Reviews
Wow. Just wow. I have a hard time even coming up with words for this book. It's not like anything else I've ever read, especially in the YA genre. It is dark and violent and wrenching, and also ultimately beautiful and hopeful. I stalled out a bit in the first few chapters because it was so bleak and I didn't know where it was headed, but it picked up once Wasp's story intertwined with the ghost's, and I absolutely devoured the rest. Dark and lovely and well worth reading.
7/10/18: the sequel is out now, so I'm rereading the first book to get the story fresh in my mind again. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I loved this book. I was engrossed from start to finish, and didn't want to put it down. It's an odd mix of fantasy & a bit of sf, mixed with a little flavoring of Orpheus/Eurydice or Dante/Virgil wandering through the underworld. The story of the ghost and his companion unfurls slowly, in bits and pieces, while he searches for her in company of the Archivist named Wasp. Wasp can see ghosts. Her job is (mostly) to dismiss them. Most ghosts are frail, etiolated things, with no real senses anymore. They're just bits of memory, or will, or emotion. Occasionally they're strong enough to cause poltergeist-like problems. And then there's the ghost who seeks Wasp's help. He's different. VERY different. And their quest for his companion is the main story of the book. The ghost has searched for her in the land of the dead for hundreds of years, maybe even for millennia, since he died. But he's never gotten close to her. So he seeks Wasp's help before his memories are gone. I complain a lot about how few really new and different stories I find in sf/f these days. This one's got enough newness to make me happy. Yeah, there are unanswered questions, and a few nagging "Now how would THAT work again??" questions. But on the whole, it's a good satisfying read.
I've been meaning to read this book for years. Not sure why I waited. When I started, I wasn't sure I'd go on. It's so bleak at the start, its scope so small. But then, it changes, and the scope changes. It is a fierce book, a beautiful book. It is worthy of every ounce of the copious praise it has received over the years. It is, more than anything - at least to me - a book about friendship. Not friendship as a path to romance, but as a thing of worth all on its own. Great worth, and power. Read this book.
Archivist Wasp is a very... interesting book. It's probably one of the most creative and different SFF scenarios I've ever seen, and it's even part of my beloved science-fantasy genre. I want more books to take on challenging stories like this because they are so refreshing different and innovative! The novel is about a post-apocalyptic world where there are ghosts who can hurt people. An entire religious structure has developed around this scenario, and one young girl in the community is selected as an Archivist who protects everyone else from harm and tries to find out what happened in the past to make the world such a cruddy place by talking to ghosts. Despite the Archivist being a position of honour, the actual holder of the title is not treated particularly well, so our protagonist comes to us angry, miserable, and abused. She's just had to defend herself from being killed in the yearly battle for the Archivist position, and she knows it is only a matter of time before she loses. She limps out to complete her day's tasks when, for the first time in Archivist history, she finds a ghost that can actually talk, and he needs her help. So together they go off to deal with the ghost's problem, revealing some important things about Wasp's past in the process. Wasp is a fantastic protagonist. She's a young girl who has been through hell and it shows. She's tough, but so battered by the life she's been forced to lead. And there's no superfluous, implausible love story bogging down the narrative! Instead readers are witness to a trying journey about friendship, regrets, fear, and lies. The worlds are strange, readers don't have a lot of background to really understand what's going on, but the atmosphere and characters are incredibly memorable and eerie. You care even if you don't understand exactly what the characters are doing. Their motivations and behaviours are very human. There is one issue I struggled with in concerns to Archivist Wasp: the world building. In the book, you get really interesting glimpses of three different worlds: the dystopic post-apocalyptic world of Wasp; the futuristic, but war-ravaged world of the super soldiers; and the strange, fantastical world of the ghosts. In the end, I didn't have a good grasp of any of them. Why did the world seemingly end and why are there ghosts and AHHHHH! So many unanswered questions! It's not a sign of bad writing to leave some things to the imagination, but Archivist Wasp didn't give me quite enough to be satisfied (maybe there will be future installments?). Because there are three fairly undefined worlds, the narrative can feel a bit meandering at times. Why is Wasp able to help the super solider ghost out? How did no one figure any of this weird stuff out before, like traipsing through worlds and talking to ghosts? What exactly is Wasp doing wandering about the world of the dead? How the heck can the ghost carry items that interact with real people? The atmosphere of the book is simply brilliant, but there was constantly a part of me that really wanted to understand why these things were happening and to be more grounded in the worlds Wasp was part of. But many readers probably liked this uncertainty as much as I disliked it, so it's a criticism that not everyone will agree with. All in all, you should read Archivist Wasp because it's such a challenge to the status quo in the SFF genre. Korhner-Stace's imagination is a wonderful, precious gift to the world, and I really hope to see more books from her (more from this universe, please!)
Wasp is one of Catchkeep's chosen, a girl born with telltale scars across her face. She fought her way to the position of Archivist, the avatar of Catchkeep who collects the history of their broken world from the ghosts who roam the barren landscape. Desperate to escape her miserable life under the control of the Catchkeep priest, Wasp strikes a bargain with a supersoldier ghost who's been looking for the ghost of his partner for hundreds of years. As they travel through the underworld looking for the ghost's partner, Wasp begins to learn more about her own past and abilities, things she never would have thought possible. This is a story about camaraderie and friendship, about grabbing one's agency with both hands and what happens when you lose your sense of self. I highly recommend this wholely original (and romance free!) fantasy.
Received in a GR Giveaway! This is a truly unique book & I loved it. I'm unsure why people are labelling this as a Fantasy, when really it's dystopian Sci-Fi. This will sound weird, but this book would make for a great anime.
This was my pick for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge - Indie Press Book. This is not a book I would have picked up on my own without the challenge, so that makes me happy I completed it! Archivist Wasp thinks she is special. She killed the last Archivist and assumed the ceremonial knife and the duty of recording the memories and details of the various ghosts she captures. She knows one day she will be killed by one of the Upstarts waiting in the wings. She and her fellow villagers live a harsh life, and they wish to know more about the past and when things changed. Wasp is not a rule follower; she is often in trouble and fears for her life daily. One particularly cruel day, she encounters a ghost different than any she has ever seen before, who asks her for a favor. With nothing to lose, Wasp leaves behind the physical world and journey's with the ghost of a super soldier. This book is so strange. I had trouble getting invested in the story as it is often slow and doesn't always fully explore the odd world Kornher-Stace has built. It is quite poetic, but there is hardly any dialogue. I don't agree with the YA classification of this novel, as I think it would be better placed in the adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy collection. It would take a pretty intrepid teen to take this one on.
