3.5 stars.

There were some wonderful things about this read, but admittedly it was lacking in some regards. The writing showed talent in a number of ways and the research completed to write the novel appears to have been well done. There were portions of the novel that were incredibly well done, but the same care does not appear to have been taken with the entire narrative. Some portions feel as though they are written by an entirely different author.

The book starts off slow and moves at a bit of a languid pace for at least the first half. This is not all a bad thing, as it does do a great job of setting up the atmosphere and providing background about the protagonists and the library itself. The plot for The Paris Library is told in a dual timeline and multiple perspective format. While I often love this approach and feel like it gives a much fuller and well-rounded nature to the story, in this case I think the narrative may have been better served by staying with Odile's WWII perspective. The writing in these sections is superior and the plot seems to move more seamlessly and with greater purpose. The sections written by other characters lack the same finesse and the chapters written in the modern time take on a bit more of a juvenile feel that detracted from the power of the narrative for me. Still, the plot was good and there was a lot to take in.

Odile was a well-written character, as I felt were all of the characters from the WWII timeline. The modern day timeline didn't feel quite as fleshed out and the characters weren't as realistic for me. Instead, these sections seemed to feel a bit more generic. Still, these characters did play a decent role in both paralleling some of the earlier timeline and expanding the understanding of Odile's character. They did serve a purpose, they just weren't as strong.

The topic was interesting and there were a lot of emotional moments. There was some great historical information and exploration of the nature of humans. Even though they weren't all Nazis, some of the individuals in the book did certainly have questionable morals and there were plenty of instances of a lack of human compassion and the tendency for people to become hateful beings in the face of adversity. There was more than once that the instances in the narrative caused me to simply be disgusted by humanity. The writing does a good job at drawing out this kind of emotional response.

Though not as hard-hitting as some of the WWII historical fiction I have enjoyed, The Paris Library's perspective and presentation is just unique enough to remove the book from falling into the "just another WWII historical fiction" category and makes it one worth taking note of.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *