The Book of M

Imagine you live in Boston where suddenly most people begin losing their shadows (aka Shadowless, which inexplicably leads to the erasure of all memory and loss of mind (aka Forgetting). After a couple days holed up in an apartment building you lose power and water. Weeks go by. For four or five months you remain and do not go outside as society collapses around you yet somehow you still see police lights at night. You are running out of food and consider suicide as you begin to starve. Then one day, your sister arrives from Iran with airline peanuts. Mysteriously, airlines arent flying to Boston but to Providence, Rhode Island because it is empty of people.

This is where I stopped reading The Book of M (about 20% in). Full disclosure I like post-apocalyptic fiction in the vein of the The Road, The Dog Stars and Station Eleven, so this is not a question of content. I even like the central premise of the book whereby people lose their shadows as a first sign they begin to lose their minds (aka Forgetting. Where this book really falls down is in two key areas: 1.) Logical consistency in the world the writer creates and 2.) the quality of the writing itself. I am perplexed as to how this book has received so many positive reviews.

Expanding on my initial paragraph, in a world where people are losing their shadows and their minds and society breaks down, you would not see police lights 4-5 months later (where are the police cars getting fuel if there isnt electricity or running water?). Yet most unbelievable is that an airline would fly to a city empty of people. Airlines would not be flying at all as all impacted countries would be quarantined until a cause for the outbreak was determined, to say nothing of all of the human being afflicted by the Forgetting that operate said airports and airplanes.

Other logical inconsistencies:

1.) An Iranian student in Boston seems to know less about the shadowless crisis in Boston than her family does living in Iran. The student, Naz, hears people screaming in the night on the first night of the outbreak, but spends her time debating whether to call her boyfriend because what did two and a half months [of dating] mean, really? (Later we find she has a key to his studio). In the meantime, Boston is quarantined and the airport closed without her seeming knowledge – but her family in Iran knows.
2.) Nazs sister leaves her university (and research and studies) in Iran so she can go home to her mothers house to talk with Naz on the phone as the crisis unfolds in Boston (why not just call your sister from the university?)
3.) The building Naz is holed up in does not seem to have one television, conveniently forcing Naz to remain on the phone with her mother and sister to get news (instead of using her phone to get news?). In Iran, Nazs sister is trying to pinpoint Nazs location by asking her questions like the street she is on, what the building looks like, etc. (Why not just ask the address and plop it into Google?). Keep in mind – Iran has not been impacted by the ‘epidemic’
4.) Within a half hour of most everyone in Boston becoming shadowless, the National Guard encircled the metropolis and blocked all exits in and out. Impossible given the sheer size of Boston, to say nothing of the chaos likely ensuing as nearly all citizens including those in the National Guard grapple at the same time with their impending Forgetting.
5.) Within a half hour, conveniently a Bostonian has already lost his mind (even though countless other examples earlier in the book show a gradual Forgetting taking days but more typically weeks) so that said National Guard can kill him on live TV.
6.) For another party holed up at a report in Virginia, the next day after the outbreak in Boston begins, the staff at the resort gladly arm their guests so they can walk down the hillside to a grocery store (why not drive, why do they need to be armed?). When they arrive at the town where the grocery is located, the scene is described as chaos (but with unarmed families present). Yet the grocery is still well stocked enough that their group of five can purchase a months worth of food.
7.) This group of people watch Boston unfold on TV which is described by them as follows: “I braced for the eerie, deserted silence of Boston…’ yet Naz describes Boston as loud and out of control.

It goes on and on and on like this. And I have not even broached the subject of bad writing in this book. Dont waste your time stop reading this review, go buy and read Station Eleven instead. Or The Dog Stars. Or The Road.

The Book of M is a brilliant story about a world where for some unknown reason people’s shadows start to disappear. It’s discovered that shortly after someone loses their shadow, they start losing memories. Memories like how letters make words, or how a doorknob opens a door, or that eating food keeps you alive. The world spins into chaos and we follow a cast of honest, grounded characters who try to navigate it the best they can while keeping an eye on their own shadow, or a grip on their fading memories.
The Book of M is hard to put down. Peng Shepard’s writing and storytelling style is captivating and encompassing. Some of the chapters are very short, and I kept finding myself saying “I’ll read one more and then I’ll go to sleep,” again and again until I was deep into the night. The dedication of the characters in the story stem from Shepard’s dedication to tell a story worth reading.
The novel is peppered with magical realism that would make Haruki Murakami proud, fantasy that Neil Gaiman would enjoy, and on a solid foundation of storytelling that Peng Shepard proudly owns herself.

Engaging, with appropriate characterization and intriguing setting. The new take on an apocalyptic state-of-things lends itself to interesting emotional dynamics.

But – the rules for engaging the world change. There is no consistency in how magic works. There is also no satisfying final explanation of all the mysterious happenings. There is also no satisfying conclusion for the most empathized-with characters. All the threads are suddenly severed with a catch-all surprise twist that feels inconsistent with the implied/foreshadowed promises about the kind of world the characters live in and the hoped-for reconciliation most of the book led up to.

So, I loved some scenes. But days after finishing, I dont know what the book was about. I have no meaningful takeaway. I have no satisfaction of the characters stories being thoroughly extracted.

Its as though the writer gets bored, or writes her way into a corner, so the story just ends.

Still, many redemptive qualities and quite entertaining and fun. Better than most of whats out there. But if I forgot I already read it, Id hope my forgetful self would skip it for something else.

I just couldnt make myself finish this book, and I ALWAYS finish books, no matter how painful. So this is a first for me. I bought this book because of all the favorable reviews and the premise of the story, a post apocalyptic world where memories are tied to shadows and people begin to lose both. I was promised a book that would grab me right away, but this one never did. I never got hooked or even remotely into the story or the characters. When the One Who Gathers started to make an appearance, things seemed to get more interesting, but when Ory encountered the Red Kind in DC I simply could not stomach it anymore. All I could think about at that point was Steven King and The Dark Tower series, and how much this book just fell off the rails for me. Its not an issue with suspending disbelief for the magic that comes into play, but rather with even caring about the characters or where this is all going. And I appreciate how the author brings in a diverse set of characters, but it got to a point where she seemed to be trying too hard, look at me and how many different things I can bring into one setting. Rather than being cohesive it made everything more disjointed and unbelievable for me.

The premise to this book is very interesting and I was very much drawn to it, but for me it boils down to poor execution. Please note, I WANTED to like this book. Post apocalyptic stories are some of my favorites. But this one always rubbed me wrong and never got off the ground for me. I dont even care how it ends at this point, I cant force myself to read any more.

For a debut novel, Book of M avoids many of the traps of first time writers and delivers a unique world and story. It does fall into one debut trap though – not knowing what is better left on the editing room floor. There’s a looong section in the middle of the book where things are happening but nothing is really progressing. The book would perhaps have worked better if it was structured in 3 or 4 parts, each focussing on one character/group/location, rather than having all the different perspectives inter-cut throughout.

The characters are generally a well written bunch, though like so many novels these days it does feel a bit like the author had a diversity checklist they were following to make sure nobody could claim they weren’t represented.

The story is not quite like anything else I can think of, though perhaps some of Brian Aldiss’ novels are a relevant reference point. The internal logic of the events that drive the novel is sometimes unclear, it doesn’t necessarily feel like the rules are consistent. That does mean that things aren’t overly predictable, either, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Well worth a read despite a few quibbles, and recommended for those that are looking for something a bit different.