That Night in the Library

April 15, 2024
Seven college students gather in a library basement to perform a Greek ritual that turns deadly, in librarian Jurczyk’s underheated sophomore effort (after The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections). At an unnamed Vermont university, student library assistant Davey Kebede invites six friends to join him beneath the William E. Woodend Rare Books Library to perform an overnight ceremony modeled on the Eleunisian Mysteries that’s designed to rid them of their fears of death. Not long after Davey and his cohorts are locked in for the night, the power surges, and one member of the group—PhD candidate Kip—disappears. When Davey and company find Kip, he’s covered in blood, and he draws his final breaths in front of them. Shocked, the survivors start pointing fingers, and their worst suspicions are confirmed when a second person is killed in an attempted dash for safety. With the library locked from the outside until morning, who will survive the night? Jurczyk conjures a suitably creepy atmosphere, but her characters are thinly drawn, and the twist ending is more deflating than clever. This misses the mark. Agent: Erin Clyburn, Howland Literary.