REVIEW: THE ARCHIVED by Victoria Schwab

Title: The Archived
Author: Victoria Schwab
Series: The Archived #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release: January 7th, 2014
Source: Paperback
Pages: 352

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BLURB: 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 that 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.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hardwon redemption.

EXPECTATIONS: Being a Victoria Schwab book obviously my expectations were really high because she has never ever let me down so far. Never. An applause.

THE WORLD: Our world but there's a hidden parallel world called The Archive where the deaths' memories rest (called Histories). You can access it only if you have a special key given to you by the Librarians, who keep check of Histories, and those with the key are called Keepers (do their job alone) or Crew (they upgraded to working in pairs). The Keepers and Crew have to make sure Histories don't escape and enter the real world.

CHARACTERS: The protagonist is Mackenzie Bishop. She's 15 years old and has been a Keeper since she was 12. Keepers have to be 16 years old minimum but they made an exception with her thanks to her grandpa, Da, who was one of the best Keepers/Crew. Ahem the favoritism. Anyway, her family doesn't know about this because The Archive must stay a secret to commoners so she has to sneak away in order to hunt Histories. The book starts when the Bishop's move to a new place, The Coronado (is the name of the building) after a tragedy involving Mackenzie's little brother Ben, and Mackenzie witnesses something that triggers her curiosity. I can't blame her because mysteries are my weakness too. During her search for the truth she meets Wesley Ayers and Owen Chris Clarke. They're both interesting guys, in their own way. But the big deal is the mystery and also I'm going to give a shout out to my favorite Librarian, Roland.

ROMANCE: There's a bit of romance. Nothing "serious" of a relationship you know but it was messed up anyway. So manipulative. But everything ended well I can tell you that.

GOOD: Everything. Wow I'm so concise... okay let's see I love the Library of death concept and all that. I like the characters too. None are my favs but they're not that bad either and I enjoyed their quirks. The best thing is the mystery and the plot twist. I live for mysteries and plot twists. This book is so easy to read and keeps you entertained through all of it!

BAD: How about nothing? I even liked the villain for being a manipulative but highly intelligent arse. I mean I'm not a fan of manipulative relationships etc but it wasn't that deep anyway.

OVERALL: 5 stars and goes to favorites. There is no book by Victoria Schwab that I didn't like... I have loved all of them. Is this a trilogy? I think it is but the third book hasn't been released yet.

What do you think about THE ARCHIVED?