5 stars for The Archived (Archived book 1) by Victoria Schwab.
The story opens with MacKenzie Bishop and her parents moving to the Coronado, a hotel turned-apartment building with a certain old charm which attracts her parents in the first place. Built more than a century ago, the Coronado is full of history and packed to the brim with secrets, rumors, lies and tales.
In this brilliantly created urban fantasy world, the author splits existence into three sections: the Outer which is the normal world where normal people live, the Archive which is a library for the dead, and the Narrows which acts as a buffer for the former two. Our heroine, Mac is one among the selected few who has been granted special access to both the Narrows and the Archive. She is a Keeper. And her job is to send Histories who have woken up from their eternal slumber back to where they belong in the Archive.
Soon, Mac finds herself deeply entwined with the ghosts of the Coronado's past. Yet the more she tries to unravel its mysteries, the more peculiar it gets and the more question mark she accumulates. These bits and pieces of jigsaw not only spur our heroine to complete the puzzle, they certainly pique my interest to keep the pages turning. Though this is a Young Adult novel, it definitely does not have a juvenile feel to it. The writing is polished with a gripping original storyline to match.
Fantasy checked. Mystery checked. Suspense checked. Romance kind of checked as well. I am not a great fan of Young Adult novel, but this is surely one not to be missed with all the right boxes ticked.
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication date: 29 January 2013
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Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is 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 useful tool for staying alive.
Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.
*Blurb from author's website*
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