Audiobook Review – The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran, Narrated by Carol Monda (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Thriller/Horror
Length: 9 hours and 30 minutes
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release Date: April 26, 2022
ASIN: B09TRT3L5D
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“A mysterious book that promises unlimited power and unrivaled sexual pleasure. A down-on-her-luck book dealer hoping for the sale of a lifetime. And a twist so shocking, no one will come out unscathed.
After a tragedy too painful to bear, former novelist Lily Albrecht has resigned herself to a dull, sexless life as a rare-book dealer—until she gets a lead on a book that just might turn everything around. The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a 17th-century manual on sex magic, rumored to be the most powerful occult book ever written—if it really exists at all. And some of the wealthiest people in the world are willing to pay Lily a fortune to find it, if she can.
Her search for the book takes her from New York to New Orleans to Munich to Paris, searching the dark corners of power where the world’s wealthiest people use black magic to fulfill their desires. Will Lily fulfill her own desires and join them? Or will she lose it all searching for a ghost?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed a copy of this on audiobook from my library.
Thoughts: This was an okay read. It’s about a woman, Lily, who started to have a successful writing career until her husband developed severe dimentia and required constant care. Lily has now been eking out a living as a bookseller when she hears about a priceless book that a customer wants to purchase. She teams up with another bookseller, Lucas, and goes on a wild chase for the rare book. It’s a journey filled with danger, mysterious occultism, and lots of sex.
This was okay. I struggled to like or engage with the characters here, they just all felt very selfish and unlikable to me. Yeah, Lily has it pretty tough but she made some pretty bad choices too. Watching her sexual romp through various European countries in an effort to heal herself and find “The Book of the Most Precious Substance” was engaging enough that I finished the book but I didn’t really find it that intriguing or special. I think I was hoping for more magic or more character growth, or just more something out of this. Instead the characters ended up just as stunted as they had started.
Lily tells the story with this huge foreshadowing about how horrible everything ended up, but she doesn’t seem that unhappy with how things turn out by the end of the book. It just felt a bit unfinished and unsatisfying.
I think part of my issue with this is that I read a lot of fantasy/horror/supernatural books and this just seems like a supernatural-lite book or something? It just doesn’t build a magic system or really embrace this dark magical world that it attempts to introduce the reader to. I think if you really like straight-up mystery/thrillers and are looking for something with a touch of supernatural in it, this might be for you. I found that it felt fairly incomplete and boring.
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was okay. The narrator’s voice is a bit scratchy and she sometimes forgot to switch character voices when switching characters. Definitely not the best narration out there. I would recommend reading on paper/e-book.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but not really for me. The characters felt very selfish and immature throughout the story and never really showed any growth. The supernatural aspects of the mystery weren’t well fleshed out and felt very surfacey. If you are looking for a mystery/thriller with subtle supernatural occult elements, you might enjoy this. The whole thing just felt a bit lacking to me. I don’t plan on picking up future books by Gran.
