S. - Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams

If you love physical books, this one is a real treat. S. is a book within a book and has items actually tucked away inside the pages. The base novel is called Ship of Theseus by a mysterious author, V. M. Straka. Inside the margins of the book is a conversation between Eric, a disgraced Ph.D. student who claims to have had his research stolen by his advising professor, and Jen, a college senior who is questioning her life plan. Eric and Jen's conversations aren't always chronological on the pages, but you can get an idea of the timeline by the color pens they are using. The central mystery is the identity of Straka, which is Eric's, and ultimately Jen's, academic and life long quest. Ship of Theseus can actually be read while completely ignoring Jen and Eric's story and is about a man with amnesia trying to find out who he is and getting entangled in a rebellion over a span of decades.

The book itself is just a treat for the eyes. Below is a sample of one of the more... decorated pages. They aren't all this busy, but I chose this one because it gives a good idea of how the marginal notes look and there is an insert.

Exciting, right? I really loved how Eric and Jen's relationship evolves throughout the book. They communicate solely through the margins of Ships of Theseus until fairly far into the novel when they finally meet in person. Straka's identity is kind of a big deal in their world and as Jen gets involved in the research, she is occasionally harassed by a mysterious group of men. Eric is constantly in hiding and working furiously to try to solve the mystery before his advising professor publishes his theory (which was largely aided by Eric's stolen work).

This novel contains practically every genre, so there's something for everyone. Personally, I couldn't put it down until I finished reading it, which was actually quite time consuming because of all the margin notes and inserts. It was a little tricky sometimes figuring out what order to read everything in. Should you read the novel text on the page first followed by the margin notes or vice versa? When I come back to this one, I'll probably go through and read just the novel first and then go back for the margin conversations. The way I ended up reading the book in its entirety really interrupted the flow of the novel story for me and I had to go back and reference previous pages sometimes.

Either way, this is a really exciting concept and was both visually pleasing and mentally stimulating. I highly recommend!