Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore book review

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
on October 2, 2012
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 288
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The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, but after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything; instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends, but when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond its walls.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore was completely different to what I was expecting and not altogether in a good way either. I usually love a good book about a bookstore and quirky readers and a quest but for me this just felt a little bland and it felt hard going in some places and I found myself skimming through bits. I think the premise of this book was really interesting but in terms of keeping me interested, it fell short. I would have loved to learn more about the old shop and for that to have been the main focus but I feel as though it was overshadowed by all the nerd speak which did nothing for me. I wish I could say I have found a new favourite but this was just mediocre at best and I won’t be reading the other book in the series.

My major problem with Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore was that the characters were so unbelievably boring, I mean they were beyond irritating and not one of them had a spark of individuality. The only one that was remotely interesting was Mr. Penumbra himself but the part he played in the story was so ridiculously short that it didn’t make up for the lacking in the others which was a shame. The main character Clay was utterly bland, there was no ambition and no drive to him at all and he seemed to walk around in a constant state of daydream. It was irritating. I found his curiosity to be bizarre and it felt as though the computers in this story actually took all the fun out of everything. The side characters were mainly used as pawns and they were so 2 dimensional I struggled to connect with any of them and that was without the constant reference to boobs and the girl being the perfect nerd. They were all so superficial and it definitely rubbed me up the wrong way.

The best bits of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore was definitely when the store was being described, it was such a wonderfully unique store and I wish we had been able to spend more of the store exploring every inch and figuring out it’s secrets. I also loved meeting the other novices, I thought they were so interesting and definitely didn’t get enough of the story to themselves.

Unsurprisingly for me the worst bits of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore was just how bland the story turned into. I really wished it had stayed a more traditional quest story and there was less computers and technology spread throughout it. This book had SO much potential to be better than what it was and it feels as though it was wasted on computers and nerds.

Nope. I didn’t love this one and I definitely won’t be picking up the prequel. I wish there had been more character development and the mystery but overall I could have skipped through most of this and still figured out what was going on.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!