1 out of 4 stars
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Jane Grace: The Library of Light by Trace Sonnleitner is a post-apocalyptic science-fiction following the adventures of the titular protagonist, Jane Grace. Our main character lived in a city destroyed by bombings and its residents struggled to survive in the aftermath of its ruin. Jane has slowly started to lose hope in getting out of this fight for survival. That is until her visit to the famed Library of Light and the promise of a man named David Trimere. However, things aren’t always what they seem with Jane’s new found hope and dark secrets are revealed to the supposed Chosen’s true intentions.
The best quality of this book is that it’s a good start to science fiction reading. If you're someone who's new to science-fiction, this is a decent first novel. The language is relatively simple, the worldbuilding is digestible enough, there aren’t too many characters to worry about and it’s fairly short. Unfortunately, there’s not much else I can praise about this story.
This would have been a much better book if there were at least two or three revisions made to perfect it. Everything was in order to make a really good story but there was just nothing to bring all that potential together.
The beginning was mundane and lackluster. We are introduced to the characters Jane and Henry. This is also closely followed by the introduction to Lander. However, none of them express any distinct personality traits that make the reader interested in their journey. Jane had a strong desire to get her parents back but that’s not a personality. Both Henry and Lander are reduced to nothing but accessories for the main character. Henry is only useful because he observed something suspicious while Lander is essentially a walking GPS that does nothing but bring Jane everywhere. There is nothing Jane does as a protagonist that explains her importance except for sudden revelations.
We then get to the ‘interesting’ part of the book which is the introduction of David Trimere and his Library of Light. Which did have some sense of wonder and it’s why I believe that it’d be a nice first book to read if you’re just starting out. However, the wonder fizzled out very quickly.
The climax and ending was just a very boring and unpleasant read. It felt like so many plot points and revelations were desperately squished together to make sense but it just looked like a mess. The story encouraged an awkward romance plot between a new character James and protagonist Jane. Our other two characters Lander and Henry continue to be nothing but jewelry on Jane's protagonist status. I don't want to spoil anything but the supposed secrets and truths behind David Trimere aren't worth the journey. He was equally a poorly constructed character. Neither his kind savior facade nor his true colours were anything intriguing.
I rate this a 1 out of 4. While I think it might be a good first book to read, I wouldn’t recommend it myself. The story is poorly done despite all the potential it had to being a science-fiction classic and the whole reading experience was just not enjoyable. This is also coupled with the fact that the dialogue was awfully cringey and there were too many errors in editing. Even though I tried to be nice in the beginning, your shelf will truly be better off without this book.
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Jane Grace: Library of Light
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