The Astral Library

by Kate Quinn

28 May 2026

The books by Kate Quinn that I’ve read before have been big historical books and I think most of them were at least loosely based on the lives of real life women. This is a departure from that! Alix is down on her luck and walks through a door at the Boston Public Library and finds herself in another realm. She’s walked into the Astral Library where those in need can hide away within the world of a book.

I thought for a bit that it was just going to be a saunter through various well known book universes, here’s 221b Baker Street, here’s Longbourn, like a version of GeoGuessr where you try and figure out where are we now before it becomes obvious. But then I realised that the book was in many ways not that much of a leap away from Quinn’s previous work. It’s well researched and full of plot twists that take you where you aren’t quite expecting. There were a few points where I wanted to pick holes in the plot or disagree with exactly what the characters were saying but mostly the book is an impassioned love letter to libraries, something I’m quite happy to endorse, and it was tremendous fun to read.

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