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Claire is a librarian in a small town where she’s grown up and made her home as an adult. She’s generally content with her life, though there are signs she struggles with some anxieties. Her widowed father is extremely protective of her, and an older friend who works in the library watches out for her pretty closely as well.
Things are mostly fine, though, until the town’s leaders announce they’re going to shut down the library and sell the old building and land to developers. Claire can’t imagine her life without the library, and she begins feeling even more anxiety than normally pops up here and there.
But late one night after the library has closed, Claire discovers a door that wasn’t there before, and it opens into a secret room filled with books. They’re not just any books, however: they’re people’s memories.
As days pass and Claire struggles to find some way to save the library, she hopes that the memories will somehow help. There must be a reason the door opened to her now.
But even as that is playing out, she finds drawn to a book that seems unconnected to the goal of keeping the library open. At the same time, Claire begins to get to know a man who sits in the building and draws: bridge after bridge. Soon, she sees how those are connected. But what does what she’s learning have to do with her?
I had high hopes for this book; it has all the elements that should have made me adore it. But it just fell flat in execution and … honestly, I found myself actually ANGRY at it! The writing was too simplistic; the characters were not deep or complex enough, in my opinion, to handle the weight of the serious story. Some of the things that Claire and other characters do and say seemed wildly unrealistic. Too much of it didn’t feel believable or organic. And the whole “mean developers and heartless city council members” part felt overdone, with caricatures filling in for characters.
Honestly, very little of The Memory of Borrowed Books felt natural to me. I wish I’d DNF’d it. I should have. Somehow, it’s gotten a lot of good reviews but it fell so flat for me. I’m very disappointed.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes 5 instances of moderate profanity, about 25 uses of mild language, and 5 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There is some kissing. A character has an abusive father. Suicide is a theme.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
