The End of Mr. Y

First, a quick apology for the week-long hiatus - I've been in Wales! On the plus side though, it gave me the time to read a new book, about which I am now going to talk. I had wanted to read 'The End of Mr. Y' for some time now, having, as I always do, judged the book by its (admittedly very striking) cover. I found the first page a little difficult, but once I got past that, the story gripped me.

Our narrator, Ariel Manto (we later learn that this is a pseudonym and an anagram), is interesting and hints at a dubious past, without ever going into any detail, which I liked, though I can see how it might irritate some readers. She is a PhD student, looking into thought experiments and writing a newspaper column on the side. All of this leads her to a writer named Thomas Lumas.

His books have fallen into obscurity, with the result that they are all extremely rare, but none more so than 'The End of Mr. Y', his last novel. This is one of the rarest books in the world, with supposedly only one copy in existence. One of the reasons it is so rare is that it is rumoured to be cursed, which, understandably, puts people off it a little.

Shortly after we enter the story, a (the) copy of this novel arrives in Ariel's possession. Ignoring the curse, she decides to read it, realising as she does so from whence these curse stories have spread. The book gives a recipe for a mixture which allows the user to access the world of minds, and this is where it all goes wrong. We follow Ariel as she discovers exactly what the problem is and tries to solve it.

I found the novel intriguing and certainly wanted to read more. All of the characters are very real, and Thomas' description of this psychic world is fascinating. It reminded me a little of 'Sophie's World', in the way she used her narrative to explore ideas she had obviously been pondering for a while, though I felt she achieved a better mix than 'Sophie's World' managed.

I had a couple of issues with the ending, as I wasn't sure I agreed with the logic of their final decision, but that in no way took away from my enjoyment of the novel. I would definitely recommend it, if nothing else, for the awesomeness of reading a book with black pages!