 TITLE: The Book Of M
AUTHOR: Peng Shepherd
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2018
GENRE: Dystopian, Fantasy
PAGE COUNT: 485
FORMAT: Paperback
AVAILABLE AT : amazon
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The story is told in 4 different perspectives – Ory, Max , Naz
and someone who is referred to as “ The One Who Gathers”. These people are living in a world where
people are gradually losing their shadows and eventually their memories . Ory
and Max are the husband – wife duo who had to face the wrath of this plague / epidemic
or whatever you want to call it. Max has
just lost her shadow and soon she is
about to lose her memory. Fearing that
she could potentially be a threat to Ory’s life, she left him . This
left Ory devastated and he went on this
mission to find her . During this mission , he came across a girl named Naz and
a couple of other people who are trying to reach a mysterious guy who goes by
the name of “ The One who Gathers” with the hope of finding a cure for this “ Forgetfulness”.
The story basically revolves around all these 4 major characters who have set out on this journey to find the
cure.
It was a lot more spooky than I had anticipated. This book
is a weird mix of science, fantasy and
dystopian fiction wrapped into one crazy genre that sometimes even seemed like
brutal dystopian . Some scenes were so
morose that I shut down the book for a while in order to process . Recently I
saw a movie called “ Annihilation” (
which was also based on a Dystopian Sci fi book) which disturbed the hell out
of me. This book gave me similar vibes at times. Whenever I watch or hear a
story where good people are compelled
to do some shady stuff ( like killing or any other morally ambigious
deeds) in order to save overall humanity
makes me really uncomfortable and sad. There were an eclectic mix of characters most of which I loved but some of them fell flat. I can’t reveal much about these people because I fear in doing so I might end up revealing some crucial plot twists.
The world was eerie and felt real at times. The author ‘s writing style was a bit on the descriptive side through which she successfully painted a vivid picture where I was able to visualise and feel the pain and miseries of these characters in this devastating world.
Now let’s talk about what I didn’t like about the book. I
had two major issues with the story.
The first was the
length of the book. I thought it could have been at least a hundred pages
shorter. There was just too much travelling and the frequent battle / war
sequences bored me after a while . Some
scenes didn’t even make sense to me .For instance- there is a scene of a
talking wolf, a scene about some
shadowed elephant , and this last one will blow your mind- The statue of
liberty takes the human form and starts
destroying the city. I had to re-read
these portions just to understand its
significance to the story but I couldn’t figure it out. So I told myself that may be the author put
those cool elements to spice up the narrative.
The other issue which bothered me was that at the end , I was left with a lot of
unanswered questions . Questions like –is this forgetfulness a virus or
epidemic or magic ? Why certain people
lose their shadows whereas others don’t? What led to this Forgetfulness ? Also
I couldn’t understand the ending where “ The One who Gathers “ was able to do magical stuff.
I know it is “ not real” and I should not expect any logical
explanation but I deserve to get at least some made up fictional answers .
However, the ending moved me to tears. The last few sentences
told by my favourite character in the
story was really emotional and sad.
** SPOILER SECTION**
It is astonishing how a single chapter can drastically
change your opinion about a character. Throughout the novel , I was loving Ory and
rooting for him to get back with Max. I was also at times resenting Max for
leaving him . But at the end when Ory rejected Max just because she looked like
Ursula , it angered me . I hated his guts and kind of empathised with Max. I later tried to comprehend that Ory had probably moved on with Naz. This
last plot twist shook me. And the last sentence by Max left me with tears.
Overall, this book is enjoyable to read but don’t
expect any answers to the questions that
may pop up in your head while reading it. It is like one of those movies where
the viewers are expected to “ leave their brains behind “ and enjoy it solely
for entertainment purpose. Read it for the cool concept, the dytopian setting
and some really mind boggling plot twists – basically read it if you just want
to have fun.
RATING- 🌕🌕🌕🌖 ( 3.75/5 )
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