Review: Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

On occasion I will buy/borrow a book based purely on the cover/title. I won't read the synopsis or anything, I will just get the book and read it. I do this because I like to be surprised. Usually I will pick these books up because I see them on other peoples' bookshelves, but not with Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. The title intrigued me like nobody's business and I just couldn't resist it.

Penumbra's is the story of Clay, an unemployed web designer who finds a job working as the graveyard shift clerk at Penumbra's bookstore. As he works there he discovers the bookstore has some mysterious customers and some mysterious books.

That, I guess is the best synopsis I can give without spoiling anything. I'm glad I went into this book blind. It was fun slowly unraveling the mystery with Clay. He constantly made me nervous as he broke rules and pushed boundaries to figure out what was going on with the bookstore.

I liked the characters, especially Mr. Penumbra. He was very well drawn as an elderly eccentric who genuinely loved what he was doing. Another character I liked was Kat, she was very interesting as someone who worked for Google who was obsessed with the idea of living forever.

Overall I enjoyed the book, I wouldn't say that it was anything revolutionary or amazing, but it was a fun read. I gave it 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

*****