El Pais called The Library of Unrequited Love "a thrilling soliloquy, an exciting breath of love." The librarian, a single, middle-aged woman, a sharply opinionated and thoughtful bookworm, whose ex-boyfriend left her for another woman, discovers one morning a patron who has been locked in over night.

Against her quiet nature, she starts to talk to him, what results is a soliloquy of frustrations, observations, and anguish, covering—with wit, pathos, and passion—history, literature, the Dewey Decimal System, love, and loneliness, as well as revealing her unrequited passion for a quiet student-researcher named Martin, whose studiousness, grace, and "beautiful neck" strikes her.

Divry's prose is seamless—never laborious—both funny and poignant. The book's compactness offers an immersive reading experience that touches universal emotional experiences from the perspective of a bookworm.