Review: Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen

Title: Evil Librarian

Series: Evil Librarian #1

Author: Michelle Knudsen

Genre: YA, urban fantasy

Publication date: September 2014

Published by: Candlewick Press

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis:

#EvilLibrarian He’s young. He’s hot. He’s also evil. He’s . . . the librarian.

When Cynthia Rothschild’s best friend, Annie, falls head over heels for the new high-school librarian, Cyn can totally see why. He’s really young and super cute and thinks Annie would make an excellent library monitor. But after meeting Mr. Gabriel, Cyn realizes something isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s the creepy look in the librarian’s eyes, or the weird feeling Cyn gets whenever she’s around him. Before long Cyn realizes that Mr. Gabriel is, in fact... a demon. Now, in addition to saving the school musical from technical disaster and trying not to make a fool of herself with her own hopeless crush, Cyn has to save her best friend from the clutches of the evil librarian, who also seems to be slowly sucking the life force out of the entire student body!

From best-selling author Michelle Knudsen, here is the perfect novel for teens who like their horror served up with a bit of romance, plenty of humor, and some pretty hot guys (of both the good and evil variety).

My rating: ★★★★★
I can’t believe I had never heard of this book before, because not only did it sound amazing, it was a very fun read! I really enjoyed it! Right from the start (literally, like, on page one) I fell in love with our main character's voice! I knew I was going to have fun following her around!

Or maybe he has no idea and is just trying to be all cool and laid-back so that kids will spend more time in the library.
...
Maybe it’s not even his master plan; maybe it’s like, the American Library Association’s master plan, and they are stocking high schools across the country with hot young librarians as part of a massive literacy initiative.

First of all, the premise, was great! There is a new librarian (a hot, young one) at Cynthia’s old school and shortly after, all the students start acting like mindless zombies (not the brain-eating zombies). Coincidence? Cynthia thinks not! And she is right! Turns out the guy is a demon and he is doing... something... to the students at her school! It’s up to her (and her crush!) to figure out what the heck is going on and exorcise their new librarian from their school!

It’s a very simple plot, and not very original if I’m honest, but it’s the way that the story is told that makes it so great! I adored all of the characters! Cynthia was so much fun and so relatable!

Why? Why does is have to be me? I just want to build the set for the show and be secretly in love with Ryan and not have to fight demons or save people or deal with any of this!
But it doesn’t matter what I want. And I know it.

Another thing I liked about her is that she was smart. They went to an adult when they realized what the heck was going on, and I just liked that they were being rational. Things didn’t, um, go according to plan, but they did go to an adult for help! Lol. But Cyn didn’t give up! Girl gets things done! She is amazing!

And speaking of being secretly in love with Ryan, her crush on Ryan was hilarious! The thoughts that went through her head...

But also, true! I mean, who didn't have similar thoughts way back when on their crush? Lol. That’s why she is so relatable! I love Cyn! And Ryan was very sweet and actually quite protective of Cynthia and it was very cute and I loved him!

And as far as the demon stuff goes, it was very interesting! I liked the mythos and I enjoyed the author’s take on the subject and the reason why there was an evil librarian at Cyn’s school in the first place!

The one thing that was a bit much was the chair talk. Cynthia is doing some set work for the school play, Sweeney Todd. Specifically his infamous barber chair in which he kills his victims. Like, there was a whole, super long paragraph dedicated to Cyn describing the “amazing” chair she wanted to build. Girl, I get it. You’re super into this thing and I can appreciate that. But there was no payoff to the chair, considering how much it was talked about! I thought it was gonna play a huge part in the story! It didn't. It’s just a thing Cynthia is super into, I guess.

But overall, I absolutely loved this book! It had great characters and very fun writing! I am really looking forward to reading the sequel to this book, and actually, just more of this author’s work in general! I highly recommend this one!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)