Book Review - Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the books that I found by aimlessly wandering through what Goodreads recommended to me. I thought it sounded interesting, so I put it on my Amazon wishlist and a friend got it for me for my birthday. I got a ton of books for my birthday, so Wasp ended up waiting until December to get read, and I'm glad that I waited. There is a lot of wintery imagery in the book, a lot of cold bleakness that feels appropriate for this time of year. I'm sure the book would have resonated with me regardless of season, but it was easier to connect to in the winter.

The story, in its simplest form, is about a girl, Wasp, who is an Archivist. It's her job to protect her town from ghosts, and also to study them in order to find out what happened to end the world. She's dedicated to a goddess called Catchkeep, whose surrounding imagery is effective and disturbing, and she's entirely alone in the world. The Catchkeep-priest is abusive in order to hold on to his power, and the rest of Catchkeep's chosen - the upstarts, other girls marked with holy scars on their faces - try once a year to kill her and take her place as Archivist.

One day, while she's out performing her duties and thinking about trying to escape again, a ghost approaches her and demands her help finding another ghost. And that's as far into the plot as I'm going to go, because if that doesn't grab your interest, this probably isn't the book for you.

There are several themes running through the book - loss, death, memory, betrayal - but ultimately it's about Wasp's stubborn refusal to give up, and her ability to care and empathize with others, even ghosts, and even in the face of the abuse she's suffered her entire life. It's surprisingly hopeful for a post-apocalyptic story, and it doesn't delve too deep into what happened before - although there are hints - because that isn't the point of the story. Unlike too many books, where the setting is the point and the characters are just set dressing meant to show the reader how awful everything is now, Archivist Wasp uses the setting to make you care about the characters.

There were parts that were a little slow, and parts that were a little too fast, but overall this a solid read with a satisfying ending and a main character that starts out a bit grating and slowly reveals herself to be stubborn, kind, powerful, and very, very human.

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