’s Hell’s Library trilogy. If you haven’t read the first, The Library of The Unwritten, then you’ll want to read that one first! If you have a love of books, and enjoy fantasies, myths, the underworld, and thoughtful stories, then I highly recommend this imaginative new series.
The Archive of The Forgotten picks up where The Library of The Unwritten ended. It deals with the consequences of the battle to protect the library, whilst facing a new threat. Whilst the two books both contain their own main plot, The Archive of The Forgotten moves past the events of the previous book and it focuses on the new balance of relationships between the characters, and what the changes mean for them. I think I found the first part of the book slower than its predecessor because I spent some time picking up the pieces, but it soon ramped up. It was really good to spend more time with the characters that I’d come to know, and A.J Hackwith’s writing is just as beautiful as before. The Archive of The Forgotten still has the inventive worlds and wonderful prose that make it just as captivating as before.
“They burn them first, the stories. Humans always come for the stories first. It’s their warm-up, before they start burning other humans. It’s their first form of control, to burn the libraries, to burn the books, to burn the archives of a culture. Humans are the stories they tell.”
After the battle saw books destroyed and burnt, Claire is no longer the librarian in charge of the unwritten wing with all of its potential stories. Instead, she is moved to the arcane wing, and takes the title of the arcanist, in charge of objects that represent humanities darker side. This means the role of Librarian lies with former muse Brevity, and Hero is now her assistant. One of the remaining books starts to leak a mysterious ink, and Brevity and Claire have different ideas of how best to approach this. The book sees the two wings experimenting, researching, and trying to understand what this ink means, and the reader learns along with them. A muse from Brevity’s past named Probity arrives, and she has her own motive. She believes she has found a way for muses to create their own stories without a need for humans – a big no no!
“Humans were ridiculous creatures, in Hero’s expert opinion. They always saw what they wanted to see and ignored the rest. No creature edited its own reality so viciously as a human.”
The reader also gets to see more of Hell’s Library, such as the Dust Wing, where the books that humanity has forgotten end up, and the Unsaid Wing, full of letters and confessions that were never sent. I think the idea of these different wings are so imaginative, and it makes me excited to see where else we might get to explore in the next book. Through exploring the different wings of the Library, and seeing them through Hero’s eyes, we go on a journey with him. Remember, Hero is a character out of his own book, he is trying to find out where he fits in. There are a number of wonderful quotes about humanity in both of these books.
Like The Library of The Unwritten, this book has multiple points of view but it is written in the third person, and the chapters are from either Claire, Hero, Rami, or Brevity’s perspective. There is a distinction between them and I found Hero’s chapters more fun to read as they held his humour, whereas Claire’s chapters had a more serious feel to them. Rami might have to be my favourite character though. He’s lived for hundreds (thousands?) of years and blesses us with pearls of wisdom like this: “I think the weight of a man’s life lies in what he does with it. Reasons and heart are important, but it’s your actions that have long-reaching effects.”
The guy might be a fallen angel, but he has the patience of a saint to try and crack Claire’s tough exterior and put up with Hero’s flighty character. He is finding his family and I am HERE FOR IT.
“Ramiel kept Claire standing, and Hero kept her on her toes.”
Ah, relationships. Throughout The Archive of The Forgotten, I felt like one of the characters was maybe starting to feel a little more than feelings of friendship towards another. There were also a few hints of attraction between characters too. There is a kiss! However, I will not reveal who it was between. I do feel curious as to where Hackwith is going to take the romantic direction of this pairing. I feel the dynamic between Rami, Claire, and Hero has more to meet the eye, perhaps we may even see the start of a poly relationship? I might be wrong, but I would like to see where the three will go, as I think feelings are going to start getting complicated.
The Archive of The Forgotten is a strong sequel, whilst it addresses events of the previous book (the damage to the library), it also has its own storyline which does get more or less resolved, but also leaves points to be addressed in the next book. The characters get plenty of development too, for example, we can see this in Claire’s attitude towards those around her, caring for others and showing vulnerability and asking for help. Brevity starts to gain more confidence working within the library and speaking for herself too. By the end of The Archive of The Forgotten, I definitely felt much more connected with the characters and invested in their relationships with each other. I am very keen to see what journey A.J Hackwith decides to take us on next!
The Archive of The Forgotten is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of October 6th 2020.
Will you be picking up The Archive of The Forgotten? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
In the second installment of this richly imagined fantasy adventure series, a new threat from within the Library could destroy those who depend upon it the most.
The Library of the Unwritten in Hell was saved from total devastation, but hundreds of potential books were destroyed. Former librarian Claire and Brevity the muse feel the loss of those stories, and are trying to adjust to their new roles within the Arcane Wing and Library, respectively. But when the remains of those books begin to leak a strange ink, Claire realizes that the Library has kept secrets from Hell–and from its own librarians.
Claire and Brevity are immediately at odds in their approach to the ink, and the potential power that it represents has not gone unnoticed. When a representative from the Muses Corps arrives at the Library to advise Brevity, the angel Rami and the erstwhile Hero hunt for answers in other realms. The true nature of the ink could fundamentally alter the afterlife for good or ill, but it entirely depends on who is left to hold the pen.
