Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore was written by Robin Sloan. Robin, a New York Times Best Selling author, graduated from Michigan State University. The book’s story is told through the eyes of the main character, Clay Jannon. Clay is a product marketing designer who out of desperation and unemployment, takes a job working the nightshift at a bookstore called “Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore” after seeing a sign in the window of the store looking for employees. The store seems pretty normal at first, however, business is very slow and not many books are actually sold. Clay starts noticing people coming in at odd times taking these really old books out. After a while it starts to become sort of a ritual for these people to come in at specific times. As time goes on, with the help of his friends, Clay starts to unravel some of the secrets that Mr. Penumbra and his 24 hour bookstore are hiding.
Most of the characters in the story are well detailed, however, there are some characters that do not have much of a role in the plot of the book and it feels like the author had no purpose for them in the story. These characters include but are not limited to Clay’s roommate Ashley and an exotic dancer who comes into the bookstore to buy a Steve Jobs biography. These characters sort of just show up in the beginning of the story and do not really do much. After much analyzation, I could not find a purpose for these characters. Also, although there were characters like this, there are also some deeply developed characters like Mr. Penumbra and Kat who are very dynamic and really complement the story while playing huge roles in the plot.
Themes are very important literature and this book is not lacking. There are a couple of themes (for instance immortality and technology vs. books) that especially stand out and Sloan goes into great in depth about. They will truly stand out to anyone who reads this book. The ongoing fight of technology versus paper is a conflict that may never be resolved. Sloan instead takes a different approach on the subject and does not really pick a side. This approach is very interesting because it is definitely not biased and actually makes a lot of sense. For example, in the text, Clay is working at the bookstore and decides to make an online log of everything that is happening at the bookstore. After Mr. Penumbra finds out about it, being an old school paper and pen kind of guy, one would expect him to get angry. However, in the text, Mr. Penumbra decides that he should try to adapt to this new way of living instead of only sticking with pen and paper. He does not only choose one side which gives the book a more well rounded approach while displaying that the characters are mostly open to growth. “I walk alone in the darkness and wonder how a person would begin to determine the circumference of the earth. I have no idea. I’d probably just google it.” (Sloan 76).
The plot is also something that is very detailed and thought out. The beginning is great, and even the middle is really good however, just when things seemed like they were going in a huge direction, the story sort of just stops and everything that the reader thought would be, isn’t. Throughout the story, I thought the plot was something that was completely different than what I thought it was. I was mislead by only myself however and others may not make the same mistake that I did. As a warning, I will say, do not read the back of this books and think that it is a story of magic and witchcraft. It is not. However, it does have a really good story for what it is so it should not be thrown out just because of its lack of magic.
In conclusion, this book has some really strong parts. Most of the characters are detailed incredibly well and the plot, complemented by its great themes of technology and immortality, is drawn out quite nicely till the end (in my opinion). The book is definitely a great read and I recommend it to anyone who wants a book with a good plot that may just seem like a story about a guy solving a mystery, but actually delves deeper into the themes of friendship and the evolving world around us. There whole book is thoroughly enjoyable and makes for a pretty good read.
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