Alcatraz versus the Dark Talent

This book is the “final” book of the series. It follows Alcatraz as he breaks into the Highbrary, the largest library. It is settled in Washington and is a ginormous cave under the city. In this book Alcatraz tries to prove us that he is a coward.

Alcatraz in a suit

Spoiler warning for Alcatraz versus the Dark Talent

This book has a different feel than the previous books. I don’t know if this is because this is the only first physical book I read that has pictures, the previous books I’ve read were ones with physical copies that had no pictures. The books 1-4 that I read look like this:

Introduction

The book is kind of like the other books for the most part. Except at the end, and MAJOR SPOILERS here. If you haven’t read the book, read it now or the book is spoiled. The book is about infiltrating the Highbrary because after the events in the last book, the Librarians are more determined to take over the entirety of the Free Kingdoms now than ever. We meet a new Smedry, Dif. He is very energetic and kind of overexcited for everything. Constantly exaggerating everything like things that go along the lines of: “Are we going with nothing but a bag of twigs and save the day?”. At the end of the book it is revealed, and SPOILER WARNING, that Dif is not an actual Smedry. Dif is Bibloden, the original creator of the Librarians, he knew his plan would take a while to form so he went into a sleep until just a few years ago when he infiltrated the Smedry family.

The Altar of Encyplopedias

After this revelation Bibloden figures out how to destroy the Free Kingdoms once and for all. He wants to use Attica’s research to do something. To achieve this we finally get the thing we were promised at the very beginning of book one: Alcatraz, tied to an altar of outdated encyclopedias about to be sacrificed by a cult of Evil Librarians. The lens they want to forge is way more powerful if the subject is willing to be sacrificed so Bibloden forces Alcatraz and his father to choose. His father sacrifices himself while Alcatraz says: “Take him!”, which is understandable and it proves pretty well how he is a coward. But I think that it is something that most thirteen-year-old boys would choose. Instead of Alcatraz, his father gets sacrificed while Alcatraz can hear and can see everything. The book ends with that, a crushing defeat. His father dead, Bibloden about to complete his evil plan. And I forgot to mention, Grandpa Smedry dead as well, shot by Bibloden after he learned the Talents didn’t work anymore.

Reveal

I mentioned in the intro that this is the “final” book, I said it like this because there is one more book. One written by Bastille instead of by Alcatraz, released in 2022 so pretty recently. It is called Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians and is foreshadowed in this book with a letter at the end of the book. Again, a great book and definitely recommend reading it, if you haven’t however, why are you here? I spoiled the entire book for you, you could have avoided that. You should know better, please read the last page of each of the previous books to get passive-aggressivily insulted by Alcatraz.

Letter by Bastille

Final Thoughts

This book was amazing, the first book that does not have a happy ending. It is a very crushing ending and the build up is also great. You can feel the shame of Alcatraz’s choice through the pages. It is crazy that this is where Alcatraz stops because after this they try to stop Bibloden and, since Alcatraz is writing these books, they succeed.