Evil Librarian

by Michelle Knudsen

ISBN: 978076366083
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: September 9th 2014
Number of Pages: 352
Source: Local Library
Goodreads Summary: #EvilLibrarian He’s young. He’s hot. He’s also evil. He’s . . . the librarian.

When Cynthia Rothschild’s best friend, Annie, falls head over heels for the new high-school librarian, Cyn can totally see why. He’s really young and super cute and thinks Annie would make an excellent library monitor. But after meeting Mr. Gabriel, Cyn realizes something isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s the creepy look in the librarian’s eyes, or the weird feeling Cyn gets whenever she’s around him. Before long Cyn realizes that Mr. Gabriel is, in fact . . . a demon. Now, in addition to saving the school musical from technical disaster and trying not to make a fool of herself with her own hopeless crush, Cyn has to save her best friend from the clutches of the evil librarian, who also seems to be slowly sucking the life force out of the entire student body!

My Rating:  

Not the best book I've read in awhile. The main character, Cyn, has a crush on a guy named Ryan and her level of obsession with him is kind of freaky....

"I think if I ever touched him I'd just dissolve into a little pool of liquid bliss on the floor..." - Evil Librarian, 2 

She gets a little sidetracked when her best friend Annie finds an obsession of her own - the new librarian, Mr. Gabriel.  Cyn knows something is off about him and she turns out to be right:

"The tables have been cleared away against the bookselves, and a giant and disturbing shape has been drawn in chalk on the floor. Its unpleasant lines and angles form a kind of frame around the librarian, who seems to have sprouted large black bat-like wings. Also, long twisty black horns of some kind are now spiraling out of the top of his head."- Evil Librarian, 74 

Yeah, the new librarian is a demon who is slowly sucking the souls out of the student body and killing people whenever Cyn "gets in his way." (He knows that Cyn knows what he is and he can't use his demon powers on her because she is some sort of "super-roach" in his world....) He also wants to take Annie away to the Demon world where she will become his bride after he wins the battle to become the next Demon King.

Let's add to the weirdness and have Cyn be a techie for the high school production of Sweeney Todd (you might know this story from the movie starring Johnny Depp).  Don't worry about the cast Cyn, demons love this show and won't kill anyone until after. Uh ok??

And who does Cyn happen to pair up with and become her partner in destroying this demon? Of course, her crush (whom she has never spoken to prior to this)! She goes back and forth between being focused on coming up with a plan to deal with Mr. Gabriel and having these super weird moments where her body can't seem to stay away from Ryan:

"Let us go to him, they implore me. Release us to chase our destiny! My legs are a bit melodramatic, but I hear what they are saying. I could throw him down and take a big juicy bite of his absolute deliciousness." - Evil Librarian, 6

Seriously - this is one weird book. I liked the basic concept but the execution was done poorly.