That Time I Laughed At the Evil Librarian: A Book Review

#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).

Hello Loves!

It’s Friday, It’s Friday!! That means it’s practically the weekend. Although I work on Fridays and Saturdays so it’s not exactly the weekend for me, but I still get really excited 🙂 Today’s review is one of my favorite reads of the year! Mainly because it features a character in my current career path, but also because I was both laughing at time and in major suspense at other times! Read on below for all my thoughts on this one! 🙂

Also, if you’re sort on time, then check out my Need to Know section for a quick summary of my review!

Ownership: Borrowed from library  
Genre: YA Supernatural / YA speculative fiction  
Publisher:  Candlewick Press
Published: 2015
Pages: 343
Price: $16.99 (hardcover)
Place: Amazon,  B & N, Book Depository, GoodReads, IndieBound

My Rating:

Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen follows high-schooler Cynthia Rothschild as she soon discovers that her school’s new librarian is in fact a demon! Cyn’s best friend Annie quickly falls hard in crushland when the new librarian starts at the high school, but Cyn isn’t buying his handsome, good-guy act. Instead she senses something just isn’t right about the guy. Not to mention the school (and Annie) starts actin weird–almost zombie-esque (minus the brain-eating of course!). Then some people start disappearing and Cyn kind of stumbles upon the librarian when he’s in full demon mode. Now she has to try and save the school and her town..maybe even the world..from this demon librarian. Did I mention that her crush is the only other one who knows about the demon? Also that Cyn is responsible for making her school’s production of Sweeney Todd run without a hitch? Yeah things are about to get a little complicated this school year…

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Gah I loved this book so much! Knudsen does such a wonderful job of drawing me into this story. It combines so many of my favorite things–being a librarian, the library, romance, humor, oh and Sweeny Todd! This story transported me back to when I was in high school performing in the musicals and life behind the stage–and all those rehearsals! This story really made me smile and I related so much to it and the main character Cyn…I mean besides the whole demon hunting thing.

Cyn was a fabulous main character. I loved that she had spunk and that she kept it together with the whole “a demon’s taking over our whole school” thing. She was brave but wasn’t unbelievable. She still had her fear, she just hid it well to stay calm. I also loved how loyal she was to Annie! She wasn’t leaving Annie behind for anything and she always seemed to put her, Ryan and the other students first which really made me relate to her. I also loved how dedicated she was to the musical and how shy she was around Ryan before they got to know each other. She also had some witty & humorous remarks that had me literally laughing out loud. She was an all-around great main character!

Cyn & Ryan’s relationship was fun to watch progress. It was very much a slow burn since most of the story was focused on trying to get rid of the demon librarian. Still, I loved their comradery & the friendship to love interest that grew from the time they spent together. I felt like Ryan did a great job of helping Cyn and having her back. Plus he definitely seemed a bit swoon-worthy. I mean, he did land the lead in Sweeney Toddy 😉

I felt like Knudsen did a great job with the pacing and suspense in this novel. Trying to fight a demon is no easy task! Everything that Cyn & Ryan had to go through was a lot, but also entertaining and had be me turning pages quicker than I have in a while. I actually had trouble putting this one down to go to sleep! The action & supernatural combination was just right and I flew through reading this book!

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s definitely been a favorite of mine this year and most likely will stay in my top 5 for the year. I think this book just clicked for me on so many levels–it just was a collection of all my favorite things (supernatural, librarians, musicals, romance…le sigh). So I might just be a bit biased when it comes to this book. But honestly I wasn’t really expecting this one to be as good as it was from just reading the jacket copy. It could have been a total miss, but instead it became such a hit for me! I’d definitely recommend this book! If you’re looking for a new YA supernatural/speculative fiction book with elements of Supernatural, romance & musicals then pick this one up! Even if you’re not looking for those things in a book, still pick this one up! 🙂

• Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen follows high-schooler Cynthia Rothschild as she soon discovers that her school’s new librarian is in fact a demon! Balancing working alongside her crush, trying to save her friend, and keeping the school’s musical on point, Cyn has a lot to juggle while she tries to save the school from its evil librarian!
• Cyn was a fabulous main character. I loved that she had spunk and that she kept it together with the whole “a demon’s taking over our whole school” thing. She was brave but wasn’t unbelievable.
• I also loved how loyal she was to Annie! She wasn’t leaving Annie behind for anything and she always seemed to put her, Ryan and the other students first which really made me relate to her.
• Cyn & Ryan’s relationship was fun to watch progress. It was very much a slow burn, but I loved watching their relationship develop! I felt like Ryan did a great job of helping Cyn and having her back.
• I felt like Knudsen did a great job with the pacing and suspense in this novel. The book had be me turning pages quicker than I have in a while. I actually had trouble putting this one down to go to sleep!
• 5 STARS!!! Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s definitely been a favorite of mine this year and most likely will stay in my top 5 for the year. I’d definitely recommend this book!

Ok so upon writing this review, I just found out Knudsen is writing a sequel that’s due out in February of 2017!! Right near my birthday! Gah so excited to get my hands on book 2! Find out more here. 

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you’ve read this book and if so what are your thoughts the Evil Librarian? What about Cyn & Ryan? Was the supernatural elements done to your taste or not? 

Do you have a favorite musical? Let me know in the comments below! 

As always, Happy Reading!

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