Wishlist Wednesday #7

Totally the property of Pen To Paper

You all may think I'm silly (or find me annoying, since I mention this every week), but I want to twirl every time I sit down to write a Wishlist Wednesday post. People rag on books all the time as a dying art form, moan about the dumbing down of America, blah blah blah.

Pffffth to all of you, I say. How can I be gloomy when so many good books are being written and published? How?! I mean, just thinking about the book I'm highlighting this week makes me happy. It's such an original concept and reminds me of a Doctor Who episode, which is always a bonus.

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 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.

Gotta admit, I'm not a fan of the cover, but there was no way I was leaving this book off my to-read list once I read the description.

Just look at that opening sentence. A place where the dead rest on shelves like books. I don't know what that would look like physically (are they in jars? little, glowing Tessaract-like cubes?), but I choose to picture them literally on shelves, tucked in drawers like in a morgue but with drawers that are made of oak and mahogany and sport delicate carving and are gilded with gold filigree on the handles. There would be spiderwebs, maybe, and deep, dark shadows, and lights overhead that flicker from time to time, and thick, plush red carpet that silences footsteps.

All that from one stinkin' sentence. Talk about reeling a reader in!

I love books. I also love reading about dead people. Not ghosts and all that nonsense, but actual dead people. I also love thinking about their stories, the things they must've lived through, things I can't even imagine. Then here comes this book and it's like the author is saying, "Here you go, Shelver! Merry Christmas!"

Then you add in the Scottish undertones (Da and Mac? C'mon), a girl turned ruthless by her fear, and a labyrinthine library of things that can come alive and kill you a la Pagemaster...

I'm in. I am SO in.

What do you think of The Archived? What would be your choice for Wishlist Wednesday? And if you've seen Pagemaster also, please tell me. I love that movie.