Penumbra Book Review

 ** spoiler alert ** Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan follows the character Clay Jannon in his experience working at the titular character’s literature market. Clay is newly hired at Mr. Penumbra’s shop after seeing a wanted poster. Clay gets the job but mostly spends time sitting on his laptop designing a 3D model of the store and creating online advertisements for the store. They are largely unsuccessful but attract a girl named Kat Potente who doesn’t buy anything but becomes close with Clay. Through the few people that come into the store, he becomes aware of this tall bookshelf in the back of the store, he dubs the Wayback list. Clay’s intrigue gets the better of him and decides to take one of the logbooks and make a replica of it so he can get it scanned. With the help of his roommate and craftsman, Mat, he acquires the book and gets it scanned. Doing this, he accidentally solved the “Founders Puzzle” and when he goes to show Mr. Penumbra, he is impressed and angry. Soon after, Penumbra leaves town without any warning. Clay visits one of the frequent customers of the store, Ms. Lapin, to try and get some answers and tells Clay of the Unbroken Spine and their quest to decoding books to reach immortality. Clay, with the help of Kat, locates the cult to New York. So now it is up to Clay and his friends to find Mr. Penumbra and find out the truth behind the Unbroken Spine.  

The most apparent flaw of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store was its anticlimactic and unimaginative ending. Clay gathers many of the characters from throughout the story, examples include Kat, Mat, Ashley, Corvina, and most notably, Mr. Penumbra. Clay reveals that the codex vitae of Aldus Manutius lack the secret to immortality and instead a message hidden in the font of the book: Gerritsznoon. The message was encoded in the tiny notches in each letter, after being laid in the order the punches come in, the message being, “Thank you Teobaldo – You are my greatest friend – This has been the key to everything” (277). I think that the reveal of this quote was not exciting at all, and I rolled my eyes to be honest. I didn’t feel like a creative subversion of my prior expectations; usually in situations like this, a greater message or something just as climactic occurs that makes getting invested in all the characters and storylines feel worth it. I feel that the message being hidden in the font was a good idea, I just think that the secret should’ve been found in the 500 years before the novel takes place. Finally, I believe the way Corvina just left in the end was childish and a terrible ending for an otherwise very threatening character. The way the book’s usage of the message of friendship was unimaginative and could’ve been used to greater effect.  I remember when the true nature of the codex vitae was put into question, I rolled my eyes and predicted that if immortality was false, it meant that it would be a cliché message of friendship. I thought the idea of the patrons of the Unbroken Spine rising from the dead with their codex vitae would be an amazing final confrontation. The people who awoke led by Corvina could’ve been confronted by Clay and his friends who he solved the puzzle with and criticized those who spent their lives trying to live for another where they have no purpose. The ending of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store could have benefitted from a rewrite of its ending for it to be a lot more substantial. 

Alternatively, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is aided by its many great characters. In my opinion, the best character in the novel is Clay Jannon. Clay is a witty art school graduate and former web designer at NewBagel who ends up working for Mr. Penumbra and is also the narrator for the story. Penumbra quickly takes a liking to Clay, especially after he passes Penumbra’s test and reads one of the books. He also catches the attention of Kat and really does care for her. Clay is also a quick learner shown by helping Mat make the Logbook copy.  Also, the way his inner monologue is written, from the choice of vocabulary to how the lines are spaced out, it feels like how a young adult think. Clay leads his assortment of friends to the discovery that, “All the secrets in the world worth knowing are hiding in plain sight” (288).  From this we can see Clay’s levels of wittiness and kindness which all make him likeable. This can also be seen in how he speaks to his friends and how he comically describes the bookstore. Also, there is a level of charm in what he is saying that also makes him seem dependable which is seen in his relationship with Kat, though sometimes weird, can be charming at times as well and she can always depend on him. All these qualities make Clay feel like a more well-rounded character, which makes him feel real. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is a host to many likable characters like the titular character Penumbra, however, I believe that Clay is the best.  

In the end, I enjoyed the novel; it was not anything incredible, but it was entertaining. Though I really do not enjoy the very underwhelming ending, I am quite partial to many of the characters in the novel, with Clay of course being my favorite. I also enjoyed the mystical nature of Penumbra and the charm of Deckle.  I believe it is a good book for teenagers and young adults due to many likely being able to relate to many of the characters who are also around that age. Also, due to the atmosphere of the novel, I believe it is a great book to read during the fall. I must say that the ending does really bring down the book's quality, I still think it is a great book for anyone.