Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
by Robin Sloan
“I trusted you!” I screamed as I chucked the book across the room. Its spine cracked against the opposite wall and fluttered to the grounded like a wounded moth, defeated. My act of violence was not uncalled for, this book proved to be sneaky, unreliable and worst of all misleading. In the beginning, I was really enjoying this book. I liked it for two reasons, the premise and the main character. As hinted by the title, this book is about a bookstore, a detail that automatically appeals to me. In the past, whenever I find a book about books I know it was written for the people, like me, who love books the most. This book about books begins with comical Clay Jannon looking for a job and eventually finding one at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. He soon discovers that this particular bookstore is quite out-of-the-ordinary. As he mans the front desk during the twilight hours of the night he rarely sees any customs, but out of the customers he does interact with he notices two very different groups. Some people come into the small bookstore to find an regular book…typical, but then there are the strange older people that come in looking to borrow something from the furthest books in the back, the “waybacklist” that are written in some kind of strange code. Clay tries to ignore these oddities and continue with his work, but his curiosity, along with some of his friends and confidants, has been ignited. See? This was the hook that got me all excited. With a premise like that I felt this book had potential. I was sure that as I read on, the plot would develop into a spectacular story. It. Did. Not. I was duped by the humorous voice of the first person protagonist Clay. He appeared to be a wonderfully sarcastic character who was a bit of a nerd. Not to mention his roommates Matt and Ashley whose characters intrigued me when they were briefly touched on within the first seventy pages and then never again. Robin Sloan (thou weedy idle-headed moldwarp!) don’t introduce me to awesome characters then snuff them out. Even Clay’s clever narration and personality was extinguished as soon as the plot kicked in. Oh yes, that plot. You had a good idea going for a while, then it crumbled into ash like a burned book. The focus of this plot was all over the place. There was a teeny bit of a theme explored, computers vs books, that involved Clay the bookstore clerk and Kat, a Google employee. These two characters were brought together to explore this debate, but it was always one-sided. The book remained dull even when it was revealed that the customers who borrowed books from the “waybacklist” were part of a cult. I apologize for my rant, but I was hooked into this book only to find a story without real conflict, consistency or substance. So watch out because, “It’s a trap!”
