Waiting on Wednesday (25): The Archived

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. Visit Breaking The Spine to see more entries!

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

 The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Release Date: January 22nd 2013 by Hyperion 

 Format: Hardcover

Goodreads Summary: 

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Reasons I want to read & own this book: 

1. The cover. I just think that it is amazeballs. I love the blue and how maybe the girl on the cover is a ghost and the key is the key to unlock something about her. It just has a certain calm eeriness/intrigue to it, that I think is quite cool.

2. The synopsis. Oh my word, you guys. I just can't quit geeking out over the clever bookish references that are worked into the world that this book is gonna present to it's readers. The dead are on shelves as if they were books and they're called histories. Get it, as in every person has a story to them. Ooooo, I just can't with all the awesomeness in that synopsis.

3. The genre. A dystopian/paranormal book that is technically about the afterlife, whatttt? Mind blown! Usually dystopian books are about societies that have these systems of control that are set to 'supposedly' set order amongst living societies and people. But in this book, oh no, they are trying to control the dead with a super strict system of rules. Even dead people can't catch a break. Now if that is not a badass concept, I don't know what is!

 What do you guys think? :)