Once I finished reading this book I found that I needed a pause just to ruminate on my thoughts before I wrote anything about it because it was a big read, in both size and ideas and I needed the space to formulate what I would say.

This is the first Elizabeth Knox book I have read and I have to say it did take me a while to get used to her writing style, it is eloquent and atmospheric and full of wonderful descriptions, but I did also spend a fair portion of the beginning of the story in a bit of a confused state, always feeling like I’d missed a part of the story. As I got into the rhythm of the writing I found I understood it a lot better but there were still times that something would happen that wouldn’t have enough context to make sense and sometimes it would be explained later but sometimes it wouldn’t. I also at points started to get a little frustrated at some of the language used, I’m fairly well-read and any words I don’t know I can usually surmise from the rest of the sentence but there were often times I had to stop to look up a word just to see what I was dealing with. Doing this a couple of times is fine but the more I have to do this the more I start to feel like a book is beyond me and with a book that is already quite a lot to take in I started to feel like The Absolute Book was just inching too far over the line.

I think it’s safe to say that you need to go into this book with a very open mind when it comes to the story because it has elements of a few genres and I think if you go into it thinking its one or the other you’ll be disappointed. I personally loved getting swept away on this mesmerising journey through many lands and places and with some beguiling characters, I enjoyed the contrast between our world and the Sidhe’s world and then also between the utopia that it projects and the sacrifices that have to be made to keep it. Maybe it’s the bibliophile in me but I also loved the thread of the story about libraries, the curated knowledge of books and how that shapes our histories, I found it fascinating and as a sparking off point for the quest for “the firestarter” it was brilliant. I do wish I could go into more detail but The Absolute Book is unlike any story I have read before and there’s no way I could successfully summarise anything more, it’s best just to experience it for yourself.

There are some quite fantastical characters in this story, most steeped in myth or legend, but none quite as interesting as Shift, an oddity from the second he shows up in the story but the kind that I felt immediately curious about, I found the story of his life so interesting and the more I found out the more I wanted to know. I wouldn’t say I was drawn to Taryn, she is a difficult character to get to know, we find out a lot about what has happened to her but not always much deeper than that but since she is so intrinsic to the story and because of the loyalty she showed to both Shift and Jacob she did start to grow on me. Jacob was another character that I immediately warmed to, the police officer that needs the answers to his questions and ends up unwittingly embroiled in Shift and Taryn’s quest, and even though he is suspicious of Taryn, he still can’t help but help her.

In my opinion the pacing was unhurried, mainly due to the amount of rich description, and since there is so much within this story I think it does suit it, however, there were times that this meant that some scenes that warranted a little bit more suspense were a little bit too drawn out. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about the ending, I liked the idea just not the entirety of the execution, it felt like a very different atmosphere to the rest of the story, maybe that is the point and it didn’t spoil the rest of the experience but it was a little jarring.

The Absolute Book is an epic achievement of a story and you can tell there has been a lot of care and thought poured into it and whilst it does leave me with the feeling that I almost have to be otherworldly to understand its full potential, I definitely adored the adventure that it took me on.

I very rarely give up on a book but unfortunately I found this so difficult to read. Obviously there are others who have totally engaged with it, but I found the writing very dense and I just could not find the motivation to pick this up and read it. I got about 40% of the way through the book, and it was making me not want to read so for me that was a clear sign that it isn't the right book for me.

The language is heavy, I struggled to understand who was sidh and who was not. I was intrigued by the story but couldn't engage with it enough to perservere. Unfortunately just not for me this time.

I started this book weeks ago, it has taken me a long time to finish and accept it just wasn't for me. To me, the book was just trying too hard to be some kind of everything, to suit everyone. I ended up feeling overwhelmed and lost. I do think those who love intricate plots with random happenings will enjoy this mash-up of fantasy and mystery, with layers of mythology. I will say, there is some beautiful writing within its pages, there was just too much of everything else going on for me to appreciate and enjoy it.

Thanks go to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I literally couldn’t finish this book because it really hurt my head.
This book is confused about what it wants to be. Is it a thriller, or a Tolkien wannabe? Is it a fantasy or a murder mystery?
Honestly the thought of having to go through 700 ish pages of that made me want to quit, so yes, I quit.
The description was misleading and wasn’t at all what I expected it to be.
Would not recommend.

This is a challengingly complex, but hugely enjoyable, novel. Stretching to over 600 pages, it melds the genres of murder mystery and science fantasy with a sub-text around environmental concerns about manmade despoliation.
The story revolves around a scroll box which is occasionally alluded to in tales going back hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. In these tales, the box is known as The Fireraiser, a misnomer because it doesn’t start fires, it survives them. It really only comes into human consciousness when the library, or other place in which it resides, is burned down and the box is retrieved essentially undamaged from the ashes. Attempts to open it and examine its contents have always failed.
Taryn Cornick’s grandfather’s lives in Princes Bridge near the River Wye. Among the esoteric possessions housed in his library is a box. In 1995 Jason Battle, a young historian helping the old man with his archiving, suddenly goes mad and tries to burn the place down. Taryn, aged ten and her sister, Beatrice, thirteen, prevent this, but their grandfather then conceals the box and it disappears from consciousness for the next 15 years or so. In 1983 Beatrice is killed by a car and the driver is jailed. Taryn procures or at least condones his murder when he is released, but there is no evidence as to her involvement. A suspicious police detective, Jacob Berger, starts to investigate and this provides one of the strands of the novel.
Taryn, meanwhile, now an author, is trying to trace the Fireraiser, the existence of which has come to her attention while researching her book ‘The Feverish Library’. To prevent her being killed by a macabre creature, she is snatched by a young man named Shift and transported through a ‘Gate’ (a sort of rift in Space-Time). She is now on what might be another world, called Sidh, and here the second strand begins, as she continues her search, hopping back and forth between the worlds, helped by Shift (his name describing, in part, his ability as a shape-changer). This world, beautifully and completely realised, features elements and characters of Welsh, Nordic and Judeo-Christian Mythologies. Echoes of other books (notably classics by Pullman, Tolkein, Lewis, Stewart, to name but a few) are evident, but not obtrusively so; more as stirring pleasant memories. How these strands are resolved and how the sub-text becomes clear will keep you happily occupied for many hours.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

The Absolute Book is a complex and sprawling fantasy novel of a very unusual sort. And it’s all the better for being so.

To try to even describe the plot would be foolhardy, but it starts in a contemporary world, mostly in the UK, but with excursions to Canada and New Zealand, and tells the story of Taryn. Her life has not been simple – her sister, we learn in the first few pages – died at the hands of a driver who deliberately hit her. Her family left their grand old house, and now her father stars in a fantasy series that is filmed in New Zealand (“Peter” [Jackson?] gets referenced at a certain point).

While on holiday with her husband in Canada, where he was doing outdoors-y kinds of things, she meets The Muleskinner who becomes somewhat enraptured with her, and offers to murder her sister’s killer once he’s released from prison back in the UK.

Then there’s the policeman, Berger, who suspects that Taryn may be implicated, as well as a mysterious guy we first meet in the woods, carrying a pile of books barefoot.

All the while Taryn herself has become a successful author and is touring book festivals promoting her book that tells the stories of libraries and fires therein. Just don’t ask her about the Nazis and bookburning.

To some extent The Absolute Book draws on – and explicitly namechecks – authors like MR James, HP Lovecraft and Robert Chambers, while dodging away from the likes The Da Vinci Code and The Shadow of the Wind. Although it’s not mentioned, I thought Foucault’s Pendulum might have been an inspiration too.

But I haven’t really even got into the fantasy element of the novel, where the novel veers away from many of those themes. The sections that take place ‘the Sidh’ are key – and extensive. With elements of faerie lore, Celtic mythology, Old Norse mythology and much more besides, it’s a unique perspective on the world. Although all is not quite as it seems there either.

The obvious comparisons probably need to be made with Neil Gaiman’s work, and especially American Gods, although this goes off at completely different tangents to that. I couldn’t help thinking of Good Omens too as I read this book. But there is definitely also a flavour of Ursula Le Guin here too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book – taking you way out of the present, yet being firmly rooted here too.

I enjoyed this book but was confused by quite a lot of went on that wasn't directly involved with the plot. This is only because it wasn't really explained throughout the book and we just sort of had to learn about it and guess as it went along.

The characters were very interesting and I liked watching how they all interacted and changed over the course of the book. Taryn as a protagonist was intricate and initially, I didn't really like her but she grew on me as we watched her suffer from her past and come to terms with her future and interact with Shift, Jacob and the Muleskinner (who was very creepy and evil and I kind of liked how he just turned up out of the blue at certain points). Of course, to the human characters of the book, we must add the more supernatural/mythological characters of the story who, as I said initially had me confused but I think that by the end of the book I pretty much had a grasp on how they all worked lol. But, I did really enjoy the main group that developed and I even really liked Taryn at the end!

The plot, as I said did have me slightly confused but I really enjoyed how it concentrated on books and libraries because I am a massive nerd and love books (of course). It was very cool how it switched between the real world and the fictional world that could be reached through magical gates around the globe. The ending did feel a tad rushed given the length of the book and the epilogue seemed necessary but also unnecessary all at the same time lol. However, I did like that everything was resolved by the end of the book and you could see how that happened in the epilogue, plus it seems that the characters found a solution for global warming and other environmental problems at the same time which was nice.

The writing was great, it was really interesting to read and made sure that I was engaged through all 600+ pages of this book which is no mean feat especially because for quite a lot of it I was considerably confused by what was going on. If Elizabeth Knox has written or write any shorter books I will definitely be checking them out!

The Absolute Book is a bewitching epic fantasy about a revenge killing, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fires, the book that changed everything and the power of stories and storytelling to make gods and heroes out of mere mortals. Taryn Cornick, the youngest daughter of an upper-middle-class English family, believes she has put her sister Beatrice's violent death, and her own complicity in an act of retribution behind her. Taryn was only 19 years old when her sister was killed in a seemingly random, senseless attack while out jogging. As she was running down a remote country lane a man in a vehicle struck her and knocked her over intending to leap out and rape her while she was incapacitated but he drove at her too hard and killed her instantly in such a brutal manner. Taryn is torn between grief and a desperate desire for revenge. In the years that follow she drops out of school, becomes reclusive and marries a wealthy businessman who she has never loved. Together they travel the world on luxury trips. On a hunting trip in the Canadian Rockies, she meets a hunting guide known as ”The Muleskinner” and relays her story, and what happened to Beatrice, to him. As the perpetrator is due to be released from prison soon he understands how unhappy Taryn really is about it all. Meanwhile, Taryn’s successful book of "musing nonfiction" about the perils that threaten libraries: insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring mentions an ancient scroll box--called the Firestarter--that has inexplicably survived numerous fires, including one at her own grandparents' estate, and now powers in both this world and beyond are looking for her. Then a few months after the hunting vacation The Muleskinner visits Taryn at home out of the blue.

He tells her that he would be happy to do her a service if it would help her to feel less aggrieved. He is willing to kill the perpetrator as soon as he is released. The murderer is found dead a short time later and most of the police force write it off as a random attack but DI Jacob Berger believes Taryn is somehow involved. Berger has questions about Taryn's past and his dogged interest means they both suddenly find themselves in a mysterious land of peace and plenty, carried there by a shadowy young man named Shift. The land, home to a beautiful people who long ago bargained a terrible price for their idyllic existence, is now threatened from the precincts of Hell itself, and Taryn is of great interest to the rebels. But Shift is key to both the unimaginably precious scroll inside the Firestarter and to the outcome of the threatened war, and he has an ambitious plan of his own. This is a captivating and compelling epic fantasy that moves seamlessly between several different worlds: contemporary England, magic fairyland, purgatory and Auckland in New Zealand all feature throughout the plot. It's both a genre and mind-bending story that marries myths and lore from Celtic, Norse, and Judeo-Christian traditions with lyrical storytelling and sprawling worlds; I was swept away in the intrigue from the very first page. Exhilaratingly Knox intimately weaves together the stories of vivid characters who face a reckoning that could change the future of all of these worlds. There are twists and surprises throughout this complex, multilayered tale and at 653 pages it's a lengthy time, but Knox doesn't waste a single word. An intelligent, moving and scintillating story complete with beautifully flawed characters and richly-detailed worldbuilding. Highly recommended.

The Absolute Book was a brilliant but infuriating book but don’t let that put you off. There were times when I felt like my understanding of the book was only hanging on by a miniscule thread. Having said this, it was a wonderous book and I will definitely buy it.

The style of writing means it is not the easiest book to read, the narrative jumps all over but the plot is so good that I didn’t really care.

I enjoyed both the thriller and the fantasy elements of The Absolute Book. The two shouldn’t really work well together but because it is such a large book, they manage to be quite cohesive.

The single most important event of Taryn’s life so far is the murder of her sister Bea. Taryn believes that she was deliberately killed and that the man who did it got off too lightly. She believes it so strongly that she convinces a man named The Muleskinner to kill him. This is a tale of vengeance in the first instance, but it is a whole lot more than that.

Taryn’s actions cause her to become a suspect in a murder case but also have far-reaching consequences in other realms.

“Taryn couldn’t separate her sister from her death, from the mark on the oak at the fringe of the forest. In Taryn’s memory, her sister was a tender wound, Beatrice’s whole life stained with blood she had shed inside her own head. “

I can’t talk about too many elements of the book without spoiling the plot but if you like books that passionately argue the case for the continued existence of libraries, that contain Demons, Fairy-like characters, talking birds and Gods then this is the book for you.

I am not one for rereading a book immediately after finishing it but I think I would do so with this one if I had more time and I am confident I would like it even more on a second read.

The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox is a difficult one to summarise. I’ve seen it described as a mix between Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and American Gods, and I think that kind of hits upon it. It’s a contemporary fantasy novel that straddles several genres.

Taryn Cornick, grieving over the death of her sister, arranges to wreak revenge on the man who killed her. While the police have their suspicions and are keeping an eye on her, Taryn is also being watched by some other-worldly folk, who are interested in something that has previously been hiding in Taryn’s family library - something that can release them from a binding agreement that they made with Hell. Are you still with me? There’s a LOT going on in these 600+ pages - fairyfolk, shapeshifting, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, portals into other worlds, but there is also a story working alongside all this which is very much based in the real world.

So what did I think? There were definitely parts that had me completely gripped and read like a thriller. There were stories within the book that were based in traditional folklore and reminded me of the Irish fairytales that I was obsessed with growing up and which I’m now keen to revisit as an adult. But as always with a book this size there are also lulls in the narrative, often given over to long descriptive passages which didn’t always capture me. But like my buddyread pal said, these felt like moments to take a breath and join up the dots, much like Taryn has to do in the story.

So a difficult one to review. It’s long, complicated and often confusing. The parts of it I loved I REALLY loved, but as a novice to fantasy I perhaps am not its ideal reader, and that is no fault of the book.

Thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK for a review copy.

I was very taken with the idea of this novel and felt that it would be an enjoyable and exciting read yet sadly I found it a struggle almost right to the end.

The novel, written in the third person, past tense, concerns Taryn, a woman whose older sister has been killed some years before and who cannot come to terms with her loss. Her father is a famous actor, and, as the book opens she is just about to set forth on a book tour to promote her popular history of fires in libraries. She soon finds that her book, with its description of a mysterious box, ‘The Firestarter’, that has miraculously come through five major library fires unscathed has attracted some unwanted attention, from beings in our own world and others.

As the story moves on Taryn must learn to come to terms with her grief and move forward in her life if she is to learn the truth about ‘The Firestarter’. The book seeks to augment an exciting story with Taryn’s own emotional journey from a damaged divorcee who cannot move on from her sister’s death even after she has been avenged. This is a difficult trick to pull off in an adventure story and was, in my opinion, only partially successful.

On the positive side the idea of the book is excellent and should have made for a stunning read but somehow it seemed to get very bogged down in its execution. The plot itself is interesting, exciting and original and didn’t feel like a reskin of either the fantasy or thriller tropes that it seeks to combine. The problem seemed, to me at least, that it tried to do too much which ended up detracting from the main thrust of the story. Frequent changes of emphasis in the writing lead to an often confusing mix of linguistic styles that broke the flow of reading. I also felt that there were more characters and sub plots than were necessary to convey the narrative and emotional beats needed to invoke excitement and sympathy from the reader.

The print version of this book is 640 pages long and I think that it would have benefitted from a serious edit. Personally I think that Jacob was a vastly overdeveloped character who could probably have been cut entirely and the Muleskinner sub plot, whilst important in understanding Taryn’s ongoing guilt was far longer than in needed to be. Had these elements been cut I think the ensuing faster pace would have served the story better.
On an editing note I also found the occasional ‘Americanisms’ dropped in to a book set in rural England to be very jarring. We would not wait in for a ‘realtor,’ really we wouldn’t and pants over here are not the same as trousers. I know that these are minor things but they jolt the reader out of the story.

The pace of the novel increased towards the end, in fact some of the ending even seemed rushed in comparison to the leisurely style adopted in some of the earlier sections. It was as if Taryn’s emotional development had held back the speed of the narrative and as the former became less of a focus so the story went faster. The dénouement was charming and I felt myself wishing that part of the book could come true but it was a long and sometimes difficult journey for me, as a reader, to get there.

I loved the lands and races that the author developed, each just as imperfect in their own way as our own. Discovering the secrets of the Sidhe was a pleasure. The idea of ‘The Firestarter’ and why it is being sought was also wholly original and the moment when that part of the plot fell into place was jaw dropping. I would imagine that there is scope for another whole novel following that thread if the author wanted to revisit the worlds that she has so painstakingly created. So there is a lot to enjoy here but sifting it out from the extraneous noise sadly made this book hard work to read and one to which I am unlikely to return.

An unusual story which I did find difficult to follow, a complex plot and concept. Sadly I didn’t finish the book although I might try again later, I really could not maintain an interest. However very well written and may be just what someone else is waiting for! Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to try genres I would not ordinarily choose in exchange for an honest review.

Disappointing fantasy novel - too long and too pretentious.

This novel concerns Taryn, an author who gets involved in all sorts of adventures, including revenge, murder, journeys into a mystical world and meeting an interesting batch of characters from both our environment and the magical one. The book is very long and full of unnecessary descriptions which slow down the already slow-moving plot. Every scene is described, including places which are rarely mentioned or hardly visited. The style is verging on "literary" with some baffling use of language: "Now partook of forever." There's some good ideas floating around in this book but it isn't enough for this avid fantasy reader. I was tempted to abandon the book but I wanted to know how the plot progressed. I was given a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Took myself out of my comfort zone to read this fantasy book.

It was an enjoyable read with good mystery elements that kept me turning the page.

Book is well written with lovely details.

‘The Absolute Book’ is full of all the things I love in a fantasy - folklore, Norse mythology, angels and demons and a journey to purgatory! I could have really loved it if all these elements were fully fleshed out and well connected. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and the plot felt very disjointed, to the point where I became frustrated following along. The core plot is really very simple, the familiar tale of humans finding themselves in a fantasy world and going on a quest to find a magical item, but along the way the plot becomes incredibly convoluted. There are odd time jumps, motives without explanation, odd leaps in rationale and underdeveloped characters. I suspect some of these were implemented purposefully by the author, and I did enjoy some of the initial misdirection, but this book is long and it soon became quite tiresome. I normally love a long, fantasy epic but I never felt truly drawn into this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A marriage of myth and reality, this story did not live up to its promise for me, sadly. It began well, with a young woman cruelly killed and her sister exacting revenge on her killer Timothy Webber. The sister, Taryn, heroine of the book, is then investigated in turn for Webber's death, by detective Jacob Berger. So far, so good - but then we are drawn into a parralel world of demons and Sidhs, talking ravens and gateways to Hell, as Taryn, Jacob and an eigmatic being called Shift strive to save the Firestarter - a book that has been hidden from the dawn of time, most recently, it seems, in the grounds of Prince's Gate, Taryn's family home. I normally enjoy fantasies, but though the premise of this book follows those of Neil Gaiman's where mortals get caught up in fantasy worlds and help to resolve the issues, I felt it lacked the humour, kindness and charm needed to make it a page-turning read. The prose is beautiful - the author employs language to very good effect - but the plot, even allowing for a suspension of belief - is not easy to follow, and I felt no warmth for the characters. Not one for me, but avid fans of the fantasy-meets-reality-genre may enjoy this.

I was really really excited for this book but it was such a let down. I didn’t get it...for me it was disjointed, random, the characters just didn’t seem to gel with each other, the story bounced all over the place. It’s a huge book and it was a trial to get through....

Incoherent and in need of disciplined editing

So…..if those publicity puffs had only been true ‘A spellbinding mix of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, American Gods and His Dark Materials’ I should have loved this. I can see why the subject matter might have led a publicist to make comparisons, but, as so often, they end up damaging the lesser known book. However complex the ideas, plot, and teeming hordes of character those other books are blessed with, there is discipline, depth and complexity of character and a knowledge that the authors have clarity of where detail is needed and where it is extraneous.

The Absolute Book, a mix of a psychological thriller, a meta thriller around books themselves, a fabulation of conspiracy theories, and a sci fi/fantasy sews all its elements together with regrettable lumpiness, and with a level of characterisation lacking, so that the necessary connection to take the reader along with the journey, does not happen

The central character, Taryn, lost her sibling in a mysterious deliberate hit and run. Understandably, this has scarred her, and she wants some kind of justice done, beyond mere custodial sentencing. Various events lead to her being investigated by the police, and somehow there is an involvement by the intelligence services. Most of this is in the very early part of the book, so no spoilers. Later, she has become a writer who has written a book about books and the buildings which house them which have been forbidden, destroyed or censored, However……without much, if any warning, inexplicably we enter a completely different territory and find ourselves in a world of portals faerie and demonic possession and (probably) grand themes of absolute good and evil, plus more realistic explorations of destroyed historical libraries with potent secret texts. Publicity missed the throw in of The Historian as a comparison as well.

This never really got off the ground for me, it felt like a collection of ‘abouts’ and creative writing assignments ‘create a fantasy world’ ‘write a thriller with police or secret service involvement’ ‘create a literary mystery’

I absolutely surrender to complex, playful, gorgeous literary feats of imagination such as are evident in those comparison texts, but in this, reach exceeds grasp by miles. I struggled grimly on beyond any hope of finding redemption, and gave up frustrated with an overindulgence of detail going nowhere.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me this as an ARC, and I am sorry that my experience lacks positive feedback.

I wanted to love this - as it was I admired it hugely and felt it was ultimately slightly less than the sum of its (often very clever and very charming, but also very many) parts.

An amazing fantasy romp through worlds and time with Taryn who meets up with some strange beings, including Shift who appears to do just what his name suggests! The Gates they go through by means of a magic glove, take Taryn and her companions to different worlds and adventures where we’ll find things like the Gates of Hell with Taryn outside using Google! All because some strange beings want the artefact which Taryn’s family have hidden in their Library.
This is truly a very different but quite epic fantasy novel.