Magus of the Library, Vol. 4

“Freedom of choice is absolute. The library will not tolerate anyone who infringes upon it, no matter who they are.”

You go girl.

The intro to this book involving the librarian engaging in shelving bias really hits home in today's controversy surrounding removing books from libraries. This was written before that was a thing, but it really does hit close to home–in manga format.

So Theo is back in Aftzaak, having passed his exams and beginning his (long) road toward working at the Central Library. Upon arriving, he meets his fellow classmates and tutors, and is suddenly stricken with a bit of imposter's syndrome. All these people who have clear ideas of what they want to do and where they want to work, and all he can do is turn in a blank sheet of paper when asked where he wants to work at the library. It really hit close to home here, as well. Theo also meets up with the kafna who started him down this path, Sedona, and we get a bit of ominous hinting at the end that something isn't quite right.

I kind of didn't like having all these new characters to keep up with (and there's a ton introduced here), and it's super easy for me to get them confused. I'm hoping it becomes easier as we go along, or that maybe some of them are more important to remember than others, because as it is there's a lot going on here.

Still, my favorite manga series ever, thus far.