Author: Margot Harrison
Series: None
Publication Date: December 2, 2025
Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 320
Obtained: Publisher
Genre: Mystery, Magical Realism
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: A novel for anyone who thinks books are magic
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab
Summary: The Library of Fates was designed to show you who you are—and who you could become. Its rarest book, The Book of Dark Nights, holds a secret: when you write an intimate confession on its pages, you'll receive a prediction for your future, penned in your own handwriting. For Eleanor, whose childhood was defined by a senseless tragedy, the library offers a world where everything makes sense. She’s spent most of her life there as an apprentice to the brilliant librarian, showing other people how to find the meaning of their lives in stories. But when her mentor dies in a freak accident and The Book of Dark Nights goes missing—along with the secrets written inside—Eleanor is pulled out of the library and into a quest to locate it with the last person she expects: the librarian’s estranged son, Daniel, who Eleanor once loved. Together, as they hunt down clues from Harvard to Paris, Eleanor and Daniel grow closer again, regaining each other’s trust. But little do they know that they’re entangled in a much larger web. Someone else wants the book, and they'll go to dark lengths to get it... ~amazon.com
Review: I'm not sure how you define a book as "dark academia" since it's not something I read but this was definitely magical realism to me. I mean books are powerful but to be able to harness that power to pick a book someone needs is definitely magic. Eleanor has long been enchanted by the Library of Fates since that moment she took the seminar with Odile and then figured out she had a way to harness the energy/power and pick books for people. When Odile dies and the Book of Nights goes missing, she feels that there's something a bit more sinister to it than she previously felt. Plus, now Odile's son, Daniel, is back in her life and she has to confront the past and her actions.
I enjoyed the mystery of what happened to Odile and who else was after the book, although that wasn't really too hard to figure out. I also wanted to know how Daniel lost his memories of a specific time in college and how he was starting to get them back. Why did Eleanor feel guilt over his lost memories? There was definitely a romantic vibe to the novel overall between Odile and Julien, Eleanor and Daniel but the setting of Harvard in the winter adds to the magic as well.
Plus, as a book lover how are you not intrigued by the ability of someone to find you the book you need. It might not be what you think in that moment either but the library obviously knows your soul.
The Library of Fates is a novel for anyone who loves books and believes them to be magic all by themselves.
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