S.

I expected so much from this book, and I was disappointed. The story is incoherent and lacks clarity.
Here's more about why I didn't like it:
- When Jen and Eric speak in the margins, it is sometimes hard just to understand what they are talking about.
- Also, why do we only get to know the first letter of the names of some of the places S. visits?
- Straka's mystery is hardly solved by the end of the book, so what was the point?
- I would like to point out that Eric and Jen ending up together brings nothing to the story. Why push two characters together if all of it is unnecessary?
- There are too many characters, which gets confusing.
- Pfeifer being the governor was also unnecessary. It could have been anyone else.
Because I liked the concept of the book, I will be giving it 2 stars.

This meta-novel is mind-bending and beautiful. Being someone who loves books (not just reading, but physical books themselves), this is just amazing. I'm not really going to try and explain what the book is or how the story unfolds because it will more than likely confuse. But I will say the presentation of this book is just amazing. It actually looks and feels like an old library book, down to the “BOOK FOR LOAN” stamp on the inside cover. And the notes between two readers look so very real. If you love books, love to read, and love a good mystery, you need to check this out.

And now for something completely different. It's sortuva meta-book. Imagine a young college student named Jen finds a book in the library called Ship of Theseus by the mysterious, yet prolific author V.M. Straka. She sees that there are notes written in the margins and she writes a reply to one of them. Eric, a disgraced grad student, writes back and they continue doing so through multiple readings (and multiple-colored pens) throughout the book. In the margins they discuss the book, themselves, and the mysterious author and equally mysterious tranlator. The story concerns an amnesiac man (called S.) who gets shanghaied onto a strange ship with a very strange crew and sets off on a weird, dangerous journey. The book is stuffed with almost two dozen inserts ranging from postcards, to letters, to copies of telegrams and newspaper articles, etc. Ship of Theseus is made to look like a library book from the 50s. It's very cool. It's also very puzzling, ofttimes confusing, but pulls you in nonetheless. Probably would've taken me a lot longer to plow through it had I not read it while on vacation. And even though I was mystified by much of it, I was captivated by the twin stories and kept reading all the way through. Not all the book's questions are answered. I was glad I read it but would hesitate to blindly recommend it. This book was concieved by J.J. Abrams and written by Doug Dorst.