Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Clay Jannon, unemployed graphic designer, wanders down a suspicious-looking street and finds the interestingly-named Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore, where he is hired as the night clerk. Over time, he discovers the bookstore: a small and quirkily selected independent section remains up front, but beyond that lies what he calls the “Waybacklist” shelves: three stories tall, reachable only by a ladder, and known only to the database that lies on an ancient Mac at the front desk. He meets the patrons of the bookstore: the occasional person who works at the nightclub next door, elderly visitors with mysterious encrypted membership cards who borrow and return books from the Waybacklist, and one very special Googler who admires his graphic design and coding skills. Eventually, he finds himself drawn into a mystery including his employer Mr. Penumbra, Google, the Waybacklist, and the very origins of books themselves.

 This is one of my favorite books. While it takes place in San Francisco, New York, Nevada, and even the Google campus, the worldbuilding of the bookstore and Google and even Clay’s apartment is stunning. It might be literary fiction, but it evolkes all the wonder of, say, YA fantasy. It’s a quirky story in everything from the plot to the dialogue to the settings. Honestly, who wouldn't want to work at a 24-hour bookstore? A cryptic one that's one big puzzle? Who wouldn't want a cast of characters in your life that includes a quirky yarn museum curator, a animatronic-building artist, and a peculiar bookseller mentor? 

If you’re a fan of character-driven stories, however, this is not necessarily for you. Some tropes and some flat characters make unimportant appearances, and the plot is propelled less by any one character’s genius than by some seemingly out-of-the-blue eureka moments.

 The cover is cheery yellow and minimalist, and the text is whimsical—it made me want to pick the book up after it had been recommended to me. 

 5/5 stars

P.S. This book contains one of the more accurate representations of Silicon Valley in popular fiction.

Happy reading,
~Citali