Suddenly more and more Histories are showing up, someone is removing parts of sleeping Histories’ memories, and the Archive itself is in turmoil. Her PoV narration is easy to read and succinct, and it isn’t hard to understand her motives.īut the mystery of the Coronado is bigger than wondering about the murder of a girl all those years ago. Mackenzie loved her brother so much she tries to get the Librarians in the Archive to let her see him, but it’s forbidden, and some of the Librarians disapprove of her as a result. We learn early on that her little brother Ben died in a tragic accident recently and her loss still affects her and her parents. It was easy to imagine the Coronado, Mackenzie’s relationship with her parents, her relationship with her grandpa, and how she views her responsibility as a Keeper. You can tell from page one of Victoria Schwab’s novel, THE ARCHIVED ( Amazon), that she has a deft command for prose and storytelling.

Sometimes the violent ones wake up, and have to be returned. When people die, their memories and experiences are archived. But old buildings often have a story to tell, and it doesn’t take her long to discover the murder that occurred in her apartment over fifty years ago. Her parents decide to move to the Coronado, an old hotel converted to apartments, where her mother dreams of re-opening the main floor coffee shop. Mackenzie keeps this part of her life secret from her parents, and she has to be careful how she lies so life goes on normally whether it’s convenient to her or not. She’s spent the years since his death doing just that, finding Histories assigned to her by the Librarians at the Archive and returning them to their rest. But sometimes those memories wake up, the restless and violent kind especially, and someone has to return them.įour years ago, when Mackenzie was twelve, her grandfather introduced her to the Archive, where the people’s Histories are stored, to learn about the job of a Keeper and take his place. When people die their memories and experiences are archived in a special library that few people know about.

The archived schwab