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A review by savvystory
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
3.0
It kind of feels like this book might be a personal fantasy of Robin Sloan’s. It’s a world where there are no down sides to Google, a solution is always one Reddit thread away, and your BFF runs a business focused on perfectly simulating *boobs* in video games. Reading it felt like listening to a passionate nerd breathlessly retell a story while leaving no space for clarifying questions. You can tell they’re earnestly excited, and there’s something charming about that.
-100 points for the scene where boob startup BFF keeps pestering the knitting lady about how boobs in sweaters are the pinnacle of boobs in clothes. Another -200 points for the throwaway references to the women in arts foundation as a convenient tax shelter that doesn’t give out all that many grants.
(Spoilers ahead)
Casual sexism aside, it was also hard to follow the meaning of different events in the mystery as they came up. I wondered, why is it significant they solved the founder’s puzzle? Was that the ultimate puzzle or a stepping stone? I also couldn’t follow the logic of all these encrypted books then being arranged on shelves to be a bigger puzzle. Did Penumbra do that? How does it add to the whole immortality idea? Why do they think decoding Manutius will unlock immortality?
-100 points for the scene where boob startup BFF keeps pestering the knitting lady about how boobs in sweaters are the pinnacle of boobs in clothes. Another -200 points for the throwaway references to the women in arts foundation as a convenient tax shelter that doesn’t give out all that many grants.
(Spoilers ahead)
Casual sexism aside, it was also hard to follow the meaning of different events in the mystery as they came up. I wondered, why is it significant they solved the founder’s puzzle? Was that the ultimate puzzle or a stepping stone? I also couldn’t follow the logic of all these encrypted books then being arranged on shelves to be a bigger puzzle. Did Penumbra do that? How does it add to the whole immortality idea? Why do they think decoding Manutius will unlock immortality?