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Library | Shelf Number | Material Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Lalucia Library | COLL | English Fiction | Searching... Unknown |
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Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Collins's solid first adult novel (following several YA novels) is a haunted, Dickensian fantasia. At the story's outset, teenage Emmett is a farmer's son in an alternate England at an indeterminate point in the past whose mind is riddled with gaps due to an unspecified illness. He receives a letter that calls him for an apprenticeship with a bookbinder, Seredith, who's reputed to be a witch. Emmett quickly discovers that Seredith is not your run-of-the-mill bookbinder: she draws traumatic memories out of people's minds and hides them away in books, thereby removing the memories from their minds. The first client Emmett meets is a man named Lucian Darnay; their encounters unsettle and even enrage both of them, but neither knows why. Emmett eventually discovers there is a book with his name on it, and it holds an essential secret about him. The relationship between Emmett and Lucian plays out satisfyingly, but the novel suffers from portentous conversations and a few plot points that the characters don't realistically react to. Emmett is a YA protagonist, too-sullen, reluctant, wrapped in victimhood. This is an enjoyable novel for readers of any age, but the story remains YA at its heart. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Collins' first foray into adult fiction presents an alternate world reminiscent of nineteenth-century England, brimming with correctness and repression, where books are literally made from memories. Binding is not just the craft of making an elegant tome but also the art of taking away selected recollections to help a person forget pain, grief, or a terrible secret. Emmett, a young apprentice binder, learns the craft from the elderly Seredith but also learns that many despise binders, believing they take a piece of a person's soul. He has been taught that a binder cannot steal anything, the memory must be offered freely, but there are unscrupulous buyers who sell volumes for personal profit, and even a binder can be bound. Emmett and an aristocrat's son unknowingly share a secret one that could destroy them both. Using evocative language to express a lovingly told tale of lost memories, Collins wraps her story of a passionate, forbidden relationship in mystery and magic.--Lucy Lockley Copyright 2019 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Books are dangerous things in Collins's alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It's a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them. After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything. VERDICT With astonishing unpredictability, YA novelist Collins enters the adult arena with a spellbinding blend of history, mystery and fantasy. [See Prepub Alert, 10/15/18.]-Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.