I love V.E. Schwab, and this book/series was no exception! Gripping and interesting and unique. I think I preferred this book to the first one, thanks to the addition of more characters, the lore/world building already being fleshed out, and the relatability of Mackenzie's struggles. Definitely a series I'd recommend!

This and the previous book have such nice pacing. They hit all the classic beats of a painful coming of age YA, and the use of memory, knowledge, and the relationship between body and mind was fun. 

The beginning was quite slow and it took foreeever for the story to start. It felt like there was no real plot or destination, only a meandering dissection of private high school life. 

As ratings go, for the first half of the book, it was about 3 stars. But when it finally did start about 2/3 of the way in, it was much more interesting, verging on 4.5/5 stars. Overall, I walked away with a positive impression of the book... it just would have benefited from more stringent editing. 

The Archived is a bit of a strange series. The books read more like companion novels in the same universe rather than a real series, as the books feel very self-contained, instead of covering wider story arcs like most fantasy series. 

At its core, we have MacKenzie, one of the youngest Keepers of the Archive of Souls. The Archive is where a record is kept of all dead souls. Sometimes the souls go walkabout in the space between the worlds, and it's Mac's job – and Wesley's, my favourite character – to round them up and "re-shelve" them. 

But upon the events of the first book, Mac has some serious PTSD, except that she doesn't really have anyone to confide in, because who would understand her life, her stress, her problems? She doesn't sleep. Her dreams are haunted by Owen from book one, and her days are haunted by stress of the constant lying and double life. Her parents have realised something up and are trying to protect her by keeping her home, but the Archive know something's up too, and threaten to take her away job title (and memories of said job to boot). 

Schwab is a good writer, and the book is well written. The 2nd half of the book is explosive, and the characters feel so real. My main issue with the book is simply the lack of true world building involving the Archive - why does it exist? How? What is the point of keeping the records of the souls, and why do they sometimes wake up? What is ultimately the point of being a Keeper? And what is Wesley's real name??

It's too bad the 3rd book will never get written (its been years) because I suspect some of these answers might have been answered. But at least we got a bit of closure between MacKenzie and Wesley! 

The lack of information about Wesley’s life and backstory kind of disappointed me. We get a lot of unanswered questions because of it being an unfinished series.

But it was an enjoyable read and Mackenzie’s character was fun.

In this sequel to The Archived, summer is over, and it's back to school (ew, am I right?). Hyde School has some serious dark academia vibes, though, so although I would never ever return to high school, this particular posh ambience makes it a bit more enticing. In general, the tone of this story is darker than its predecessor. The world Schwab has built is a bit spooky at baseline, but this one dialed it up to an 11. With Mackenzie not trusting her own thoughts, running from her own dreams, and fighting the insistent, lurking instinct that something is very, very wrong with some local missing persons cases, things are spinning drastically out of control. To be honest, I became a bit stressed.

I still love the soundly 2000s vibes of this series, but this plot did read a bit like a CW show. For example, we have the trope of the cool, unpopular/alternative, gorgeous, new girl who is so beguiling as to immediately turn the heads of several boys and be adopted by the edgiest clique. This is how we somehow end up in a different love triangle from the first book. Mackenzie doesn't even want to date anyone with all the chaotic trauma she's carrying around. She's just so effortlessly charming as to lure two witless boys in, anyway. To be clear, that's not her fault in the slightest. It's just a trope that irritates me in teen dramas since I haven't noticed it to have any basis in teen realities. No one's that badass in high school or possibly ever.

Ultimately, this book was fine, just not a standout. If love triangles and witty perfect cool (but not popular, ok?? this is different and edgy!) characters don't upset you, then I think you will be better poised to appreciate Schwab's always enthralling writing and the mysteries she spins here.