Hi guys! Tomorrow is the last day of August, and man, this month has flown by! (Generic opening phrase used when scheduling a post in advance is written. Check!) Today I am a part of The Book of M Blog Tour, and I had the amazing opportunity to read what turned out to be a chilling, haunting, and baffling book set in a dystopian world. It’s truly nothing I’ve ever read. Enjoy!
About the Book
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.
Disclaimer: I received a free hardcover copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from the publisher and the tour organizer. This will not affect my review in any way.
From the moment I first heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. Once I picked it up, I just couldn’t stop. The Book of M isn’t your average dystopia or futuristic fantasy—it’s much more than that. Peng Shepherd explores our memories and our subconscious as she turns the world upside down in her debut novel, a world in which a single forgotten memory can wreck havoc. While this book may not have been perfect, it certainly captured my imagination so much that I even flipped ahead a few pages just to know how did the world end up as it is. I’ve never read anything like The Book of M, and I can still feel it haunt me even after I finished the last page. Ooh, the chills!
The Book of M takes place in a near-future world where shadows can disappear at a moment’s notice, and with those shadows one’s memories. It was such a haunting and chilling concept that it terrified yet fascinated me. I wanted to know so much more about the events that led up to the Forgetting and how the loss of one’s shadows work. I was so amazed yet creeped out by how forgetting something can change the fabric of reality itself—imagine doors, stairs, objects, or even people disappearing once a shadowless forget about their existence. I became very entranced by this post- apocalyptic world, a world that I didn’t want to enter yet leave at the same time. Shepherd’s world-building is some of the most innovative and interesting I’ve ever read, combining Indian mythology, magic, and the subconscious all into one epic tale. It’s certainly one that I’ll never forget.
The Book of M also switches between the point of view of four characters—Ory, Max, Naz, and The One who Gathers. Through each POV, the past, present, and future intertwine together, with flashbacks and simultaneous events scattered throughout. It may not seem evident how all of these lives will come together, but when they do, it feels like an explosion of imagination, triumph, and even horror. I found myself dreading Max’s slow yet painstaking Forgetting, and I wanted to know more and more about the safety and status of every character. There were so many surprises that the book sent shockwaves through my body. Believe me, when you get to the very end of Part 4, you want to throw your book at the wall. Out of every plot twist I’ve read, it was one of the few ones that I really and truly did not ever see coming.
However, I do have to mention that The Book of M does have its flaws. There were some aspects of the world-building that were confusing and inconsistent. Did the world’s depopulation occur because someone forgot a person existed? Did they disappear the same way as objects? How far is the extent of someone’s Forgetting? How can person forget that something didn’t exist? The workings of the Forgetting had a few holes such as these that could cause some people to scratch their heads. I know that I had my questions that I really wanted to be answered. There were some things about this book that also did make me uncomfortable and that I didn’t like. And many times because I just wanted to know what happened to a certain character, it was very very tempting to skip one person’s POV to get to another’s (I even did it a few instances). While it did capture my attention and imagination very much, the book wasn’t 100% perfect in my eyes.
Regardless, The Book of M is nothing like I’ve ever read. It’s very innovative and imaginative as it combined elements from science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, and dystopia into a concoction that is fascinating yet terrifying at the same time. I certainly won’t forget all the horror and chills I’ve had to go through, all of the triumphs and defeats. I cannot express how much The Book of M will blow your mind. The eerie atmosphere will suck you right in. I warn you, enter with no expectations at all. I didn’t know what I was walking in to, and you won’t either.
Did Someone Say… Giveaway?
10 Winners will receive a Copy of THE BOOK OF M by Peng Shepherd.
Open to International
Must be 13+ to Enter
Click the link below to enter!
About the Author
Peng Shepherd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University, and has lived in Beijing, London, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. The Book of M is her first novel.
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Happy Reading!
+ J.M.J.
~ Kester
Have you read The Book of M? Do you like dystopian novels?
Comment below, or find me in one of my social media pages, and let’s chat!
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1. Your debut YA novel Gunslinger Girl is slated to release from Little, Brown and Company on January 2nd, 2018, and it follows Serendipity “Pity” Jones as she lives in a dystopian Wild West after the Second Civil War. How would you describe the world-building process you used for the creation of Cessation and a lawless, futuristic Wild West? 
Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This will not affect my review in anyway. All thoughts are mine and mine alone, and they are my honest thoughts.
LILbooKlovers 