When I first recieved this book and slid the hardcover book out of the S. sleeve, and ran my hand over the canvas throwback library book Ship of Theseus, I was surely amazed. When I cracked it open and noted the various inserts of postcards, letters, napkin maps (!), and the "handwritten" notes in the margins, I was definitely taken with the mystery. And when I took in that smell--that distinct old library smell--of the book, well, I was already in love.

The production value is top rate. It's even a little magical? I couldn't travel with the book, I had to SIT DOWN AND READ. And I did just that for the first months--you must read this book slowly and pay attention. But then the wariness of the "work" I had to do while reading the book and the marginalia and the ciphers surpassed my interest in the actual story. I eventually came back to it after about a month, but as I neared those ending pages I could feel with heaviness that not all questions would be answered and when I was far done with the book I still wouldn't know everything. Alas, here I am, and I didn't.

It was quite a journey, and mesmerizing for a bit. I DID enjoy it. I raced home, I cancelled plans, I made sure I cleared my schedule to read this book. But now that I'm done, I'm on the internet and I'm still trying to discern things about the book that were not understood immediately or by book's end. There are actual website tie-ins and new ciphers created by the author Doug Dorst. Which is fine, I guess. But why extend this book, which seems a project obstensibly about LOVING THE INCREASINGLY NOSTALGIC ART OF READING AN ACTUAL BOOK, into something that goes online?

Why not contain all the answers in the words of your novel? In the words of your finely created characters in the margins -- Jen and Eric? I love these two characters, and I felt the thrill of their journey about VM Straka and their own romance. But in the end, it falls flat and based on interviews I've read from Dorst, there's websites with answers! You must go find them! And so the book loses it's entrancing quality and just becomes a gimmick, and exhausting.

I did love the book, I am just disappointed that days later the central question (Who is VM Straka?) remains unanswered.

(And I have a theory about who it is that I thought perhaps the book made clear, but upon discussing with other readers and from what I can glean from those websites, it seems less clear than I imagined. SIGH.)