Reviews

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

bookph1le's review against another edition

3.0

I don't quite know what to make of this book. I neither really liked it nor disliked it. I found a lot of the survival narrative really compelling, but I expected science fiction and would classify this book more as fantasy. The problem is that it took me a while to figure out it was more fantasy than sci-fi, which means I thought the book was really, really weird until I got more of a feel for what was going on. I also thought the beginning was confusing, and it took me getting a good chunk of the book under my belt before I understood what the deal with the shadowless was.

cindyrene_'s review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

the_wandering_library's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

readingonthefly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Every time I paused I forgot why I wanted to listen to this book. But every time I hit play, I remembered why I wanted to listen until about 50%. I was enjoying it, but it is just unnecessarily long. Why is this 17 hours long?? I listened at 2.2x and it was still too long. It reminded me of The Walking Dead and Camp Zero mixed together. 

The first half was really interesting, I was following the descriptions and imagining what it looked like, especially it taking place in Virginia/DC!! Then we hit the halfway point and it just seemed so different. We had magical battles, extra side stuff that was just fluff and not necessary, and the loss/regaining of shadows that just totally lost me. 

It sounded really interesting and I really enjoyed the first half, but I definitely didn’t like it more than The Cartographers. Still excited to read All This and More though!

dearestnature's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

emilyeliz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

mskog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

A really enjoyable and challenging read. For me, the book evolved substantially about halfway through.

In the first half in particular, the worldbuilding sets up a lot of thematic work for the reader to unpack. The idea of people everywhere randomly and completely losing all of their memories gives kind of a pandemic/zombie story as a vehicle for exploring what memories really mean, their role in constructing and maintaining identity internally and externally, how we construct reality, and the entire notion of having any two of a past/present/future but not the third. There's a lot of work around grief, particularly in a situation where it's drawn out, and the actual point of <i>loss</i> is unclear. Lots of easy if imperfect analogies to Alzheimer's care.

The author describes herself as a pants-er rather than a plotter, and you can definitely see that in the second half. While the first half feels like a lot of dense thematic work in the created world and the early interactions characters have, later on plot elements dominate, so a point about an underlying theme takes more and more plot time to execute. In particular, the last 25% or so is pretty much just an enjoyable read about the choices these characters make in this world, with only a few real message-driven elements. This forced me to rethink how I went about engaging the text, so it was still enjoyable, but I had to take a moment for that. I don't think this is something every reader has to do or will necessarily experience, but for me, the book was on the edge of a 5* until the last quarter (ending aside, of course), which I think for some readers will be their favorite part.

I really appreciated that the book

did not attempt to explain why the phenomenon happened, or how it actually spread. It feels like a complete text without any of that, and going into that with serious depth I think would really risk losing focus in a way that already was becoming a bit of an issue later on in the book.

I'm left with a lot of questions that I am asking myself. 

What would be the last memory you would hold on to, even after you forgot who you were?

electrosailor's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jenhurst's review against another edition

3.0

I think this was a decent enough post apocalyptic book with the idea of losing your shadow and then memories, but I don’t think it’s particularly memorable

literary_liv's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75