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? The Book of the Most Precious Substance is an addictive erotic thriller about the lengths we’ll go to get what we need-and what we want.
I requested this book a while ago from NetGalley because it sounded interesting (and the title caught my eye) but I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. An erotic thriller is not normally the kind of book I reach for but I was willing to give this a try. And this surprised me in the best way possible (but I wouldn’t classify it as an erotic thriller because that gives an impression that this book isn’t).
This is a book about Lily, who is an author who is finding creativity hard to find after the decline of her husband to severe dementia (unable to communicate or move himself at all) and has turned to book dealing to pay the bills. But then she hears about an extremely rare book (of dark sex magic) and she and a friend of hers, Lucas, go looking for it. Along the way they discover more about the book and even start trying out some of the magic.
Lily is such an interesting character because even when she makes decisions that you might not make, throwing herself into whatever experiences come up in the search for the book and exploring the magic despite instinct warning her not to, her depression and her grief about the way her life had turned out through no choice of her own was all too real. Her love for her husband was real, but so was the fact that she regarded him as a burden to her. They also had a very active sex life and she missed that closeness as well as Abel himself. And when you gradually realise where the book is heading, what Lily wants to do, you can’t help but root for her to have that change, even with the cost it takes. Throughout the book, Lily is the narrator from the future when the book is finished so she gives small asides about things she would have done differently, when she would have turned away from the book.
I read this partly on Kindle and listened to it partly on audiobook, which really helped to appreciate Sara Gran’s writing. This is not a fast-paced book, but I really enjoyed the time it took to flesh out Lily’s character and build up the book towards it’s ending. The writing is absolutely stunning, I loved how things were described, including the people.
That said, the ending is one reason why I can’t give this five stars. Not because it was a bad ending, I actually really love how everything worked out more realistically than perfectly, but because the implications of the ending felt a little quick. There is a scene where Lily is talking to Leo about everything and I really would have loved to have seen more of that, more of Lily grieving what came before and wishing she had appreciated the good, quiet moments when she had them, but still not wishing to change what is now. I feel like I would have loved a chapter more focusing on Lily and how she handled everything, rather than the more epilogue feeling it had.
It’s still an excellent book, more literary than anything else, and one I would recommend though I’m not completely sure how to classify it.
4.5 stars!
