Cyn’s narrative and voice are probably the most compelling parts of the novel. She is funny and smart and just thoroughly entertaining and relatable. Her voice and snippets that often break the fourth barrier with expert construction. She is a fun character, a strong character who makes many mistakes believing she is doing what is best for everyone. Cyn does believe she can do this on her own, but she does not want to, and that is part of what makes her a great character. She is a flawed hero, a girl who wants to keep the people she loves safe, who does not want to ask for help on the risk that they are hurt or lost. Moreover, Cyn’s funny quips that Knudsen inserts into the text bring to life her personality only further serve to make her more relatable.

Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld | Waterstones

Gauld comes up with some ingenious bits like generators for eccentric families for novelists to write about and thriller concepts that work really well. The “choose your own adventure”-style strips are fun, as is the Great Book Festival Race board game and the maze puzzle for helping a new book find its place in the market. The infographics (My Reading Year) are brilliant and amusing - some of these non-traditional strips were among the best in the book.

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A reader can tell whether they’ll enjoy this book by the second comic, in which a monstrous villain (in top hat and cane) informs the young woman that “now that you are my bride, you will never leave this castle!” She doesn’t care, because he has an amazing library. Anyone who’s with her on that, who agrees that enough books and the right place to read them is all that’s needed, is the perfect audience for this. I reiterate once again, The fact that the demoness said one sentence in this whole thing missed the mark. She was a pivotal role in the first book (as Cyn owed her 2 favors from the deal they made in book 1) and should have had a far bigger role in this story, involving pivotal interaction between her, Cyn, Ryan, And Peter. It should have been all around more crazy and chaotic (just like the first book), more humour, more exciting in a Buffy the vampire slayer sort of way, more snarky, a lot more of hell involved (literally and figuratively), more terrifying, and much more interaction between key characters. In my opinion, It should have been Cyn and Peter fighting Mr. Gabriel together on an equal basis. But it was more Peter and less Cyn, despite this being her story. It also should have had Ryan and Cyn's other friends more involved. They should have been saving the mortals in camp from the demons using mortal mystical magic, but none of that happened. Ryan and her friends did very little. They sat on the bleachers watching Peter fight the demon (after drinking some power potion), only slightly aided by Cyn. There were no stakes of massive loss of campers life involved. Although prior to the fight several campers DIED while they waited, WAITED, for 2 magical items to be given to them by Aaron. They did nothing to prevent these deaths. Why...because no one was trained to fight them during the entire book, up to the very end of a non exciting fight on the soccer field. It seemed too neatly written to have Aaron, a consort of the demoness, give them the magical tools to fight the bad guy at the very end of the book. Again, what was infuriating is that Prior to getting these magical tools, for over 3/4th of the story, Peter said over and over again he had people looking into ways to fight the evil librarian. What people?. He had one guy who we know of who died right away. So all of this waiting slowed the whole story down. It was wasted time. Time to be used to train to fight these demons and to prevent their carnage. Carnage that should have been more explored. The first chapter was a little shaky (but was largely a 'previously on Evil Librarian' entry), but once they got to camp the writing and the story hit its entertaining horror-comedy stride. Theatre fans will feel right at home as Cynthia and her boyfriend Ryan head to theatre-camp and encounter a little mundane drama--Cyn is new to camp, but Ryan has been going for years and has tons of camp-friends, including (to Cyn's dismay) a real leading-lady of a girl--and soon enough some supernatural peril as well, when it turns out one of the campers is not human. Though this new figure claims he's not evil, how can Cyn be sure? And she still hasn't told Ryan about the deal she made with the demoness to save their lives, but hopefully that won't come up anytime soon...right? Confront the spectre of failure, the wraith of social media, and other supernatural enemies of the author

Revenge of the Librarians | Tom Gauld | 9781770466166 - NetGalley Revenge of the Librarians | Tom Gauld | 9781770466166 - NetGalley

In this second book, the characters are somehow even more flat (I got really tired of hearing how perfect Ryan is) and there is definitely no deepening of our understanding of the demons. The story hinges on the mechanics of the demon world- the fight for the demon throne, demon possession, a tether- but it's clear that the author doesn't care at all about writing a fantasy novel and really thinking through how these fantasy elements interact with each other and what life for a demon is really like. The plot itself feels rushed, underexplained, and overwhelmingly predictable. Ryan and Cyn are together and going to camp together which is lovely until it becomes a love triangle...or rather square. As the title suggests the evil librarian tries to get his revenge with some help from his brother. Cyn is trying to win an award for best set design, dating Ryan, being jealous, having guilt over someone else, getting dragged to hell, being guilty for lying to Ryan as well as a big battle with the former librarian. Complicating matters is the attractive play writer, for the new production Cyn is assigned as the set designer, just happens to be a demon! no.' 'Ryan please' 'No cyn. im sorry... Your stuff is not the only stuff that matters" "fine, i say quietly which is all i can manage. I turn and walk out." I read and enjoyed the first one, so I requested this without reading the synopsis and just read blind...and I was a bit disappointed.

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I seriously cried at this. Like seriously how could he do that1 I was like don't let that bitch Jules rule you!!! Getting a few high 5s from some of the bunk 6 girls and a few of Ryan friends who are sitting close enough to reach out to me as I go by." Edit: I really want to note that Cyn never once fretted over her appearance, or made a comment about her own appearance. I think this is really important, because girl rep can just talk about their looks or obsess about how they look. This is extremely important.

Revenge of the Librarians: Words and Pictures with Tom Gauld

This was the sequel to The Evil Librarian book and in its own way was just as good. The first book had the surprise of demons being real, having so many invade the school, quite a few deaths, romance and suspense. But, the second book was set at camp without any parents, involved the relationship of the couple established at the end of the last book with an added complication, demons, jealousy, and guilt along with a trip to the demon realm. Ryan and Cyn have been my OTP from the beginning and that didn't change in this book. I defo had a few squealing feel moments but thats expected. I could tell straight away that Peter was a demon. I dont know how but i just could. I will admit at first I thought it would also be the director. I felt that there should have been more demoness. Much much more. She was awesome in book 1. And she was a blip here in this story. And that made no sense. She is integral to the whole story line.The story is overall as quite a bit of energy and tension to it. It is funny and outspoken and has such vitality to it making it an unbelievable read. Knudsen keeps the pace up and the tension rising, but she does not lose those essential character dynamics, and she does not lose the humor. Everything she has done has made this novel incredible.

Revenge of the Librarians - Broken Frontier Revenge of the Librarians - Broken Frontier

With Ryan, her crush and now boyfriend by her side, Cyn takes off for summer theatre camp not expecting to encounter demons ... or Jules, Ryan’s “friend” who just happens to be a pretty blonde. Hilarious and smartly written, this sequel did what few sequels can achieve ... and that is to be as good as the first story!

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I read Evil Librarian in a day, gushing about the juxtaposition of high school theater, swoony crushes, and hardcore best-friend rescuing. It continues to be one of the books I use to describe everything I love about reading. I have been anxiously awaiting this sequel since I learned of it's existence. I wanted to badly to get that same rush. I was not disappointed. Overall, this book didn't seem to have the fun, campy atmosphere the first one did. I debated DNFing; however, I was curious about the ending. If there is another book, I doubt I'll be reading it. To be honest, though, I read the first book a couple of summers ago, but when I read this book I was instantly enthralled all over again. There was some serious character growth, and now that this series is a trilogy, I'm very excited to see how the rest of the series plays out. Especially Cyn and Ryan slash Cyn and Peter.