Review by Booklist Review
Harrison's latest (after The Midnight Club, 2024) imagines a world in which readers' advisory skills are aided by the magic of one book, The Book of Dark Nights. If a person seeks help in The Library of Fates in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the librarian will feel pulled toward the book that the asker's soul needs at that moment. Or maybe the book will give them guidance on an issue they are facing. Daniel and Eleanor meet when they are twenty-one, in a Harvard class taught at the library by Daniel's mother, and Eleanor is inspired to become librarian-in-waiting. When, some twenty years later, Daniel's mother dies, Daniel and Eleanor are brought back together to find The Book of Dark Nights. It's a race against the clock, as others are trying to find it as well. This makes for a suspenseful read, but ultimately, the power of language, books, and libraries reigns supreme. Librarians, book sellers, and book lovers will all empathize with the theme of the value of stories. It will also appeal to those dark academia fans, as it revolves around the actions of a group of students. A compelling plot and lots of bookish heart combine in this wonderful read.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Harrison (The Midnight Club) threads tropes of dark academia, witchcraft, and second-chance romance throughout her spellbinding latest. Eleanor Dennet, a new librarian at Harvard University's Library of Fates, is adrift following the mysterious death of her predecessor and mentor, Odile Vernet. When Odile's son, Daniel, shows up on campus, Eleanor is surprised that he doesn't remember they were classmates and lovers there decades earlier. The two met in Odile's seminar in 1995, where they learned of the Book of Dark Nights, written centuries ago by a French witch. In a parallel narrative, the students discover the book's magical powers, including its ability to offer predictions of the future in the reader's own handwriting, which only the reader can see. Harrison also shows how the Library of Fates could magically match readers with the perfect book. Now, Daniel and Eleanor discover the Book of Dark Nights is missing from the library, and they must recover it or risk losing the library's special qualities. As Daniel gradually remembers his time with Eleanor, the pair rekindle their romance and unearth clues about the missing book. Harrison keeps the reader guessing with her taut mystery plot, which builds to wild revelations about the depth of the book's power. Readers will be riveted. Agent: Jessica Sinsheimer, Context Literary. (Dec.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When the librarian of the Library of Fates mysteriously dies and the magical book she's charged with protecting goes missing, it falls to her talented protégé and her estranged son to find it before it's too late. The Library of Fates, tucked away in an unassuming building on Harvard's campus, is far from an ordinary library. Students know that if you walk in and ask for a book to guide you through a difficult time, the librarian will choose a volume that can change your life. This is, in no small part, due to the presence ofThe Book of Dark Nights, a strange and extremely powerful tome with the ability to show someone who they might become. When Odile Vernet, the keeper of The Library of Fates, abruptly dies, it falls to her young and immensely talented protégé, Eleanor Dennet, to take up the position. Eleanor soon discovers thatThe Book of Dark Nights, along with all the secrets it holds in its pages, has gone missing, stolen from under everyone's noses, presumably in the wake of Odile's death. She soon joins forces with Odile's estranged--and extremely handsome--son, Daniel, in order to find it. The story is told in chapters alternating between 2019, as Eleanor and Daniel race against time to try to recoverThe Book of Dark Nights, and 1995, when they first met as Odile's students and sparks began to fly between them; Harrison's book checks every box for readers looking for something with a little bit of magic and a little bit of romance. While it contains an entertaining mystery, at heart this is a novel about the power of a good book and how that book can change a person's life if it's read at the right moment. A contemporary tale of magic, books, and love. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
