2.5 Stars
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.
Initial reaction when reading the blurb: Yeah, I sooo want to read this!
Reaction after finishing: mah...
Blurbs are one of the utmost misleading information to be given to a reader. Reading a blurb and thinking it sounds decent is like watching a movie trailer, and thinking the film itself is awesome, primarily based on all the cool visual effects shown in the trailer.
From the rating - it seems as if I enjoyed the Archived. It was entertaining from time to time. The writing was also decent. But as I kept reading along I realized the archive (the main storyline of the whole book) is strikingly stupid.
This book wanted to be original.
This book wanted to be unique.
But it simply wasn’t.
“I didn’t want to accept it, but the fact is, they were people. Copies of people. Because the only way to truly record a person is not in words, not in still frames, but in bone and skin and memory.”
Sounds all clever and new in the science-fiction/fantasy genre, doesn’t it? But several people who will read this book will skip one simple thing. The Actual point behind the Archive. So, in basic term you’ve got copies of these dead people stacked in a place called the Archive which is organized by the librarians, who are the only ones able to access it. But what’s the point, if the only people able to enter the Archives are the librarians? Why bother making copies of millions of dead people, if in the end there’s nothing beneficial or effective about this entire system? You can almost imagine my absolute confusion when someone attempted to bring this utterly useless system down.
“I want freedom,” he says, stalking me. “The Archive is a prison, and not only for the dead. And that’s why I’m going to tear it down, shelf by shelf and branch by branch.”
Even with an explanation, I was still unable to comprehend the reason behind bringing down the Archive.
It’s almost as if the author had this amazing idea and was completely excited by it, that she rapidly started writing the book before she even began to structure it thoroughly. I’m not sure if I even want to get into the mystery part of this book. Mystery can be thought-provoking with very skilful writers. Most of the writers that are capable of constructing a beautiful mystery have an understanding in criminology. I’m not convinced this author did. In most of the books the person who turns out to be the psychotic antagonist is the person you least suspect, who you actually end up suspecting nonetheless. Yet, the authors are still are unaware of this.
The heroine Mackenzie Bishop is a keeper. She guards the place known as the narrows. It’s a place where histories (dead copy of people) go when they escape the Archive, and her duty is to catch them swiftly and put them back into the Archive before they escape into the real world. Woah! The Heroine’s role sounds interesting. Though, it wasn’t. All Mackenzie did was catch dead people and put them into the Archive. That’s all she did. At first it was cool then it wasn’t.
With Wesley, there is too much to lose. But with Owen, there is no future to be lost by giving in. No future at all. Only escape.
Yes, it’s time for the romance part of the book.
As we have observed from the quote above there's a love triangle. Two love interests.
One who:
Wore eyeliner and never stopped complimenting himself on how handsomely attractive he was.
And the other:
Well, umm he was dead.
I wasn’t a fan of the romance. It was just a big capitalized NO for me. Actually, I disliked the romance because it was awfully monotonous.
I noticed something else as I went through this book and I will make it as explanatory as possible.
All of us probably watch sitcom shows, right? Shows such as big bang theory or how I met your mother. A big major detail we pick up on is the setting. The settings in sitcom shows are always the same, virtually in every episode. For example every episodes of how I met your mother will be held in apartment or a bar – not always but regularly.
The setting in the book for the archived is in Coronado which is located in San Diego, but I’m pretty sure the author never stated that, however that’s not the problem. The problem is the author doesn’t use the Coronado setting to her advantage. Throughout the entire novel the only place I’ve gotten a description of is the narrows or the apartment. I felt so trapped. The narrator never goes anywhere besides those two main places. I truly don’t see how someone cannot view this as irritating.
It all seems strange because I still granted the book almost three stars. I only did this because of the potential – there was so much potential.
I have too many things to say about this book, but I won’t be able to voice them all because they’re all entwined to make these conflicting emotions, which I can’t put into words since they won’t make any sense to others.
Maybe you should give the book a shot/maybe you shouldn’t.
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