5 Rated Books Book Reviews Kirkus

Over at Kirkus: Mr Penumbra 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Posted on February 7, 2014

It’s Friday, which means we are over at Kirkus! Today, Ana tackles Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, a book that seems to be universally loved….

Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore

…except she didn’t like it. Go here to read why.

Ana Grilo is a Brazilian who moved to the UK because of the weather. No, seriously. She works with translations in RL and hopes one day The Book Smugglers will be her day job. When she’s not here at The Book Smugglers, she is hogging our Twitter feed.

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2 Comments

  • de Pizan
    February 7, 2014 at 3:11 pm

    I found it disappointing also. The mystery, while interesting in the beginning, got too Da Vinci Code-lite and felt like doing too much, so ended up too shallow and unsubstantial, and ultimately the resolutions felt rather anticlimactic. The Google bits went on way too long, after a while it felt like the entire book was an extended product placement for the company.

  • anonymous
    May 3, 2014 at 6:12 pm

    This is a young-adult-fiction take on Dan Brown’s standard plot line with a LOT of Google product placement. I made it about half way through before reaching the conclusion that it was an extended brand-impression knit together from common tropes found in young-adult fantasy and books you find in the airport-bookstore mystery section (Koontz / Ludlum / Brown)

    Paint by numbers writing with a backend revenue stream. How quaint. It’s time to start tracking product placement in the printed word so that it can be avoided.

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