The Book of Speculation

Title:  The Book of Speculation
Author: Erika Swyler
Genre: Mystery, Family History
Source: Library Ebook
Rating: 4 out of 5 paws

Simon is a library with a love and appreciation for books. His parents have both passed on, his sister is off traveling the land in a circus, his home is slowly crumbling into the ocean, and he just lost his job due to budget cuts.  Out of nowhere Simon receives a book in the mail from a book seller.  The man who sent it to him, believed it would be of interest to his family history.  The book is a circus diary of sorts, a book written by the circus owner chronicling important events and dates.  Simon begins to notice a pattern.  On the same date, women who perform as mermaids or swimmers die, by drowning.  The same way his mother died, and all the women seem to be tied to his family.  He begins to worry about the safety of his sister as she comes to visit and the date slowly draws closer.  But the more Simon reads, the more he discovers about not only his family's past but also that of his neighbor.  Can Simon stop fate before it's too late?

I have sort of been drawn into circus books or books that relate to a circus, so when I saw this book at the library (or rather on the library list), I decided to give it a shot.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it, but also a little disappointed that more was not done with a certain aspect of the book.  But don't let me get ahead of myself.  The book overall was an interesting one to read.  I liked all the characters.  They each had their own interesting quirk and element to add to the story.  They all helped drive the story forward even if it is in a small way such as that of the book seller.

Simon, I found Simon to be an interesting character in that he got so wrapped up in the family history he didn't see anything else around him.  He began to alienate and hurt the people around them despite him thinking he was helping or protecting them.  He was a warm, lovable character but had so many faults to him, but that is what made me love him even more.  I loved how protective he got when Enola comes with a boyfriend, one covered in tentacle tattoos and can apparently create electricity. Throughout the book, the readers see many different sides to Simon that makes him a well rounded likable character.  Honestly I wanted more of Enola and her boyfriend in the book (I forget his name right now).  They floated around in the background and every so often would pop back up almost like a "hey remember me" kind of thing.  I wanted more of Enola's tarot reading skills and them correlating with the book aside from her tearing some out or hiding them when Simon came into the room.  Maybe a scene without Simon, where Enola is reading the cards and mutters "it's happening again" or something like that.  Something to tie her into the story a little more.

 enjoyed how the book went between the two story-lines but did it in a way that it was easy to follow.  The reader found out more information as Simon found it out, so it was exciting to read.  It left me excited to find out what would happen next and what happened to the circus characters as well as how they all related to Simon. I loved the incorporation of people drawn to water and knowing various techniques to holding their breath underwater for long periods of time.  As a kid I remember trying to see how long I could do that, and had contests with my brother.  How I longed to be a mermaid or Skelkie.  I got really excited when the legend of skelkies were alluded to, I was hoping this would be played up more, but it wasn't.  They are one of my favorite creatures of lore.

There is a lot of descriptions in this book that some may feel takes away from the story, but at times it adds to the story.  I say this because it helps build the picture.  It helps create the world that the author intends the reader to see.  She wants us to see her vision and goes the extra mile to do so.  The pacing is a little slow in the beginning but it does pick up after a while.  There were some things that were never really explained such as how Amos was able to appear like he disappeared (made me think of that part in Avengers Infinity War when Drax thinks he's moving so slow he's invisible).  Or why the women of the family mysteriously drowned when they could hold their breaths or were strong swimmers.  While I did enjoy reading the book and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, being left with a lot of unanswered questions left me feeling unsatisfied.