The description and the premise of the book is what attracted me most to it but unfortunately i had to stop reading this around 100 pages i
The writing was not for me and i couldn’t enjoy one single character
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the arc

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC digital copy. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own.

What mind-bending thriller did I just read??? I can’t necessarily say it was enjoyable, but it is certainly still thought-provoking after the last page!

I am generally a character reader and yet the action seemed to drive this book. But, I realized it actually was all about the characters in the end. Totally messing with my mind because I didn’t connect with any of them. Again, I can’t say this was an enjoyable read but could it be the psychological aspect is playing with me?

The biggest negative for me is that I chose this title based on the library setting, and it really could have taken place in any old building with a large, dark basement.

A twisty locked door mystery set in a library? Sign me up! I had very high hopes for “That Night in the Library.” The entire premise immediately intrigued me, and as the story unraveled, I was hooked.

I do not like to give lower than three stars on a book. So this pains me to give it only two stars.

I had high hopes for this book. The title and the premise are fantastic.

Unfortunately. that is where the positive stops.

I DNF this book but I attempted many times to get into the story. There were too many POVs and the characters were flat and uninteresting. The book could not capture my interest.

I am very sorry to only give it two stars.

Oh boy... I was already afraid this was going to happen to be honest. On paper, this story should have been a perfect fit for me. I love a good locked room mystery, and adding a bookish element only makes me want to read a story even more. For the locked room element to be actually set INSIDE a library? That was simply too irresistible, and I've been looking forward to read That Night In The Library ever since it appeared on my kindle. This excitement changed when I was putting together my May TBR and saw just how low the rating on Goodreads was... I decided to go in with low expectations and hope for the best, but let's just say that the low rating is there for a reason.

Before I continue, I have to give credit where credit is due, and say that the premise of this story is without doubt fantastic. I loved the idea of the students going rogue and performing a ritual in the library basement, and add a dose of locked room and murder and this story had SO much potential. Where did it get wrong for me then? One of the most pressing issues has a lot to do with the main characters, who are both absolutely dreadful and strangely bland and stereotype at the same time. I honestly couldn't care less if they just all slaughtered each other in the basement, and not having anyone to root for does really put a damper on things. Seriously, it was like they were in a contest for most hated character! And the dialogue and the way they acted wasn't natural or credible at all either.

That Night In The Library uses a multiple POV structure, and with seven students to keep track of and none all too memorable this is a lot. Add the fact that the plot switches POV almost every other page (especially in the beginning when there are more of them), and I started to get highly frustrated fast. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and tone either; the dialogue felt forced and just not natural at all, and the word choice seemed pretentious in parts. There were also parts that seemed to have been added just for the sake of it (for example the part about the donor), and this only slowed down the pace.

I honestly don't know why I even decided to keep reading until the end other than that I was curious just how much of a trainwreck it was going to be. I guess going in with lower expectations also did help... Although I confess that I thought about DNFing more than once. I was hoping the ending would make up for it, but the solution kind of came out of left field (and not in a good and credible way). Honestly, I kind of wish they would have just all slaughtered each other in the beginning instead; that way I wouldn't have had to deal with all the mess. As you might have guessed already, I can't exactly recommend That Night In The Library... And as you can already deduct from the low rating on Goodreads, I'm not the only one who struggled with this book either.

I had such high hopes for this story; the summary made it sound amazing, but the execution was not there.
I love unreliable narrators and super pretentious college students, but I could not get through this story. I ended up DNFing it at 65%.

There were a lot of characters and the plot, to the 65% I got through, was not seamless and had a ot of holes in it.

This story has so much potential, it just needs more editing...

What a crazy story! That Night in the Library is a thriller about seven students who gather in the basement of their university's rare books library to perform a ritual. Pretty much everything that can go wrong will go wrong. It is written with a tremendous atmosphere., at times it feels claustrophobic. And, at one point you can practically smell the blood. Amazing work. The characters were nuts and I mean that literally. They all were crazy in one way or another. The ending was flat for me, it kind of fell off a cliff. However, it is a great page-turner.

I was hooked when I saw the premise for this book, but unfortunately as the story progressed I lost interest. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters and there were so many plot twists I couldn’t keep track.

This was enjoyable although a little silly; felt like a teen novel, though I don't think it's meant to? Still - library fans will get a kick out of all the literary references.

I did not like this - This was a DNF around 70 pages in. This was boring and just not for me. I had such high hopes for this book and was so disappointed. While this may be great for someone, it wasn’t for me.

That Night in the Library, by Eva Jurczyk This fast paced thriller full of twists and turns kept me guessing til the end.

Unfortunately this book was a complete drag. The beginning built up anticipation for a dark, mythical ritual and immediately fell flat as characters were introduced that were hard to keep straight and hard to care about. None of the characters' actions make much sense; a member of their cohort dies and they seem to just...not care that much? This is truly the most boring closed-door murder book I have ever encountered, it could use some serious updates to the tempo and character development. Overall just not a great read.

A fast paced library thriller, particularly in the second half. Great twist ending that I didn't see coming that really pulled everything together. I also liked the callback to the author's first novel, with one of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

Danny, a librarian at the rare books library at his graduate school, wants to celebrate graduation and landing his dream job by performing a ritual the night before the ceremony. The ritual is best with 7 people, so Danny thinks carefully about the guest list and issues the invitations. By the time the day of the ritual arrives, the guest list has been altered, but Danny is still looking forward to this transformative, he hopes, ritual. Meeting in the basement of the library after closing for the day, Danny and his guest list pop some acid and start chanting. When one of the group reappears after having been MIA, the ritual changes from frivolity to fear and paranoia. And when people on acid trips get paranoid things can get dangerous.

The idea of this story was interesting, but the execution wasn't tight or complete. The characters were flat and unappealing, and more than a few of them obnoxious. There needed to be a more complete explanation for Danny's ritual, it was explained to the reader in fits and starts and never really came together. The initial death in the book made sense but the subsequent rise in body count was too far-fetched and got quite tedious. Despite the flaws, I kept reading to see how it would end because it felt like it was turning into a choose-your-own-adventure, except in the end, it was not the adventure I would have chosen. I didn't hate the book but I was very unsatisfied with it overall.

I want to thank poison pin press for my free arc copy via NetGalley. please forgive any mistakes I am blind and dictate my review.

On the night before graduation, seven students gather in the basement of their university's rare books library. They're not allowed in the library after closing time, but it's the perfect place for the ritual they want to perform—one borrowed from the Greeks, said to free those who take part in it from the fear of death. And what better time to seek the wisdom of ancient gods than in the hours before they'll scatter in different directions to start their real lives? But just a few minutes into their celebration, the lights go out—and one of them drops dead. As the body count rises, with nothing but the books to protect them, the group must figure out how to survive the night while trapped with a murderer.

I had read the other book about libraries b this author so I was expecting this one to like it. She writes well and develops her characters well and always leaves the reader guessing until the very end. It is a play on the locked room murder mysteries. The only reason that I would hesitate to recommend this for library purchase is the extreme violence and deaths. The premise of the book was interesting, but the ensuing violence and fear of the characters was not to my personal liking. Other readers may really like it. Since I am a retired librarian, I am always drawn to books with library in the title so thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting my request to read it. I have mixed feeling personally, but as I stated earlier, I am sure others would like it.

I love weird books like this because like who is letting anyone stay the night in a library, let alone locked in. Lots of private patron information is a library, we can't be letting folks stay there like that.
The students locked in were absolutely ridiculous. They are on drugs and folks are just dying. Insane. Fun.

The publisher made an ebook version of “That Night in the Library” available to me when I expressed interest in the book because of the title (it takes place in a library, one of my favorite places). I was also intrigued by the book’s premise, which showed lots of promise: a group of students gather after hours in the basement of the William F. Woodward Rare Books Library to partake in the Eleusinian Mysteries to gain enlightenment. The mysteries evolved out of the story of the sorrow Demeter felt when she lost her daughter Persephone to Hades, the King of the Underworld. Untangling the mysteries and performing the ritual offered such promise for the storyline that, unfortunately, was not fulfilled. But the book definitely puts an interesting spin on the “locked room” murder mystery for fans of that genre.

The concept has potential, but the execution is lacking. The pacing feels uneven in a sub-three-hundred-page novel, with dull stretches followed by sudden action scenes. The ritual aspect remains unclear, and the characters, typical college kids, are self-absorbed. While the ending offers a twist, it may come off as an easy out. The speed at which characters are flipped between is a lot to handle so you never really get a close connection to any of them.

I really wanted to love this book and the setting made me so optimistic!

The premise was a ritual in an underground library room that never happened. The young adult participants were were pretty ridiculous in their behavior and conversation, even considering that most of them were tripping on acid. As the bodies piled up, no one seemed overly concerned about what was happening and apparently guilt was not a feeling they had. I think the idea was okay but the novel went off track soon after it began.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC to read and review.