26. The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins

I read the real honest-to-goodness hardcover book
2015, Crown
390 pgs.
Adult fantasy
Finished 4-24-16
Goodreads rating: 4.05
My rating:  5
Setting:  Contemporary anywhere-in-suburbia USA

First line/s:  "Carolyn, blood-drenched and barefoot, walked alone down the two-lane stretch of blacktop that the Americans called Highway 78."

My comments:  This book was a total mind f**k.  That's the only word ] I can think of that describes it.  It was sitting innocently on a table at the library and when I saw the word LIBRARY in the title - I had to, of course, pick it up and check it out.  It's certainly not about any library I've ever encountered!  I couldn't put it down.  I was pulled into it immediately.  I realized you weren't supposed to totally "get" what was going on at first, and that it would all come together at the end.  It pretty much did.   What an imagination this guy has!  I'm blown away.  I was meant to read this book.  I've gone back and forth clicking the *4*, then clicking the *5*, then back to the *4*.  I'll remember this book for a long time and I really loved it.  I'm going all the way with the 5!   (And I can totally understand why some people don't like this book at all, it's not for everyone, that's for sure!)
    Oh - and the humor.  I didn't mention how funny it can be!

Goodreads synopsis:  Neil Gaiman meets Joe Hill in this astonishingly original, terrifying, and darkly funny contemporary fantasy. 
          Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. She's sure of it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.  After all, she was a normal American herself, once.  That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.  Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.
          In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.  Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.
          Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.  As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.  But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.