Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

The New York Times Bestseller

A Winner of the Alex Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour...show more

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288 pages

Average rating: 7.55

97 RATINGS

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6 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

Anonymous
Dec 27, 2023
4/10 stars
I don't think this is a bad book, just uninteresting (for me). I did like the narrator, he is quite good. At first I thought it might develop into a modern day "Shadow of the Wind", but it just didn't.
Carol.Ann
Nov 16, 2023
6/10 stars
The book cover glows in the dark! How cool is that?! I wondered if that would play into the story and I suppose it does on a thematic level. The story started out great - an old bookstore, mysterious volumes that even Google has never heard of, peculiar patrons that borrow books and rarely purchase any, a secretive owner....What's it all about? Such a great premise and feeling, but for me, it soon began to feel like a story told by gamers. You k...read more
Anonymous
Sep 18, 2023
10/10 stars
Loved it - friendship, mystery, big themes, quirky characters.
E Clou
May 10, 2023
6/10 stars
I enjoyed this, it was cute. I liked the bookstore and library settings, and I would have given it 4 stars but the ending is a bit blah, and the characters outside the main character are not my favorite. (The roommates are more interesting than the best friends.)
LiziB
Feb 23, 2023
10/10 stars
Fantastic -- ties together typography, Google, scholarly cults, codebreaking, mysteries, slackers, and overachievers while still managing to tell a deeply satisfying story and maintain its characters' integrity. A very good read.

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