Rating: ★★★☆☆
* I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.
A future where a global epidemic is spreading and causing the world’s population to lose their shadows and later their memories. Husband and wife duo Ory and Max have managed to hide from the brunt of the disasters. That is until Max loses her shadow. Armed with just a tape recorder to document her memories, Max leaves their abandoned hotel. And Ory sets out on a dangerous journey to reunite with his wife. The chapters alternate between the two and two others, another survivor and another person known as “The One Who Gathers.”
The Book of M is a messy read, and I mean that in a good way. A story where each chapter ends with another hundred questions to ask. We follow Ory and Max survive in different circumstances. Max is running anywhere Ory can’t find her and then goes in search with a group of people for a cure for her memory loss. Ory, in search of Max, ends up in various dangerous circumstances where he finally interacts with the world that he, up until now, had ignored under the safety of his area. He meets the good, the bad, makes new friends and finds old ones.
The Book of M was a strangely riveting read. The writing is vivid which compliments and adds the foreboding world building. The story starts with the world in an unknown position, and as the book switches between the four different perspectives, the world comes back to together, providing different views on a world almost forgotten. It read like a puzzle, one that slowly meshed together and once it did, it was an absolutely fantastic book to finish.
Overall, while I did have some issues with the pacing, especially towards the middle of the book, The Book of M was still an engaging and imaginative read.
GOODREADS | AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY
Content warning: blood, death, violence, the use of the “bury your gays” trope. I know I’m missing quite a bit but if you’ve read the book, please tell me if I’ve missed something out.
as told by zaheerah 