S.
by J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Mystery, romance

The idea of this book intrigued me, but I found it daunting enough that I didn’t plan to read it for a long time. My husband convinced me to give it a try, though, and thankfully, I was able to listen to the audiobook for the “inner novel” without the distraction of the hand-written marginalia. Then, with a little looking around online, I decided on the further reading approach of going through the “first” comments by the two characters who make up the real story (Jen and Eric), then a second pass through with new pen colors, then twice more after that, picking out only the comments made in each new layer. Fortunately, I did an overall better job than I expected to do only reading each new addition at the right time.

Unfortunately, I found that the story did not hold up, despite my care in reading it chronologically. The base novel is bizarre, disturbing, and confusing, and while I can’t say I have ever read literature of the type I’m sure it’s based on, I doubt it’s the kind of work that would be so studied and regarded by students and scholars. That aside, though, since the real story is supposed to be the two modern people discussing the book, the author, and current events related to both, I was really invested as I read through the handwritten conversations. I suspended my disbelief (heavily, in some areas—if a conversation like this could actually be carried on, I’m sure it would look quite different and be super difficult to read as an outside observer after the fact), which was important, but then something would come up that had no foundation, no past reference, and I’d go back looking for what I’d missed or forgotten. Only to realize that information was actually given out of order, which is what I’d expect more from a conversation of this type, yet that wasn’t how it was generally presented…so I was just confused.

I also struggled a lot with the large number of names involved in the margin notes—historical figures who might have been Straka, other contemporaries of Straka and his translator’s time, modern people who are involved in Straka research. I started taking notes of who each of these people were, Eric and/or Jen’s theories about them, etc., but in the end, I’m not sure it really made a difference. The mystery they’re investigating doesn’t really go anywhere, and while it’s possible the reader is meant to dig deeper and try to figure things out more for themselves (there’s a puzzle wheel that I never did figure out a use for), in the end, I just didn’t care enough to do so. I don’t even know if there’s a satisfying conclusion to find out there on the internet somewhere, but I don’t care enough to try.

All of that being said, though, considering that this review probably reads like a rant, I decided to give this book 3 stars, because it did draw me in considerably for a while, and that’s not nothing. It didn’t have the payoff I would have hoped for, though I can acknowledge that this book is more about the journey than the destination. It’s just not necessarily my preference (or maybe it just needs to be done better in the end). I don’t regret reading it by any means, and may even dig into it again in the future, just to see if I can glean anything new from it. If you’re wondering whether or not you should read this book though, I’d say if the idea of it intrigues you at all, definitely consider giving it a try.

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!