By Laramie Martinez

I’ve always liked library stories. Possibly because I spent most of my youth in them or maybe because, when you combine them with fantastic elements, they end up becoming dungeon crawls. One Week in the Library, however, is a different sort of crawl. While most library stories focus on the library itself or on the quest to find a certain item, this book tells the story of the librarian. This focus shift from archive to the archivist is an interesting take on an old trope. It doesn’t abandon the fantastic elements completely, there are still tidal waves, wild beasts, and strange characters, but in this story these encounters are just responsibilities in a job description. The true heart of this book is in the small details these events reveal about our protagonist.