Published: January 22, 2013
Publisher: Hyperion
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy
My Rating: 3/5
The dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead, called 'Histories', rest in the Archive.
Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper is dangerous and a constant reminder of those she lost, Da and her little brother. Mac wonders about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. Yet someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.
Imagine a file of your entire life, of every moment, every experience. All of it.
This book has the most interesting ideas ever! Have you ever read a book about libraries that has not books, but, souls. I think not! Well, something like a soul. It's a copy of your soul that stores every living memory you ever experienced. The idea of it is so intriguing that I waste no time in engaging to the idea. It's totally unheard of.
Mackenzie, the main character is a Keeper. A Keeper is someone who hunts for the souls that managed to escaped from the Archive and return them back to where they should be. I truly enjoyed the actions and everything there is to it in the job.
Wes, oh Wes! I normally don't have a thing for guys with eyeliner (except for a select few!) or in this case, guyliner but I got to admit, Wes totally rock it off. Only a select few can totally rock guyliner like Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook and Oliver Queen from Arrow!
Cheers for guyliner! :D
I love the idea of the Archived of the dead but the story fails to include the vital information of why it is there in the first place. Surely, a thing of such importance will have a reason for its existence in the first place. It felt like there were not much use for the Archive. I would have thought that the knowledge obtained from all those memories would have been used for a greater purpose and not just to be stored away. I hope there will be more entailed details about the Archive in the sequel because it will be a waste for the Archive to exist for no foreseen purpose at all.
Also, there were times that the plot seems to be pretty obvious and that eliminate any surprises that I should or may have.
Besides, what also irritates me is Mackenzie's affair (not like she is involved with someone else at the time but it felt wrong, somehow.) SPOILER ALERT Oh yeah, because he is a History! SPOILER ENDS with the blonde guy (I forgotten his name) because of how easy she got all kissy-kissy with him and not even caring about his "being" (if you know what I mean).
The ending felt rushed. Everything seems to fall in place in a highly predictable ways. Also, when Wes kissed Mackenzie (thus, reading her thoughts), I am not sure if it was deliberate, or compulsive. The thing is, if he wanted to just read her mind, he could have just touched her but he kissed her so I am not sure if that is the result of a long bottled-up emotions or if he intended to do that to read her mind (what a way to do it and at an inconvenient time too!).
There wasn't anything that is ugly about the story. Overall, it was more like a "mehh" than amazing. I love this book for the idea of the story but not so much for the plot itself. There was no fault in the writing. It was amazing and beautiful. I only hope that there were huger conflicts in the story. The conflict at the end was just not enough. I need more! I will continue reading this series with high hopes that it will be better.
