The Archived by Victoria Schwab Review

The Archived
Author: Victoria Swab
Hardcover: 321 pages
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Publishing Date: January 22, 2013
Language: English

Summary:
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.



Review:
I never read The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab.
Right from the blurb, I knew I was going to enjoy the book. It sounded completely original and honestly, it was.
This was a unique idea which was crafted into a wonderfully written, hopefully-wished-to-be-movie. And because of this, I will definitely be adding Victoria Schwab to my favorite author's list.

Schwab created an amazing, intricate world, and thankfully, does a great job of balancing everything out; explaining everything in great detail as the story progresses without paragraphs and pages of info-dumps.

To make a long story short, Mackenzie "Mac" Bishop has inherited an ability like her grandfather, Da, which he had informed her about. Da, was a Keeper, a human trained to keep Histories from escaping back into the real world.
A History is a record of a person. Not a ghost or a soul, it's just a personified record of every experience and memory held when they were alive.

Ever since Mac was a young girl, Da use to train her to become a Keeper in secret for a future role to become a Keeper, explaining to her about the Narrow's and the Archive.
If it's confusing, the world is separated into 3 parts.

The Outer, the normal world, living world, and it's only what most people know about.

The Narrows, a place with stained hallways, doors, distant whispers, banging and shouting, all surrounded in darkness, which is like the middle between the Outer and the Archive. According to Mac, "There are no sky's in the Narrow's, but it always feel like night, smells like night. Night in a city after rain. On top of that there's a breeze, faint but steady, carrying stale air through the halls. Like you're in a air shaft.  Imagine this: a dark alley, just wide enough for you to spread your arms and skim the rough walls on either side with your fingers. You look up to see...nothing, just the walls running up and up and up into black. the only light comes from the doors that line the walls, their outlines giving off a faint flow, their keyholes letting in beams of light that show like threads in the dusty air. it is enough to see by, but not enough to see well. (pg 14)

And the Archive, a library for the dead.

It is known that a History breaks free of the Archive and escapes into the Narrows. Confused and disoriented  they wander the Narrows, not knowing that they are no longer living, and it's a Keeper's job to send them back. Returning them back to the Archive. As a Keeper, Mac has been trained to Return the Histories to the Archive before they break into the Outer (and cause lots of chaos and destruction).
Sometimes returning a History is easy, others--not so much because the older the History is (the age that the person died), and the longer that they have wandered the Narrows, they will become hostile and dangerous.

I loved everything about this world. So original, and fresh. The story is mostly of Mac transferring from the Outer to the Narrows to the Archive and back again.I love the way she is given her "assignments", her orders to find an escaped History, orders that show up as a name and age that appear on a piece of paper Mac always keeps in her pocket. I love that all Keepers wear rings, rings that keep all the "noise" of the living, their emotions, their memories, from overpowering the Keeper. And I love that Keepers are assigned keys that unlock doors between the worlds. Awesome.

But I also like the system of the Archive, which is  like a library, with Librarians to make sure everything is silent and in control. But it's also creepy because imagine this: a library. A library with drawers that you would see in a morgue-names and dates. See, Histories are kept on shelves like books, but they can also be "pulled out" like "drawers". See?

I like Mac's job as a Keeper. If this was reality, I think I would be in the middle of accepting to do this kind of job and not. Just because of the rules and regulations and a bunch of other stuff I would probably hate.

Now, moving onto the characters. Mac, our protagonist. She's a strong character with a sad past that I couldn't help feel bad for. Da, Mac's grandfather had passed. This is the man who told and taught his granddaughter to be like her, and years later, he dies. But not only did Da died, but so did Mac's little brother, Ben, who was only 10 years old when he was killed in a hit-and-run.
But she keeps herself away from her family because of the "noise" that her family, as well as other humans-life-overall give. The noise can be a bit overwhelming for Mac and because of that, she doesn't like to be touched, or like to touch other people. She would remember, or rather have flashbacks to the time when Da was alive and teaching her about Keepers, the Narrows, and the Archive. I really like Mackenize a lot.

Wesley. I loved Wesley. He's smart, funny, and just simply amazing. Mac meets Wes when she moves to Coronado, a hotel made into a apartment building. While Wes has secrets of his own, he's a great match for her. Mac, while serious, Wes is the opposite. Playful. Plus, Wes is described as punk, and he wears Guyliner and has spikey hair. Yes!
I love guys that wears guyliner. :)

So yes, there is a great connection between Mac and Wesley, until: Owen. Owen is mysterious and I shall NOT say anything to spoil him. You'll have to figure out this book.

Lastly, Victoria Schwab's writing is phenomenal. Again, I have not read her first debut, The Near Witch, but The Archived makes up for that. And I'm in love with this book. I imagined everything happening cinematically in my head-which is a damn good thing. I hope it'll become a movie. Hopefully. Hope-fully.


Conclusion:
The Archived is an amazing book. Great, original premise. Balanced story-building, amazing characters  mystery, romance, drama, all the works. There are some great surprises in this book that had me literally *gasping* because it was such a shock.
I would definitely  DEFINITELY  DEFINITELY recommend this book! Go pick this up at the library, read an excerpt, order the BOOK! But you HAVE to read it!
Though, there are questions I have. Does anyone else, but Da and Mackenzie know about the Histories, the Narrows, or the Archived? Her parents? How does Da know? How was he brought up with this supernatural world?
Those questions for me, I want answered, and hopefully they shall be if there is a sequel. I hope there is a sequel.
The Archived is rewarded a 10/10 and over!