Overall: 3/5
Plots and Themes: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 2/5
Attention Grabbing: 3/5
The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a standalone. It's a thriller, the sort of thing I feel like people who liked Verity would be all over. Lily Albrecht is alone. Her husband has all but left her due to an illness outside of anyone's control and she sells books as a way to make enough money to support him and all the medications he needs. When she learns about the Book of the Most Precious Substance, she is initially intrigued by the huge commission she could get for securing it. But she soon learns that there are things about the world beyond her understanding, and that in addition to money the book could give her her husband back.
This book was freaky. It was paced in such a strange way, like the side by side journey to find the book and to get to the end of the book and be granted her wish. It felt almost like reading two separate trains of thought. I thought it was interesting, but I also feel it gave the whole thing a dream-like quality that made it difficult to understand at times. And the chronology of it all further confused me and emphasized that dream-like quality, I never knew how much time was passing and if the achievement of the events coincided correctly with that timeline. It made it all a bit jarring and hard to assign significance to the events.
I did like it though, I think it's original and weird in its own way. Kind of dark academia without the academia, but that same sort of literary take. How much I liked the ultimate message was a different story, but I can respect the way that it got there.
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