Now we cover Chapter 5 of The Shapeshifters’ Library: Released by Amber Polo.
Synopsis
Cutter has finally finished the work to open the brand new Shipsfeather Public Library. It’s been too long since she’s seen Chronus, but he’s been helping in the background, even if he hasn’t been socializing with her. She’s denied a grand opening so as it won’t interfere with Sybilla Dinzelbacher’s restaurant’s grand opening.
After discovering a stack of somewhat mutilated books in the library, she goes on a small tour, trying to identify potential werewolves in her staff. Unable to identify a single one, she eventually discovers a more innocuous cause of the book mutilation: a library patron’s teething puppy.
Chronus meets up with her and the two catch up. They discuss the problems Cutter had in funding the library and the over-the-top measures Harold Dinzelbacher has been trying to enforce to ensure that the library would not be safe from fire and arson. In the end, they reminisce on family, especially Cutter’s lack thereof, having been orphaned and raised by aunts.
Analysis
So, if I knew of the existence of book-burning werewolves, and some guy was doing almost everything he could to ensure that my library was a stray spark away from becoming a literary inferno, I’d start to suspect him. I mean, Harold Dinzelbacher might as well be demanding that the fire suppression heads be filled with gasoline. And nobody catches that?
You would think, even though the town is effectively run by werewolves, that someone on the county or state level would step up and enforce code. While I may not like Kasich’s anti-Libertarian attempts, I highly doubt he’s a werewolf… And iff he is, someone needs to explain to him the difference between a “libertarian” and a “librarian”.
The most irritating thing about this book though are not things solved by my actually suspending my disbelief for a moment, but rather the fact that most of the events that are described in the book happen in the past relative to the events in the book. An entire chapter may involve someone walking across a hallway, but will take up several pages as that character reminisces on the history of each thing he or she sees. This can be annoying for a reader such as I, as I’m painfully aware of “showy” versus “telly” writing (hint: showing is better than telling).
That is to say there are not places where telling gets things across. Many great writers do that. In fact, the first chapter of The Hobbit is practically Bilbo’s family history (and takes about an hour to read aloud). It just takes a bit of finesse to make it work. In Released, it’s not working.
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