The Book of Speculation

This isn't the normal type of book that I read, however, this book got its hooks in me and I found it so interesting, even though nothing much really happens in it. I just love the magical realism and the connections with family and the history of it all. A great book, but not for everyone.

It's okay. Just okay. The flashbacks to the carnival are the best sections, for a LOT of reasons, the biggest one being that MOST of the characters in those sections are likable. The main character in the present-day plot unfortunately is not, and neither is his sister that he's so worried about. The big twist of the book (That the curse isn't affecting women in his family, but anyone who takes on the "mermaid" carnival role, meaning it can affect male water performers as well, and Simon becomes the curse target once he joins his sister's troupe) is guessable when you're about 1/3 of the way through. So after that point, the mystery becomes “how do all the pieces fit together?”

The carnival flashbacks were a lot of fun, though, and enough to make me say this is just “okay.” But if you want a mystery to keep you guessing, this is not it.

I am uncomfortable with the way that differing mental states are portrayed. I'm not sure if it is ‘mental illness' or ‘neurodiverse' that is being portrayed, but it feels a little voyeuristic. The grief portrayal seems like it could be accurate, but it is extra dramatized. So the story is kind of interesting, but the drama was distracting.

Honestly, I couldn't get past the first chapter. The story never engaged me, and the narrator already seemed like a marytr. 😔

I ended up not loving this. I liked it very much, and, at some points it got a bit tedious. I liked the traveling carnival bit better. I couldn't get behind Enola at all, she just came off as a brat to me. And Simon, so indecisive. Honestly.
Elements of the story were amazing: the librarian living in a crumbling house by the sea, the carnival, the curse, the “mermaids”. What drug down the story, for me, was the love story (seriously, who cares?), the tarot cards, and the just general ennui of so many of the characters. Yay to the Electric Boy for having a personality and actually caring about something and someone.
Overall, it's readable and interesting.

“We would bury ourselves in books until flesh and paper became one and ink and blood at last ran together.”
I read this book for a book club at my school, and I have to admit that when I first picked it up, it sounded pretty strange. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not because it might be just too weird and out there. While it definitely was not a normal book, it wasn't at all strange in a bad way. It reminded me a lot of The Night Circus in how there were multiple stories of past and present woven together to form this larger tale, and I really loved it. Each character was so unique and well-developed and had amazing personalities that made them stand out. I also loved that the main character was a librarian and bibliophile. I highlighted so many quotes about books throughout like the one above that I found really wonderful. This book was beautiful and well-written; it was strange but in the best way possible. How often do you read books about a curse on a family of circus “mermaids” that jumps back and forth between the family's present generation and their great-great grandparents? It would be difficult to explain this book to anyone simply, especially without making it sound too strange, but I can say that it is a remarkable book that is definitely worth reading.

Could have been good, but felt it's playing off the carnival/magician theme that has been circulating. Also the “I'm going to include a book restorer because anyone who's reading this book must love books. therefore they'll love my book” theme. groans

Librarians, mermaids, traveling circuses and a touch of the supernatural make this an enjoyable read. I admit, I found the main character, Simon Watson, to be a pretty lame example of a reference librarian, his supposed profession. He kept asking his circulation colleague to do his research for him, when every reference librarian I know would have been elbowing people out of the way to get started on the research themselves. However, Simon Watson is an exasperating character in other ways too, so maybe this was just another one of his flaws.

The main idea of the book is that Simon becomes aware, through an old book sent to him out of the blue by an antiquarian book dealer, that his family's troubles go back much further than his and his parents' generations, and that they are part of an alarming pattern. The process of uncovering the pattern and discovering the source of his family's troubles make this a suspenseful mystery. A substantial part of the book also takes place in an 18th century American traveling circus. The story telling in these chapters is excellent–they were my favorite part of the book.

I read this in long stretches on the couch over my Christmas vacation, and I heartily recommend.

3.5 Stars. This book had a lot of elements that I liked and told a fresh, unique tale. However, the characters and story never really captivated me like it seemed to do with other readers.