12. Rachel Caine - Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1)

Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the Library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly—but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden.

Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the Library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market. Jess has been sent to be his family’s spy, but his loyalties are tested in the final months of his training to enter the Library’s service.

When he inadvertently commits heresy by creating a device that could change the world, Jess discovers that those who control the Great Library believe that knowledge is more valuable than any human life—and soon both heretics and books will burn.…

The World:  This is a Fahrenheit 451-styled future where the Great Library of Alexandria does not allow people to own physical books.  This was done on the pretext that if the uneducated masses read certain books, they could take the information in them out of context and become a danger to themselves.  However, there seems to be more nefarious reasoning behind this that is only hinted upon.  The people, however are not without books.  They are allowed to "take out" digital versions of those listed on their Codex, which as you can imagine is not a complete list.  When the Library does come across a rare paper version of a book, it is sent to the Library to be cataloged and added to the Codex.  At least that is what people are told.

The protagonist:  Jess is from a family of smugglers whose main trade is in the buying (or stealing) of paper books.  The wealthy seek them out so they can get their hands on some of the rarest titles in the world to either add to their collections or to do strange things like eat the books (I do not kid).  While Jess was raised to eventually take over the family business, he developed a love for the books beyond something to be bought and sold.  His father saw this as an opportunity and set up training for Jess to take the extremely difficult entrance exam to work in the Library itself.  The goal: Jess would become a spy for the family and have an "in" for the acquisition of books.

Jess passes the exam and begins his training to become a Scholar.  However, throughout this process, he realizes the Library is not all that it seems to be.  There are threats to it from both inside and out and it is difficult to tell which side is more dangerous.  Jess must use his wits and his friends to becoming a victim of an "accident" or a direct attack because there are those in the Library who know his background and see him as a threat.

While Rachel Caine is more famous for her female protagonists, she does a somewhat believable job in developing Jess.  However, I am not sure if I like or hate him, which in my mind is not a good thing.  A protagonist is supposed to be a character that you root for but sometimes I just wanted him to get killed as I found him too annoying.  However, I did enjoy the concept and some of the other characters in the book.  I still gave this four stars as it was pretty good for a YA book.