‘Overdue: A Library Trilogy Short Story’ – Mark Lawrence

Page Count: 46 Pages

You can tell when I’ve had a day in the office… A short story post will inevitably appear the next day ;o) No matter what the original reading plan was, I’ve developed a happy knack for finding something short and sweet to read on my phone instead. Last night was no different, until suddenly… it was. An Amazon spam email led to a ‘List of Titles I might like’ which ultimately led me to ‘Overdue’ and I thought, ‘You know what Graeme, lets do this.’

And so I did. I’m rubbish at reading/finishing Lawrence’s longer works (that’s on me, not his books) but I’ll happily pick up any of his short stories that I come across. And that is what made the bus ride home last night a joy (you won’t normally hear me say that). I was expecting another good read but I never expected ‘Overdue’ to be so… beautiful.

The accompanying blurb, on Amazon, was pretty short and to the point - Yute and Wentworth investigate a strange connection between several bookshops. And before I get onto the story itself, lets talk about that a little bit. According to the rest of that blurb, ‘Overdue’ is a tale that can be read either as a standalone piece or nestled in between the first two books of the ‘Library’ trilogy. I’d half agree with that. ‘Overdue’ can absolutely be read as a standalone tale but if you’re anything like me, you’ll get so much more out of it if you read ‘The Book That Wouldn’t Burn’ first. I can tell you that for a fact as I haven’t read ‘The Book That Wouldn’t Burn’ and there’s only so much room in ‘Overdue’ for Lawrence to tell his story and give new readers a little background at the same time. I’d say that he does bloody well to strike the balance that he does but without that prior reading, you’re only getting a small part of the Library itself. It’s a pretty big place that clearly needs a whole novel to do it justice.

And just to be clear, this is all on me for not doing that prior reading first. When payday comes around, I’ll have to do something about that.

The plot itself though… Wow. I’m still pretty stunned at how much Lawrence fits in here and yes, how beautiful the end result is. People just want to be heard and to make a difference, and it really says something about us that we’ll keep trying even if it seems like a lost cause. We can all identify with that and feel real empathy for how our players manage this over the course of their lives and a very special book that ties everything together. I’ll be honest, some of the multi-verse stuff went over my head (another reason to pick up ‘The Book That Wouldn’t Burn’ I think) but it was Nicholas and Marie that really held my attention. It’s not often, these days, that I’ll put a book down and sit for a moment, wishing that the main characters have a better life going forwards. That’s exactly what I did here though and it’s all down to Lawrence really getting inside their heads and sharing not only their pain but their strength as well.

I’m going to stop here as there’s another long day at work on the horizon and I should sleep before tackling that. I can’t say it enough though, give ‘Overdue’ a read if you haven’t already. If I was still doing end of year ‘Favourite Reads’ lists, ‘Overdue’ would be on this years list and seeing as it’s only the 4th of January… That’s saying something.