The Library at the Edge of the World
Series: Finfarran, Book 1
By: Felicity Hayes-McCoy / Narrated By: Emma Lowe
Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
Definitely has its charm… but… it has a couple of deplorable characters too…!
First off, lemme say how woeful it is that the lovely Finfarran of this book exists only entirely in author Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s head as the descriptions of such an Ireland are fantastic. Of course, I can’t imagine any part of Ireland as being NOT to Die For, but still—the depictions of the village and its sometimes eccentric inhabitants gave me a hankering for moseying on over and grabbing a cup of coffee and a lump of goat cheese at The Haberdashery, the local delicatessen. Filled with some believable characters and some not-so-believable cuz they’re so quirky characters, The Library at the Edge of the World had oodles of charm… but…
… then there were some characters I found to be repugnant and without many redeeming qualities which makes for some rather tedious listening when you’re talking about an almost 10-hour audiobook.
What’s going on: Middle-aged Hanna Casey is back in her old Irish village, having come back with her tail firmly tucked between her legs. She has the job as the local librarian, has a grown daughter, and she has the memory of discovering her husband was a total lyin’, cheatin’, no good so and so. To be rid of him entirely, she asked for nothing in the divorce settlement and now, when daughter Jazz is off sharing a flat in France, she’d like Malcolm, the ex, to foot the bill for a small place she can call her own. After all, she did so much for him when they were married, it was always about him him him, and she never asked for help raising their daughter, surely he wouldn’t say no to a small place for her now as she enters deeper into older middle-age?
Uhm, yeh he sure CAN say no, and this along with her mother (Whom she’s been living with) being a total shrew to her is enough to drive her up a wall… and to remember that eeeeeons ago, Great-Aunt Maggie left a dilapidated ol’ shack of a house to her. AHA, thinks Hanna: I’ll take out a loan, have it renovated, and I’ll move in before Mum and I kill each other as we rub elbows together in a most crotchety fashion.
The renovation has Hanna meeting all sorts of people, most notably Fury the town’s uber handyman (Who goes everywhere, doing his chaotic renovating magic alongside his dog The Devil). And as the story progresses, Hanna is further challenged by local plans to close down the library and to develop a good part of the town to bring in tourists and industry. Hanna is galvanized into action and she, along with a young man and a sly nun, begin working on plans to save it all.
And that’s pretty much the whoooole thing… for hours…. which might sound as tho’ I’m complaining, but I’m not, not really. Cuz see, it’s very well written, and I did like the slow setup. Nature is beautiful, the characters are compelling, and it doesn’t end on SUCH a cliffhanger set for the sequel as to make me groan and pan it (There’s nothing I haaaate so much as a plethora of threads left loose that shriek: Buy the next book in the series!).
Add to that Emma Lowe is a truly fine narrator, and she had me with her many and varied voices for the characters, be they surly, be they fresh-eyed and enthusiastic (By the way, Hanna starts off as standoffish and sooo not into interactions with others, but she warms throughout the book… huzzah!).
That’s what makes it unfortunate then about the whole second book in the series thing: There’s a different narrator for it. I mean, I get it: It sounds like daughter Jazz is going to be the main character, but Hanna and her own mother Mary are STILL gonna be mainstay characters, so whyyyyy…?! (Yeh yeh yeh I’m whining, but y’all know how attached I get to narrators…!). Then you top it off with my reservations about certain characters, as in: Malcolm is a sneering toad (No offense to toads!), and mother Mary is just plain mean and petty of spirit. I dunno that I want to listen to their shrill carping for an entire next book. At least not unless there’s gonna be some heavy duty character development, ya know what I mean?
Still, I did indeed enjoy myself for the most part, aside from wanting to deliver the occasional head pop to Malcolm and Mary. And I did so very much enjoy Hanna as she became a part of the community rather than just a discontented and isolated nobody.
But one thing I’ve gotta tell ya? The next audiobook in the series is called Summer at the Garden Café and what with Summer coming up, and what with “café” possibly becoming a scrolled for word in an upcoming Tell Me What’s Next…
Dunno… We all might be seeing that sequel here at Audiobook Accomplice sometime soon…!
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