Reviews

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

daijahsbookworld's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book genuienly was so weird and fun. i really just had such a good time reading this book. not only is this just like a weird fun book, but it also has something to say. it deals with power and greed and even just a woman who is willing to do anything for her husband who has gotten a tragic diagnosis.

gatonolivro's review against another edition

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

5.0

jordreads's review against another edition

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

3.75

sainteve's review against another edition

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5.0

Fuck, yes.

bethanyangharads's review against another edition

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5.0

If you want a quirky book about books, power, and dark sex magic then look no further. That is, unless you’re a minor, because yep I said SEX magic and this book is not for children. To summarise, Lily (our MC) is a bookseller. One day, she was approached by a fellow book seller saying he'd give her a cut if she managed to get any leads on a one in three novel called ‘The Book of the Most Precious Substance’ (meta, I know). That night, he was murdered. So Lily, desperate for cash, decides to try to find the book herself - with some help from a love interest/friend/sex magic partner.

This book was the most perfect balance of wacky, fun, and thrilling. Basically, Lily and her partner follow a bunch of obscure leads to hunt down The Book. Along the way, they learn about the sex magic The Book talks about, and dabble in it themselves. I don’t feel like I’m going to be able to explain the ‘wackiness’ in this novel, without spoiling any major elements, but just know there are definite wtf moments.

Plot and pace wise, I think Gran (the author) did a brilliant job at structuring the novel in a way that slowly revealed the truth of Lily’s predicament, whilst also making sure the hunt for the novel was the main focus. Sometimes I find these kind of quest-like novels can be hard to keep interesting due to an obvious ending, but Gran managed to keep me guessing right to the end.

I think this book is a great example of how a novel can be fun AND complex. The triggers in this novel include murder, kidnapping, and some BDSM that goes too far.

brittbat's review against another edition

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Despite the hype The Book of the Most Precious Substance received in the little book community I'm a part of, I was less than enthusiastic about reading it for a long time, because I thought, "Surely that means jizz, right?" And I was unsure of my capacity for reading a book all about people collecting jizz.

But I loved Sara Gran's demonic possession book Come Closer, and I'm reading all sorts of things I might have been squeamish about at other times of my life, and the audiobook is only 8.5 hours, so I figured why not. Let's read the magical jizz book.

Well, to my surprise, it's actually the magical squirt book. And it's also quite good.

Or at least, I thought it was quite good. It is chock full of weird, rich people doing weird, rich people sex things, which appealed to the sensibilities that led me to read Story of O and Venus in Furs a handful of years ago. There is also a sort of heightened sensuality permeating the text that often takes the form of descriptions of food, and although I think it serves to illustrate the overall voluptuousness that the narrator's life takes on, I can see why some readers got tired of hearing about all the fancy meals our intrepid booksellers were eating in between fucks.

But I don't know, I just got really sucked into it. All of the characters have something wrong with them, some disappointment or loss or greed that creates an emptiness in them that they are compelled to fill, and so they make bad decisions that are fascinating to read about. Lily is somehow relatable while also being completely unrelatable, moving through a world of money and power that is completely foreign to me, but her practical concerns about things like medical bills ground her.

And ugh, she should have just stayed with the lesbian BDSM witches!!

Overall a quietly creepy, Faustian read, erotic but not terribly sexy, good for people who like books about books.

ashleightammyreads's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5 stars - I really enjoyed the descriptiveness of this book in terms of the places, people and even the food, there were some beautiful prose and touching parts to it, but the ending didn’t feel like an ending? The story didn’t feel it had wrapped up at all, I was looking for more pages once I finished. A wee bit disappointing but up until the end I had been liking it !

crazyherblady's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

kbrooke's review against another edition

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3.0

2.5 Strong start but a meandering middle kills the potential.

wombatwolf's review against another edition

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1.0

To be fair, this is absolutely not a book I should have been reading, but also, the ending is objectively awful.