Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is a tale of immortality, but not in the fantastical way, rather in the literary way, and it’s one worth checking out. Snappy writing and pop culture references are fun, but it’s the mystery (not the most gripping tale of suspense) that keeps you reading because solving it means success for characters you’ve come to love.
Would I recommend it? Yes, I would. It’s a perfect beach or sit by the fire on a drizzly Sunday afternoon type read. You’ll walk away happy to have spent some time in this world.
What I liked about it:
- The voice! It’s smart, modern, funny.
- There’s great respect here between the characters and I really liked that. Clay, the main character, while he thinks some of the customers are odd, he treats them with respect and growing affection.
- Clay is appreciative of having a job, and likes his mysterious boss. More than that, Mr. Penumbra likes Clay and encourages him.
- The search for knowledge in books juxtaposed with the power of Google and the Big Box is bittersweet. Clay’s computer program does in a merely days what a dedicated group of bookstore patrons work years to accomplish. It leaves these patrons stunned and at a loss, like the rug has been pulled out from under them. Knowing what he’s done even though he doesn’t understand it, Clay handles these people with kindness.
- I fell in love with Mr. Penumbra and this crazy bookstore and it was hard not to look at Kat and all her computer power as the big bad wolf. Clay’s creation doesn’t seem so bad since he struggled with it and learned in the process. Kat just hits a button and has all these Estonians working for her – where’s the success or satisfaction in that?
- There’s an interesting point where Clay observes Kat’s amazement at the size and complexity of New York City. He deduces that for a girl obsessed with the outer limits of human potential and the idea of immortality, she hasn’t ventured far from home. She dreams big but charges into the unknown with little true world experience, an interesting commentary on our obsession of looking down at a screen and not up at the world?
- Making the mystery a quest to solve, invoking the middle school RPG personas, leading to the whole, “I’ve waiting my entire life to walk down a secret passageway behind a bookshelf,” was brilliant!
- The Reading Room – totally cool!
What distracted me:
- While I enjoyed the pop culture references, there were a lot of them and sometimes they came right on top of another.
What I would consider before giving this to my kid:
- First, this is not a YA novel and quite frankly, I’m not sure a younger YA would like it. One character makes his living off of programming breasts for video games and films. The main character has sex with his girlfriend but it’s off camera so to speak. The bookstore is next door to a strip club which you never enter, however, the Clay uses their wiFi. To get the pop culture references and because the story is about careers/quests of post-college age/grad school age 20 somethingers, I’d say older 9th/10th grade on up.
Last Thoughts
I would visit Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore in a heartbeat – perhaps you should, too.