this was just ...so completely underwhelming. i'm still giving it 3 stars because the concept is great and it was well written technically so giving it 2 stars seem petty but ...god it was just so BORING. how do you take a concept this interesting and make it so unbearably dull? especially since i know what this writer can do and adore everything else i've ever read by her. 
 basically this was just Standard YA nonsense with bland predictable characters and a mildly predictable outcome. it did get kind of exciting there at the very end but i swear almost nothing interesting happened for the first 3/4ths of this book. i'm hoping the next one is better and more focused on ...well, the library and the actual plot instead of teenagers being stupid and love triangles