“[W]hat I wanted was ESCAPE, all caps, not just back in time but off to another world, preferably one where women rode dragons and flame-roasted the men who told them to smile. […] I’d ride off into the sunset in a flash of emerald-green wings, and the only thought in my head wouldn’t be Card declined. It would be Fly, fly, FLY.”

After losing her job, Alix contemplates her desire to escape into her favorite books. This moment invokes Books as a Space for Escape and Healing, with books providing an alternative to the pain of the real world. Additionally, her imagined escape provides the image of riding a green dragon, which foreshadows how the Librarian will turn into a dragon and Alix will enact the wish she describes here.

“Did they choose you or did you choose them? What I wanted to know was, What if no one ever chooses you? If it came down to you and Dead-Beat Tech Bro and your mom didn’t choose you; if it was you and an entire foster system full of lonely kids and not one perspective parent chose you; if it was between you and Two-Brain-Cell Taylor and your roommate didn’t choose you…what if it’s never you?”

Alix has crafted an internal narrative in which she is never chosen or prioritized by anyone, which forms the second major theme, The Power of Choice and Connection. For Alix, this quality of being chosen is crucial for her sense of self-worth and her need to be chosen by someone motivates many of her actions in the narrative. Her language here is also defensive, with her depicting the people she regards as “chosen” over her in explicitly negative and derogatory terms (“Dead-Beat Tech Bro”; “Two-Brain-Cell Taylor”), revealing how her insecurity often manifests in sharp comments and a need to put down others to avoid confronting her own hurt.

“[A] lifetime of reading about girls who get dropped into strange new worlds evidently didn’t prepare me adequately, because when I stepped through the door into mine, I didn’t say anything profound or poignant. I stopped dead and sputtered, ‘Holy shit.’”

The narrative actively engages with the genre of portal fantasy, which usually depicts young girls entering magical worlds. Alix is not only familiar with this genre but clearly an avid reader of it, based on her references to books like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Here, she plays with the expectations of the genre by noting that she does not react with poise when it happens to her.

“She smiled, and I saw it was a smile with an edge to it. A smile that had teeth, and not the pearly whites kind. ‘Think of a map, Miss Watson. Once you leave charted waters, there’s only the warning: Here There Be Dragons. It’s the same with a book, if you continue to live in it. The story will take its own direction, because just by living there you’ve brought change. You can stay…but be aware of the dragons.’”

This passage plants several seeds of foreshadowing. For instance, the Librarian warns that books are magical and have lives of their own, which make them unpredictable and potentially dangerous, like dragons. Alix repeats the phrase “Here There Be Dragons” (45) several times. Similarly, the description of the Librarian’s toothy smile reappears in the final chapters as well.

“What book would you choose? Because you’ve thought about it, right? Everyone with a library card has daydreamed along those lines at some point. Except when it becomes real, something you can do and not just daydream about, you realize the catch: most of the books you love aren’t peaceful places. You love them because of the drama, the gore, the heartbreak…But how many of us want to live with that kind of drama, gore, and heartbreak?”

Alix reflects on the difficult decision of choosing which book to enter. She addresses the reader and speculates that many have already thought about this question. This again highlights the popularity of using books as a form of escape from the real world. However, she notes that imagining a book world as a hypothetical that will never happen is much different from the reality of living in a fantasy world filled with danger.

“A good Goldilocks book, I thought: adventurous, but everybody comes through unscathed. I didn’t see myself staying in Jules Verne Land forever, but that was all right: the Librarian said I could try up to three books, and until I found my forever book, I wanted an adventure.”

Extending the logic of the previous passage, Alix uses the metaphor of the goldilocks zone, used by scientists when describing potentially inhabitable planets, to categorize book worlds that will be adventurous but safe. She labels Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days such a book and decides it will be a safe first choice.

“The Library offers sanctuary to people who are desperate, who have nowhere else to go but between the pages. Quite often that means they are fleeing from something—or someone. How many bruised, battered, and broken people over the decades do you think I’ve assisted into book worlds where their abusers can’t find them?”

The Librarian explains the potential dangers of outsiders gaining access to the Astral Library, reminding Alix that the Patrons living in book worlds are hiding for a good reason. This passage contributes to the theme of Books as a Space for Escape and Healing by underscoring the genuine necessity of such an escape for those who have experienced abuse, neglect, and trauma in the real world.

“‘And I imagine you’re seeing yourself as the heroine in this scenario?’ The Librarian winged a devastating eyebrow upward.

‘No, I see myself as a survivor. I have no problem being the sidekick rather than heroine, or maybe the plucky comic relief, but I want to get out alive and that means stick with you.’”

Previously, Alix imagined she might be a hero invited into the Astral Library to fulfill some kind of quest. The Librarian once again references that assumption here, implying that Alix is silly for entertaining such an idea. Though Alix refutes this claim and says she is content to be a sidekick, her internal monologues throughout the novel indicate that this is not true. She still hopes that she will prove to be a “Chosen One,” contributing to the theme of The Power of Choice and Connection. Such moments also introduce a metatextual element into the text, as Alix actually is the hero of The Astral Library.

“‘Don’t sell your soul to the Library, Alix. It’s nothing but a pretty space. It’s not going to look after you, so look out for yourself.’

‘Is that what you’re doing?’

‘Yes,’ she said without hesitation. ‘I’d let that entire place burn down, and this one too, if it meant keeping me safe from Ty.’”

The Patron, Sarah Hudson, is one of the primary examples of the kinds of people who need the safety and healing of the book worlds most. Her conversation with Alix here demonstrates the way that her past trauma has made her hyper-focused on her own safety and survival. This moment also foreshadows Alix’s later suspicion that Sarah has betrayed her to the Library Board.

“Like any foster kid I’d had The Dream: the fantasy that whatever loser parent threw you to the mercies of the system, they’d finally clear their act up […] and swoop back into your life with hugs and apologies, home-cooked meals and parent-teacher conferences and good-night kisses, forever and ever amen. For me that dream had been dead a long time.”

Alix reflects on her continuing hope that her mother will return one day. This dream stems from her sense of abandonment and her desire to be chosen. Though she claims that this dream has been “dead a long time” (135), it still motivates her decisions, such as when she is tricked by the fake letter from her mother in Chapter 17.

“[I]t was with the fierce smile of a long dream wakened that I gathered my shredded skirts and scrambled (a little girl scrambled, a little girl whose mother had left her behind with a crumpled bumper sticker and a paperback book and a dream of all-capital-letters ESCAPE) onto the dragon’s back. I hung on for dear life as those wings beat on either side and the Librarian launched into the air, endless moors falling away beneath us as I shouted, ‘Fly, fly, FLY!’”

In this scene, the Librarian transforms into a dragon, recalling previous references to dragons. Additionally, the image of Alix climbing onto her back and shouting directly mirrors Alix’s earlier childhood dream of riding a dragon, first described in Chapter 1 (See Quote #2). This is one of several examples of the way the narrative circles back to the opening scenes and also demonstrates the Library’s ability to heal pieces of Alix’s childhood trauma by fulfilling her dreams.

“‘I give you slavery, Japanese internment, colonization, and chemical castration. All, at some point, legal and accepted—and how? Because a lot of men claimed the right to sit around a table and bring exceptionally evil things into practice, while pretending to be polite, civilized, and more human beings. Boards, committees, legislatures’—Beau’s hand encompassed all of them, and more—‘can be the ultimate gaslighters and normalizers of the inhumane.’”

Beau’s dialogue here perfectly encapsulates the central argument of the third major theme, The Weaponization of Bureaucracy. He argues that those in power often use bureaucracy as a polite veneer to enable, enact, or justify cruelty and injustice. He provides several real-world examples of such injustices that have been enacted by legal means in the US.

“Look, I’m not equipped to be the Chosen One in any novel. […] But I am crammed with book trivia up to my goddamn ears, and if the Library Board wants to send their simulacra thugs after me, I can keep shoving ‘em in front of Daisy Buchanan’s roadster, or off Huck Finn’s raft into the Mississippi, or into the mouth of the French guns in War and Peace. I can do that as long as the Librarian needs me to, until she can heal up and take on the Board.”

Alix explicitly references the Chosen One archetype to highlight the ways she believes she is lacking, once again revealing her low self-esteem, which stems largely from her belief that she will never be valued by other people. She thus contributes to the theme of The Power of Choice and Connection. However, she also highlights her ability to remember vast amounts of literature, a skill that is uniquely appropriate for their needs. This suggests that her experiences are beginning to heal her sense of self and give her new confidence.

“What a miraculous thing a book was, when you stopped to think about it: whole worlds springing to life from nothing more than squiggles on a page.”

Alix’s reflection here recalls the central point of the novel, which is a celebration of the magic of books. She focuses on the ability of books to contain “whole worlds” where readers can escape their lives, both figuratively and literally, reflecting Books as a Space for Escape and Healing.

“It was handwritten in a breathless slantwise cursive, and I knew that writing like the back of my hand. I’d seen it so many times when I was a kid: on grocery lists, on day planners, on library cards. On that last birthday card I’d received at thirteen, saying, See you soon!”

Alix receives a letter just after Beau’s departure, which appears to be from her mother. This moment builds directly from the various sightings of Alix’s mother throughout the book worlds, each of which has proven to be false. Though Alix should realize that this is another trick from the Library Board, her hope for her mother’s return and her desire to be chosen make her susceptible to the trick, luring her out of the Astral Library.

“No fanatical gleam in her eye; no grand ideology propelling her down this lunatic path. Just a rule enforcer with a clipboard. Well, any dictatorial movement needs plenty of those—can’t get it all done with frothing fanatics, after all. Gotta have the ones with their well-organized clipboards who say afterward, I was just doing my job.”

During Alix’s first conversation with Elizabeth, now revealed to be the President of the Library Board, Alix realizes that the Board represents a subtle but dangerous kind of oppression. The Board exemplifies The Weaponization of Bureaucracy because they are rules enforcers who operate within the system to separate themselves from the consequences of their actions and the damage they do.

“A million tragedies and triumphs stretching to infinity, a million what-might-have-beens, a million beginnings and a million endings—but all of them still stories. Stories on parchment, on rice paper, on scraped unborn-calf skin vellum; stories scripted into pixels or stitched into silk or incised in stone by chisels. All stories, regardless of form, and every one of them alive.”

Alix again reflects on the magic of books, not only those in the Astral Library, but all books. Though not all books move like those in the Library, she realizes that all stories, in any form, contain the same life and potential to provide sanctuary, safety, comfort, and inspiration to those who enter them, literally or figuratively.

“‘Maybe you didn’t choose me. Maybe you wouldn’t ever have chosen me. Maybe I don’t belong in the Astral Library, not really.’ A deep breath. ‘But even if you didn’t choose me—I choose you.’

And my heart rang like a bell as the screen lock dissolved with the message Full Librarian access granted and the Astral Library gave up its secrets.”

Alix’s struggle with her desire to be chosen reaches its climax, forming a key turning point in her character arc as she changes her attitude towards The Power of Choice and Connection. Instead of worrying about who chooses her, Alix now realizes that what matters is what she chooses for herself. Once she consciously chooses the role of the Library’s champion, the Library accepts her fully.

“I did not move to greet my erstwhile boss when she descended the stairs. I waited while she came to me, half a dozen suits trailing in her wake, and I stared her straight in the face. I did not look like some spineless loser with thirty-six measly dollars in her checking account. I did not look like a drama queen. I just looked like a queen—like I ruled this domain and everything in it.”

To prepare for her final battle with the Board, Alix wears a “book dress” provided by Beau. The dress gives Alix a new sense of authority as she faces Elizabeth, contributing to the motif of fashion as a source of identity. This moment neatly combines fashion with books as a space of healing, as it is specifically a book dress, in a library filled with books that have helped Alix heal from her childhood traumas, that confer this sense of power.

“‘Of course we’re committed to protecting the children. Which is why I feel we should turn our attention to this list of books deemed inappropriate for underage readers.’ Behind those thick glasses, a feverish gleam was lighting up Darla’s eyes. Book banner, I thought. Or maybe book burner.”

The character of Darla, one of the Board members, is a flat caricature of bureaucratic oppression. She uses the call to “protect children” as an excuse or shield to cover the authoritarian attitude of controlling what knowledge individuals can access. Alix labels her a “book burner,” emphasizing how bureaucracy’s abuses can sometimes escalate to more serious forms of oppression, censorship, and control.

“A library—and I mean any library, even the most roach-infested underfunded branch in the worst part of the worst town you can imagine—is a sanctuary. It’s one of the only places left where you can walk through the doors and draw breath and stay, without needing to buy something, without having to justify your presence.”

Alix makes a passionate plea for the value of libraries as sanctuaries, highlighting the symbolic power of libraries and books in general to provide safety and comfort to all without judgment or the need to justify one’s existence. This role relates to Books as a Space for Escape and Healing, but also expands more broadly to the argument for the importance of libraries as third spaces that foster community and social connections.

“Part of me wanted to be sick, to say, I didn’t want that to happen. But the books didn’t care what I wanted. They simply defended themselves when threatened. This was the Astral Library, and here there be dragons.”

Following the uprising of the books in the Library, who literally attack and eat the Board members, Alix regrets that violence was necessary. However, calling back to the Librarian’s warning about the unpredictable power of books, she acknowledges that even sanctuaries have a right to defend themselves when threatened. That power is also part of the value of books.

“When I first entered the Astral Library I’d wanted to dive headlong into a book and never come out—leave my entire disappointing world behind me forever. Now I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t want one book world; I wanted all of them. I didn’t want to leave my world behind either.”

Contributing to the theme of Books as a Space for Escape and Healing, Alix now balances her desire to live inside books with her desire to stay connected to the real world. Previously, Alix wanted only to hide inside the book worlds forever. Now, however, her adventures both in the book worlds and the Astral Library have helped her to heal from her past experiences, recognize her own worth, and see the potential available in the real world.