A review by theseasoul
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

|| 3.5 ⭐️ ||

This book has got to be sponsored by Google. My goodness.

We follow Clay Jannon, a young man who finds a job as one of three clerks in a 24-hour bookstore. The bookstore is unusual—it’s very tall and narrow, attracts only a few mysterious customers, and carries mostly very specialized books that are…not like your typical books. Clay starts out doing his job and nothing more, suppressing his curiosity about the books & the store’s purpose to the best of his ability. Gradually, however, he becomes suspicious and is determined to find out what’s going on behind the scenes. He enlists several of his friends to help with this mission; one that turns out to be more complex, or simple, than he originally anticipated.

I have really mixed feelings upon finishing this. It was a lighthearted and relatively cozy mystery, which I appreciated. It was easy, smooth and quick to read, a nice break from some of the heavier books I’ve read recently. I enjoyed several of the characters’ personalities, and some of the humour, but a lot of the humour in this book crossed the line into less-than-clean territory and was the opposite of funny to me. Some things could’ve easily been swapped out for far better humour.

The concept behind this book was really intriguing, although all the geeky programming talk lost me sometimes. I certainly didn’t expect computers and the internet…and Google…to play such a giant role in a book about a bookstore.

Oh, and the cover could be better too.

|| Content warnings ||
A handful of s-words. Two characters sleep together a couple times (fades out and no details are given). There’s a strip club located next door to the bookstore, and we are reminded of this frequently. Humour contains some sexual innuendos. One of Clay’s friends runs a company that programs and sells codes that construct the human body for movies and games—especially boobs.




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