Book Review: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Hardcover, 485 pages

Published June 2018 by William Morrow

At one point while reading this book I was sitting on the bus during my morning commute and the strong California sun was beaming in the window. I stopped reading to hold my hand over the book and cast my shadow on the pages. It was probably the coolest moment I had reading this book. I was reading a part of the book when Max the main POV character realized the person she was talking to had no shadow. You see the concept behind Book of M starts with a very Bird Box-ish weird apocalypse where people lose their shadows and their memories.

This concept may have been more powerful to me if I had not already read the amazing Wonderland award-winning surreal horror novel Sip by Brian Allan Carr. In that novel, the end of the world comes with a plague driven by a growing addiction people develop for "drinking" people's Shadows. That novel was more horror and this novel is more fantasy in a King The Stand kinda of way.

I was first interested in reading this novel after hearing the author interviewed on an episode of "This is Horror." I enjoyed her interview and was excited to dive into this book. There is a lot to enjoy in this novel. First and for most, the two lead Ory and Max are well developed and their love story works. It propels the story forward giving the strong reason to be hooked. Early in the book the two are separated when Max loses her shadow and thus her memories. Worried that she will cause suffering to her husband Max takes off and Ory is desperate to find her. Thus begins parallel road stories across the devastation of a world post forgetting.

The Characters were the majority of my motivation in following the story and that is saying in a high concept story like this.

It is not to say that Shepherd doesn't sell the concept, the hook of how this starts on Zero shadow day in India to how the cities collapse is very done. The story has some excellent set-ups and payoffs that included a twist or two I was not looking for. The last one was pretty smart and one that wouldn't work on TV or a movie. My point is despite all that story I was invested in Ory and Max. Will they find each other.

The story is told in two different formats most of the story is told in 3rd person and those chapters worked better for me than Max's first narrative that was "recorded on tape." I am sure most readers won't even notice but writer's brain kicked in and it took me a bit out of the story. For example, why would she use speech tags? I know just roll with it. Shepherd paid it off and I understand why it was there.

I would say for me the first two acts of the novel felt more horror and it wasn't until the third act that it got to feel way more fantasy. I didn't enjoy the third act as much as the first two despite finding the final reveal effective. The book is excellently written and the best compliment I can give is that I will read her next novel in a heartbeat. I think if the fantasy elements had been established a little earlier it would not have seemed like such a tonal shift.

Shepherd is strong new voice and this is strong debut. It certainly bodes well for the future.