love libraries. Not surprising, as a reader. But I also love books about libraries or that take place in libraries. So when I saw the title of this book, I was already hooked.

That Night in the Library is about a small group of college students who are invited by one of the students to perform an ancient ritual together after-hours in their college library. on the eve of graduation. As the group of curious folks gather for something they are not 100% sure it is.

As I read the book, I I thought it would be a "Breakfast Club" type experience - each person, at this liminal time of life, would share their vulnerabilities and insecurities. Plotwise, I was totally WRONG. I did not expect a murder mystery! That threw me and it further hooked me.

And...we DID get to know the characters, their anxieties and their vulnerabilities. So with the suspense and the fear inducing prospect of being lock in a library all night, this book provided a very rich read, a little scary, but definitely captivating.

This book had a really cool sounding plot but the execution fell short for me. I didn’t love any of the characters and the dialogue seemed weirdly forced. This was also a confusing plot and never drummed up the excitement I had originally felt when reading the blurb. Overall this was a hard read for me and not something I’m eager to recommend unfortunately.

2.5 ⭐


I loved the setting/premise of this book. I have seen a few negative reviews about the characters being unlikable but maybe that is the point?
It didnt take anything away from my reading experience.


I kind of liked the ending how it all wrapped up. I am conflicted with my rating as for the most part it felt like it was written for a younger audience but it obviously contained many heavy adult themes.

I take most adult mystery thrillers with grains of salt. Young Adult (mystery thriller) I’m more fine with. But I’m trying to shop around and see exactly what I’ll like and dislike from Adult books. Unfortunately while this looked really good and I was interested at the start it petered out quite fast. I didn’t like the deaths, I really didn’t like the ending. I could see how it could’ve been better but unfortunately it didn’t go that way.

I liked locked room mysteries, I like it when people are getting picked off one-by-one and anyone could be the killer. This had all three but just threw it all away for an nonsensical ending. And the characters seemed to be interesting all for the first few chapters. Every time I thought I liked one of the characters they did something or said something and we were back to the beginning. The book might’ve been more interesting and likeable if Davey, the one character, just wasn’t there. He was totally my least favourite and thought himself to be the bee’s knees. I don’t think I even had a favourite, or, the character I disliked the least.

In most Adult mystery/thriller books it’s the characters I don’t like. Their personalities, how they treat the characters around them and their dialogue. I like unlikeable characters but only if they’re written well. They were well-written in here but because I didn’t like their personalities at all, it was hard to like their unlikeable personalities. I don’t know if that makes much sense.

I think this might have fallen short for me due to my age? I found the characters overly immature with barely any common sense or life-preservation skills. The locked room library premise was so cool to me, and since it was marketed with Breakfast Club vibes, I wanted to love it, but it just fell short for me. There seemed to be too many attempts at shocking twists making the plot overly stuffed and chaotic.

What a wild ride! Complete unlike the author’s first book. Had this been a movie I would not have watched it because it is a blood bath and I am a baby. As a book, this was such a unique twist on the locked room genre that I was able to plow through and somehow soften the utter gruesomeness of the situation in my mind.

I absolutely believe how easily tensions would rise in a situation like that and can complete see the events of “That Night In The Library” playing out just as it did.This book is not for the faint of heart but if you enjoy a locked room plot this is unlike anything I have ever read before.

Probably not for fans of the cozy mystery genre or for about 90% of individuals who would traditionally be drawn to a book set in a library but recommended for readers who can handle a little gore and enjoy books where a traditional method is explored in a unique way.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

*3.5 stars rounded up to 4*

Welcome to Vermont’s William E. Woodend Rare Books Library, a building holding thousands of valuable books & now, several dead bodies…

This novel’s premise made it seem (at least to me) that there would be more emphasis on the Greek ritual the students gathered in the basement to perform, so I was a little surprised when that part was relatively minor & it turned into more of a bloodbath than I anticipated. Nevertheless, the paranoia the students experienced from the fasting & the drugs heightened the tension as the night went on, & I did enjoy the little details about the specifics of the old maps & volumes. I also thought the final twist was particularly clever.

Thank you to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I read the first few chapters and it did not hold my interest. It is a DNF for me.

I am a fan of books about books, or libraries, or bookstores, so I was immediately drawn to That Night in the Library by Eva Jurczyk. The description of this book reminded me immediately of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides which I thoroughly enjoyed. A group of students who have been working in the library and their friends are invited for a secret overnight gathering where they will perform the Greek Eleusinian ritual that requires 7 people. This locked room mystery has dark academia vibes, unreliable narrators, and multiple points of view. Following a strict protocol of fasting and use of LSD, the members of the group secretly lock themselves in the basement of the library overnight after it has closed. With only candles and phones to light their way, what ensues is paranoia and ultimately death. Who will survive the night? I enjoyed the multi-POVs and watching the night play out through different eyes. I was pulled in early to this story as I waited to learn more about the mythology and ritual; however, I was left wanting when the story took a turn and the bodies started piling up. Once the pieces of the story came together with a crazy ending, I was left thinking about the story and the devices used to tell this story. The characters were all quite interesting and without their first-person narratives, we would have missed out on their unique voices as we tried to figure out why everyone was dying. I definitely wouldn’t agree to lock myself in the basement of a library after reading this!
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Yikes, this one has awful reviews so I will not be persevering to finish, DNF at 25% I picked this on cover and premise but this is just a wildly immature book.

Happy to include this title in “Cool It,” a recent round-up highlighting notable new mysteries and thrillers in the Books section of Canadian national culture and lifestyle magazine Zoomer. (see column and mini-review at link)

True bibliophiles know how easy it is to get lost between the stacks of a well-stocked library. But in Eva Jurczyk's That Night in the Library, there may only be one avid reader left standing after a harrowing last hurrah among the shelves. Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy to review.

In a situation reminiscent of The Breakfast Club―minus the detention, Principal Vernon, or the insistence that anyone eat anyone else's shorts―That Night in the Library starts with a simple gathering of students in a library. However, this isn't just a teen dramedy where they spill a few secrets and bring members of cliques together; instead, these seven college students are about to graduate and embark on the next big chapter. Holed up in the basement of the William E. Wooden Rare Books Library well after closing time, they decide to try and grease the real world's wheels by performing what's called the Eleusinian Mystery ritual. The idea is to face one's greatest fear, and, once successful, never know terror again. As in most cases, though, nothing is as cut-and-dried as it seems, and the students find themselves learning all sorts of things on the cusp of graduation, such as how fine a line resides between life and death, and how quickly fear can foster suspicion: even among friends.

Known for works like her debut The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (2022), librarian and author Jurczyk is known for her grasp of a good whodunit. This tale, however, introduces a new element to her repertoire: mythology. The ritual the students set out to recreate is one that they've learned about from studying the Greeks, who used it to free themselves from the fear of death itself. Anyone who's been through any kind of "hell week" or the petrifying prospect of having to figure out what one is supposed to do with the rest of their life can attest to the appeal of asking the universe for a leg up. By switching points of view between equally flawed characters, the author does a great job of underscoring their desperation and the unifying aspect of apprehension and nerves that naturally accompany such a big step, all while keeping the mystery of legends close at hand for an extra layer of intrigue.

Unfortunately, intrigue turns to heart-pounding horror when the lights go out and the first victim inexplicably falls. From there, the body count rises and the plot moves forward at an almost breakneck pace. The smart thing would be to ban together and protect each other from the murderer until someone opens the library again and they can all get the hell out of dodge. But, considering they're all alone in a place they shouldn't have been in the first place, it has to be one of them, and tension rises quickly as it becomes more than clear that the only resources they can really rely on are the books that surround them on all sides. Readers who prefer a slow burn or a drawn-out investigation may not enjoy this aspect of the book, but will find that as the characters turn on one another, what each of them has to hide eventually comes to light, and thereby provides the type of in-depth development they might feel is otherwise missing from the plot. It doesn't hurt that each of these revelations also makes it harder to tell who is guilty, which will titillate true suspense lovers until the very end.

For those who enjoy the slightly overdramatized pace and hodgepodge of characters found in books like Murder on the Orient Express, or the dark humor and quick-witted references to famous and obscure literature prevalent in something like the Netflix miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher, That Night in the Library should definitely be added to your summer TBR list. You'll definitely want to know whether or not the soon-to-be graduates (they hope, anyway) can summon the gods and make it out of the library with their lives as well as their wits intact before school's back in session.

2.5 stars
I really wanted to like this book. I mean I love reading so a book placed in a library really caught my eye. However the book fell short for me. It had a good idea, but I felt like it was executed right. I was confused a lot on by what was going on. I felt like there were a lot of pages of information I didn’t really need. When the action scene happened it was good, but it just took a really long time to get there.

This one just wasn’t for me. I’m not sure if it was my mood or the writing style but I just couldn’t get into it. I tried a couple times but I just wasnt interested in any of the characters or what they were doing. The synopsis and plot idea were so cool. It just didn’t work for me.

Thank you to Poison Pen Press and Netgalley for the gifted copy and chance to read

Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Inc. and Eva Jurczyk for giving me this book in exchange for a honest 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. 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 liked the plot and the grand reveal at the end but I found the characters to be irrational and illogical which was frustrating but overall it was an okay read.

One night locked in the library. What could go wrong?

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. That Night in the Library is a chilling literary mystery that transports readers to a world where secrets live in the dark, books breathe fears to life, and the only way out is to wait until morning.

I started off really wanting to enjoy this novel. It seemed like a unique twist on the “locked room” mystery. Unfortunately, I forced myself to finish it, for the only reason that I wanted to know who did what.

I found myself annoyed with every character and what appeared to be nothing short of basic stupidity. I went to college, and I met a few people like these characters. However, these characters were much “too much” in my opinion. There were no self-preservation skills. Even stupid people have an innate sense of flight or fight, especially in heightened situations.

Overall, I rate this novel 2 out of 5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

Okay, I had such high hopes for this one. unfortunately, it missed the mark in my opinion. The plot was of confusing that while reading this I had to stop and turn back pages to see if I had missed something? There were so many twists unnecessary turns that it made me nauseous and it's really hard to keep up with that is actually happening.

With the over the top characters and messy plot, this just didn't work for me.

Insufferable grad students lock themselves in a rare book library to get high and reenact an ancient Greek ritual, but when the most insufferable of them all turns up dead, chaos (and much bloodshed) ensues.
thought the suspense elements and character work were very well done. Th fact that most of the characters are on acid trips throughout the action makes for understandably unreliable narration. The characters are drawn with a pathos that makes them sympathetic even though you know you'd hate them IRL (picture the kind people you know who would
pedantically reenact an ancient Greek ritual). And of course the rare books content was very much on point. But the actual "whodunnit" element and ultimate resolution to the mystery fell a little flat for me.

This book had an intriguing premise. A group of seniors sneak into the library to do an ancient ritual surrounded by ancient tomes. Sign me up!

However, the book itself fell short of my expectations. The plot was all over the place, and at times didn’t really make sense. Lots of irritating loose ends. The characters were unlikeable, and worse boring.

Thank you to Poisioned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

3 stars ONLY because I enjoyed reading the first 95% of it. The ending was a huge letdown and really left way too many loose ends for my liking, but it was still an enjoyable read if you don’t care how it ends.