The Book of M
by Peng Shepherd
4 stars
The Book of M is a story about losing your shadow. When you lose it – you forget all your past memories including your name and you even forget to eat. Then you die. This phenomenon first starts in India when Hemu Joshi loses his shadow. Then the affliction spreads across the world and those left with a shadow must try and survive. Told around a post-apocalyptic future, author Shepherd weaves her debut story by following four linked characters. Orlando “Ory” Zhang and Max, a husband and wife couple, Mahnaz Ahmadi (Naz) who was an Olympic archer and the Amnesiac (never given a name) who still has his shadow, but lost all his memories from an accident before the Forgetting took place. They try to figure out how to survive in this new world were the shadowless acquire a strange new power in which they can alter the physical environment conjuring up some pretty intense, scary and magical happenings. Mythology and legends from India play apart in explaining the story which I enjoyed. I thought I knew how all this ended, but Shepherd gives you a surprise twist and some unanswered questions, but I still loved it.
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