The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library, #1)
by Genevieve Cogman
OK; more workmanlike than sparkling. This is partly me being bored of YA fantasy. I have many suspicions about the relationship between Irene and Alberich, because the beats of fantasy are just too predictable sometimes.
The colonialism of Librarians extracting resources from alternate worlds which they take a condescending and paternalistic position towards bugged me, which is more proof that I might have got too cynical for this genre. It gets called out at one point, but then the conclusion of that callout was that the political worldview and motivations don't matter as long as you're doing your duty and protecting your comrades? Uh, sure. Also the worship of books-as-objects and conviction that all books are important and worth spending time and resources on seems more readerly than librarianly. I'm not a librarian, but my impression is that they're actually pretty cutthroat about collection management.
All the characters were shockingly immature sometimes, especially considering the time dickerey that should have made all of them wise beyond their apparent years.