Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

I had a really fun time reading this book and pretty much raced through it. It reminds me a lot of a Scarlett Thomas novel, although it doesn‰ЫЄt embrace actual magical things or more difficult-to-grasp concepts like she often does, and it was written to be more accessible (e.g. than The End of Mr. Y) and less explain-y (e.g. than PopCo). But it had a similar upbeat, optimistic, friendly, fun, engaging tone – brightly coloured and clearly delineated, if you can say such a thing about a novel. It loves old things and it loves new things and wants you to love it all too.

The book‰ЫЄs final message, or what I took to be its final message, was disappointing – have friends, make connections, and take advantage of them to help you solve mysteries and save the world. It‰ЫЄs a cute message but so much – I don‰ЫЄt know, smaller, less significant than it was building up to be? I mean, maybe it‰ЫЄs a revelation of truth for some people, and it worked with the quest structure of the story, but it didn‰ЫЄt work for me. It‰ЫЄs such a common thing in popular culture to find a family in your friends and whatever but I don‰ЫЄt know, I feel kind of weird in a world that suggests all your friends must be smart and talented and able to contribute toward your personal goals in life, like they‰ЫЄre some sort of curated collection of beings. Which is all I‰ЫЄm going to say about that because I know there are people who actually don‰ЫЄt have family and so friends truly are everything to them, and obviously you can pick your friends but not your family and there are some truly horrible people out there who are someone‰ЫЄs family, and seriously, bless them. So yeah.

And it was really weird to read about a cute, quirky, smart woman named Kat who lives in San Francisco because that describes my sister-in-law perfectly! Very weird.