The Borrower

"The Borrower" by Rebecca Makkai was disappointing. It was just kind of dumb. It had a good premise: a children's librarian named Lucy Hull comes into work one morning and finds ten year old Ian Drake, one of her favorite little readers, camped out in the library after having run away from home. Even though he is only 10, Ian's parents think he might be gay so they have been sending him to an extremist preacher to "fix" him, and it's making Ian unhappy. Rather than take him back to his parents or calling the police, Lucy packs Ian in the car and takes off, letting Ian lead the way by giving her directions. They spend 10 days on the road, not doing much of anything. She lost me after she decided to take off with Ian. Look, I understand if you don't agree with the way someone is raising their kids but really, it's not your call. Call social services to investigate if you think the kid is being injured or abused, but don't kidnap them. Lucy's character just made all librarians look like illogical morons. Moral of the story: much like how not all fiction set in Las Vegas is awesome, I must remember that not all books featuring librarians will be awesome, either.