The Library at Mount Char

The Library at Mount Char (2015) is a debut novel by Scott Hawkins that blends the dark fantasy, horror, and mystery thriller genres to explore themes including The Human Capacity for Cruelty, Compassion, and Change, The Succession Conflict and Parallels to Greek Mythology, and The Emotional Toll of Wearing a Mask. The novel features Carolyn, a clever and complicated woman raised among 11 adoptive siblings by Father, a godlike man whose library contains the universe’s knowledge. Father’s disappearance triggers an epic battle to succeed him, full of unexpected twists. With the fate of the world at stake, the outcome will determine who inherits control of reality. The Library at Mount Char earned Hawkins a 2015 Goodreads Choice Award nomination for Readers’ Favorite Debut Author. Hawkins has written several technical and nonfiction books in the field of computer sciences; The Library at Mount Char is currently his only novel-length work of fiction in publication.

This guide is based on the 2015 Crown Publishers e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of bullying, antigay bias, sexual violence, rape, mental illness, child abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, death by suicide, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty and death, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Twenty-five years ago, eight-year-old Carolyn and 11 other children were orphaned in a tragedy and taken in by a man called Father. They became his apprentices, each assigned to one of 12 catalogs in his Library, where he preserves the knowledge of the universe. The librarians that appear most frequently in the novel and their specialties, or catalogs, are Carolyn (languages), David (war, murder, martial arts), Jennifer (medicine, healing, resurrection), Michael (animals), and Margaret (death). The others, who appear infrequently in the book, are Peter (math, engineering, cooking), Alicia (time travel), Rachel (whose ghost children see possible futures), Richard (armorer), Emily (finder of secrets and lost things), Lisa (mind control), and Jacob (unidentified) (Hawkins, Scott. “The Twelve Catalogs, Cataloged.” Scott Hawkins Blog).

Carolyn, the protagonist, learns that Father, though technically human, has ruled the universe for 65,000 years and has unfathomable power. The children, or librarians, suffer terrible abuse and torture as they grow up under his care and training. 

Now, Father is missing. Carolyn recruits Steve Hodgson to help her remove the magic barrier that’s keeping the librarians from entering the Library to investigate Father’s disappearance. Carolyn has a hidden agenda, however, a fact that begins to emerge when she frames Steve for killing a detective.

A flashback shows Carolyn at 11 years old. She’s forbidden from learning any skills from outside her catalog, which is languages. However, she observes Father murdering and resurrecting Margaret numerous times in secret with the help of Jennifer, whose catalog includes resurrection. David, the librarian of murder and war, angers Father and is punished by being burned alive in a brass grill, only to later be resurrected.

Now, a combat veteran and Homeland Security agent named Erwin Leffington connects Carolyn to a bank robbery and to Steve Hodgson, who’s been charged with murdering a detective. While Erwin is interviewing Steve in jail, David shows up, easily killing everyone in his way, and frees Steve. Soon after, David and Carolyn join Michael, another librarian, to free two lions, Dresden and Naga, from captivity. Dresden agrees to help the librarians in return for his and his daughter Naga’s freedom.

Carolyn tells Steve that she’ll resolve his legal problems if he agrees to retrieve an object from the Library: the token creating the magic barrier that is preventing them from entering. Carolyn calls the US President and convinces him to pardon Steve, using the government’s knowledge of Father’s capabilities (from past confrontations) as persuasion.

As Steve attempts to retrieve the token, he’s attacked by hundreds of dogs that Carolyn says are Father’s sentinels. She sends the lions to help him, but they end up trapped in a nearby house. Naga is badly wounded, and Steve risks his life to get her out of the Library and away from the dogs. Dresden stays behind to hold the dogs off as Steve and Naga escape.

The President summons Erwin to the Oval Office to share what he knows about Carolyn. Erwin tells the President that he believes Steve is innocent, and he urges caution in responding to Carolyn’s request for a pardon, believing that she’s setting a trap for the President.

In a flashback, Steve is 12 years old and coming out of a coma after a car crash in which both his parents died. He goes to live with his aunt, whose neglect leaves him angry and in need of money. In 9th grade, he begins burglarizing houses and becomes very good at it. A few years later, he and his best friend Jack rob a pharmacy, and Jack is caught and arrested. After three months in prison, Jack dies by suicide. Steve blames himself.

In the present, Steve finds a veterinarian and convinces her to treat Naga’s injuries. While Naga is in surgery, law enforcement surrounds the clinic. Erwin comes inside and convinces Steve to cooperate by providing information about Carolyn and the other librarians. Before he takes Steve into custody, he parks their car overlooking the scene of a strike team launching an attack on the house where the librarians are staying. It is a massacre, but David and Margaret survive.

Steve and Erwin are joined by Carolyn, and they witness the sun turning black and disappearing. Carolyn frees Steve from police custody, and they leave Erwin behind. While Carolyn explains the situation to Steve, they see a news report that David killed the President and blew up the Capitol Building.

A flashback reveals Carolyn at age 16. Jennifer brings her back to life after David rapes, tortures, and kills her. Carolyn is relieved that he didn’t see the book that she was hiding and learn the secret she died to protect. It’s a book from David’s catalog, forbidden to Carolyn, on concealing thoughts and intentions in mental warfare. The next book she studies in secret is about plotting and executing vengeful murder.

In the present, Steve takes shelter while Carolyn confronts David. She admits to killing Father and creating the barrier to the Library. She attacks David, and he nearly kills her in the ensuing battle, but Erwin shows up just in time and shoots David in the head. Carolyn suspends David outside of time just before he dies so that he’ll experience terror and agony for eternity. Then she and Steve enter the Library, bringing David’s almost lifeless body.

Steve learns that the Library, located inside an enormous pyramid, is its own universe, separate from his world. His universe is just a cloud of lights inside the library. Carolyn hangs David’s body to become the new sun for the Earth’s solar system because the old sun, hung by Father years before, has reverted to human form. That night, news reports on Earth feature scientists proposing theories on why the sun no longer gives off light, only heat.

A month later, Steve is still trying to make Carolyn understand how bad things are on Earth. Famine, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mass murders have people fearing that the end of the world is near. As a last resort, he begs her to have compassion and then dies by self-immolation. While grieving, Carolyn continues to study. She learns how to revisit a memory and discovers the truth about the day Father adopted the librarians. He’d planned for her to succeed him and set everything in place to lead to this exact outcome.

Carolyn’s new knowledge leads her to resurrect Father. He answers all her questions, gives her advice, and then says he’s leaving to create his own universe. Carolyn resurrects Steve and tells him she’s going to fix all the problems she caused on Earth, crediting his friendship and compassion with this decision. She lets David die permanently and turns Steve into the new, very bright sun.

Ten years later, Carolyn finds Erwin and urges him to work for her. He agrees, despite knowing she has powerful enemies, because she says she has a plan.