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The Book of M cover art

The Book of M

Written by: Peng Shepherd
Narrated by: James Fouhey, Emily Woo Zeller
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Publisher's Summary

Set in a dangerous near-future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears - an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.

Ory and his wife, Max, have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day, Max’s shadow disappears, too.

Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.

As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.

Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down.

©2018 Peng Shepherd (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about The Book of M

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    1 out of 5 stars
  • JBR
  • 2019-08-30

Disappointing

While there were moments that I was interested - the story dragged and was hard to follow. At the end I was annoyed that I spent so much time listening to this story. I had high hopes based on the concept of what happens when you lose a shadow but the journey was convoluted and disappointing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Engaging

I very much enjoyed this book. A very interesting idea and unexpected outcome. It kept me engrossed in the story the whole time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Poignant in a COVID sense.

Enjoyed the escapist feeling. Feared for each shadow less. Rejoiced for new friendships & felt a pang of awe when they arrived .

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unique and original - a great read/listen

It has been a long time since I've read a book with a truly original story line. I am not a fan of dystopian books (I normally find them depressing) but I am glad I yielded to impulse when I bought this one. I will definitely watch for this author again.

To the narrators...well done!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good

Realized at the end why it was dragged out to 52 Chapters. Interesting ending though.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Poor narration of a below-average story. Some spoilers.

Performance: James Fouhey was pleasant to listen to, however he had a narration voice and then a male character voice, regardless of the male character. At least make up an accent, or a slightly different tone for characters like Ory and The One Who Gathers.

Emily Woo Zeller was difficult to listen to. I get that the story calls for Max to be read in certain tone, but almost all of her reading was done while whining and crying. Also, it was very annoying that whoever edited this did not tell either Emily or James (narrators) to pronounce Gajarajan the same way.

Story:
The first half of this story was pretty much another overdone zombie apocalypse in disguise - except without most of the intensity that makes those interesting.

On a side note: objects still have shadows, none of these people are running around in the nude meaning their clothing’s shadow would still show. How could people identify clothed shadowless so easily?

The worst part of the book was when Ory hears about a sign that had something etched into it. “Maybe 50, or 20-something?” Nah, it couldn’t be 52 - literally the only thing that he and Max used to show she remembered. Let’s move on without checking it out.

This book didn’t make me feel connected with any of the characters, except perhaps The One Who Gathers - who I was hoping would be an interesting villain, but turned out to be just another boring character.

I’ll give it 2 stars since there were some interesting new concepts in the book, but I think it was executed poorly.

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