No Two Persons took me on quite the journey. It was almost like reading 11 books in one, but they were all connected in some way. This was book was one of my most anticipated books of 2023, and it lived up to my expectations, just in a different way.

I think the concept "no two people will read the same book" this book is based off is such a unique thing. We have 10 people reading (or writing) the same book that are so completely different, and have their own completely different journey with this book. Yet, you start to pick up on tiny hints that these 10 people are all connected in some way, because that's just how the world works (ex: The Teenager and The Agent). And it was done so subtly, that readers may miss this if they aren't paying attention.

This book was long, because it felt like reading 11 different books, but it was long in a good way. It left me wanting more. And it definitely left me wanting to read "Theo." This book is beautiful, and I think that it will take a little to catch steam, but once it does, it will be a well-talked book.

No Two Persons
By Erica Bauermeister

This is the story of a book, and the many different people whose lives are changed by it. Alice is a young girl, a talented writer with a story to tell based on her life experience. She is encouraged by a teacher who believes in her talent, and eventually she writes a book called "Theo" – the story of a boy who has lived a very dysfunctional life, which has left him somehow broken and yet able to overcome his younger years and the abuse. This book is destined to impact the lives of several of its readers, which goes to show that no two persons read a book in the same way or take away from the reading the same things.

There are many characters here who read "Theo". Each vignette is a glimpse into how each person who encounters the book is changed by it in some way. I found it a fascinating story. Truly, no two persons DO read a book in the same way, because the experience of reading is a symbiosis between the book and the reader.

Those who love reading will find this new book by Erica Bauermeister a must-read.. She presents in story form what avid readers have always know about reading, and she does this in a most enjoyable way.

Reading like a collection of short stories, the characters are tied together in some way and each stumbles across the same book at pivotable times in their lives. The book illustrates how each of us can be affected by the words on a page and how whatever stage we are in life can affect our reactions and opinions of the book.

I stumbled across this one at just the right time in my life and am happy to recommend it to others who love reading.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister was a beautiful literary puzzle. The structure of the novel is as a collection of short stories, each written from the perspective of a new person. The characters are deep and real, and the puzzle was the process of deciphering how they all connected with one another.

There are not enough adjectives to describe how much I loved this book!! Because I was reading it on my kindle, I took so many notes that I thought-I have to buy this book and have it on my own shelves forever. It is a story about how one book influences the lives of so many people, and it was beautifully written. I can't wait to read it again, and to recommend it to our patrons. Thank you for letting me have the joy of reading this book, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press!!

No Two Persons is such a beautifully written book. It’s a book for book lovers and for those who enjoy interconnected short stories. Just as the title suggests, no two readers will experience a book in exactly the same way. I loved how all of the parts came together in the end. Highly recommend!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

𝘕𝘰 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 spoke to me in such a level, it was as if Erica Bauermeister has been inside my head for years…reading with me, feeling emotions with me, and then wrote them all (plus more) in this delightfully engaging masterpiece.

Each chapter of this book is focused on a different person. There are some connections between characters but the main one is they all read the same book. As all books do, each person was affected by it differently. We meet the writer first and get a rare inside glimpse of how a book can start from a single thought. How that thought blossoms into a work of bestselling fiction and ends up in the hands of the remaining characters is breathtaking.

This book is so unique, speaking clearly to all types of readers. If you love to read, no matter your genre preference, you need to read this book.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

This book is clever, thought provoking, and just simply lovely...

It reads almost like a book of short stories. Every chapter bringing us a new character who somehow crosses paths with the book "Theo" and how their lives are then changed by the words across its pages. The years go by highlighting each individual story, and by the ending you have come full circle in the most perfect way.

I cannot be the only one secretly wishing (begging!) the author to actually write "Theo!"

5 stars

No Two Persons is a story about how one book can change someone’s life. It follows the lives of Alice, the author, and nine people who read her book, Theo. It details how Theo changed or helped change each person’s life (for better or worse). An emotional read, No Two Persons will get under your skin and make you wonder: How many lives will this book affect?

The plotline for No Two Persons initially follows Alice, the author of Theo. It explains her background (distant parents, death of an older brother from an overdose) and how she wanted to write but felt she couldn’t. It wasn’t until college, and an observant professor, that Alice finally throws off her parents’ expectations and writes Theo. After that, the plotline goes from prepublication (when Alice was searching for a publisher) to her ARC reader to her readers and then back in a circle to the publisher.

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t affected by this book because I was. I found a connection with every single character. The ones that stood out to me the most were the new mother (who worked for the publisher), the free driver, and the homeless teenager. I could see a bit of myself in each of those characters.

I liked that the book did interconnect the stories. I didn’t realize, at first, that they were interconnected until almost the end of the book. Then I briefly reread, and a lightbulb went over my head. This book also went full circle. It started and ended with Alice.

I would recommend No Two Persons to anyone over 21. There is language, mild violence, and sexual situations.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Erica Bauermeister for allowing me to read and review No Two Persons. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

This book is essentially an interconnected book of short stories, with the connection between each one being a fictional book within the book. We see the writer of the book, the literary agent’s assistant who finds it in the slush pile, the actor who records the audiobook, and various readers who come in contact with the book in some way, from a homeless high school student to a grieving widower to a bookseller, and more. I could tell right from the start of this one that it was going to be a special book, and I was right.

It’s a love letter to readers and writers about the power of fiction and how, as the title suggests, every person experiences a book in a different way. But it’s also just an incredibly poignant book about people. Each chapter/story is not just about that person’s experience with the book, but an incredible portrait of who they are as a person. The characters are so distinct and so real, with each one coming to life more in 30 or so pages than most authors can do in an entire novel. And I happily would have read a whole book about any of them - this book left me wanting more not in the sense that it felt underdeveloped, but in the sense that I loved the characters so much that I wanted to know more about what was going to happen to them - and o absolutely loved when we got a glimpse of them in later stories. It all came together so beautifully in the end and I finished the book in tears.

4.5 stars

Definitely a unique and wonderful read. It will be one of my favorites.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Alice has lost her brother and she is having issues processing her grief. She has dropped out of college but her college professor keeps pushing her to write the novel he knows is inside her. And when she finally puts Theo on paper, she doesn’t realize how many lives it will change.

This story follows a book. Yes one book. And it touches so many lives in so many ways. I have never read a book like this. This book melted my heart. This is why I love book blogging. A story means so many different things to so many people. The author nailed this fact with such beautiful prose and meaningful content. To say I loved this book is an understatement! You will have to read this and tell me what it meant to you. This is a novel I want to discuss!

Talk about a production. You can see all the narrators names above. And each and every one did an excellent job. I love when there is a production of narrators. It really makes the story come alive.

Need a novel built just for a reader…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

All I can say is wow!! I loved this book about a book and how it impacted 9 different people. Each chapter, about a person who interacted with Theo, was like it's own book. It's been awhile since I was lost in a book and this one did it for me. It sucked me in. So incredible!

A book about a book - a bookish book, about the part of a book‘s life - an author who writes, an agent‘s assistant sifting through the slush pile, the agent, the audiobook narrator, a bookseller, and several readers who come to this book - some eager, some reluctant, some just because someone else read it … what does this book mean to people and what can it do for them, which role can it play ? This book ponders on this question in beautiful vignette- like outtakes of the different people’s life. In a poetic an beautiful way, with lush prose and an eye for detail and the tiny things that make a person. I loved reading this beautiful book.
I had access to both the advance listener copy and an eARC and I am so glad I had both since the full cast recording with all those different voices was fantastic but some scenes were so heartbreaking and beautiful that I went back in and read them to highlight sentences !

This delightful, heart-warming, brilliantly constructed novel revolves and deepens around a diverse group of people who all encounter the same fictional novel, Theo, within the novel. It opens with the author, Alice, whose writing talent finally finds purchase in her inspiration imagining a small boy Theo growing up in a house with a tough father. Each chapter of Bauermeister’s book then unfurls around nine diverse people’s interaction with the book, with the book speaking to each based a formative place where they find themselves in their lives. As each story gets told, we get a further reveal of the plot of Theo.

Each story has a powerful arch: from a free diver hitting the limits of his endurance to a high schooler trying to hide her homelessness and lack of parents. There’s an artist struggling to express herself to a bookseller who unexpectedly stumbles upon love to a disabled actor who regains acting through becoming an audio book narrator. Each character emerges changed or transformed from their interaction with the fictional novel, in ways that leave you buzzing inside with happiness for them and with a resounding faith in the power of novels to impart wisdom to our lives.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister portrays the journey of a novel and the impact it makes on the lives of a variety of individuals. Each chapter is the story of a person who is either involved in the creation of the book titled Theo or a reader who somehow encounters the book and experiences a connection unique to their own life experience. Just as in novels with dual timelines, I eagerly anticipated a "goosebump" conclusion to the story. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy to read and review.

I loved the concept of this book. It’s basically a collection of short stories with one book a central connecting piece. Alice’s section was my favorite. I found myself not wanting to finish this book toward the end because I didn’t feel connected to the story. It felt a little disjointed and boring at times. I can see how people would love this though! It just wasn’t my favorite.

“That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go…“

Well, this book was a surprise.

I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but a collection of what amounts to short stories, wasn’t it.

That is not to say I didn’t love this work, because I did. I loved the uniqueness of using Theo as the touchpoint for every story. I loved the variety of settings, particularly the free-diving. I loved the manifold characters. Actor, artist, diver, child, bookseller, widower, agent, and a partridge in a pear tree. Everyone made an appearance.

My biggest frustration and disappointment involved the general lack of character/plot resolution. I wanted to know what happened to everyone, and, if I’m honest, my Disney Heart wanted one unifying scene, where all the characters coalesced. Or, at least, a Return of the King inspired set of epilogues. Sometimes you want Scope for the Imagination. Sometimes, you want everything to come, wrapped in pretty paper and a ribbon.

I’m so excited to know that this new-to-me author has a back-catalogue.

7/10

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for this truly unique ARC.

No two persons can read the same book! Ain't that the truth. Everyone can take their own opinions and thoughts and it can be entirely different from someone else. Personally, I have a hard time following multiple POVs but the whole concept of the book was very interesting and I enjoyed it!

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

Published: May 2, 2023
St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pages: 301
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Erica Bauermeister is the NYT bestselling author of the four novels including The Scent Keeper, The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. Her newest novel, No Two Persons, will be out in May of 2023. She has also written a memoir, House Lessons: Renovating a Life. Before she began writing fiction and memoir, she earned a Ph.D. in literature and co-authored two guides to books: 500 Great Books by Women and Let's Hear It For the Girls. She lives in Port Townsend, WA and loves to talk with book groups.

“We can never truly know another person…”

Alice wants to find the words inside her and thrust them into the world. Madeline wants to find the next prominent author and publish them. Juliet wants to find romance and happiness. William is trying to process his grief and is on the verge of losing himself. Kit wants to find someone who can keep up without losing time. Nola has a secret that she must protect or risk losing everything. Tyler wants to get lost in the dark, vastness of the ocean, where he feels at home. Miranda is looking for inspiration and a way to avoid her mother. Rowan once had it all; his good looks opened doors for him until he noticed something small. Lara yearns for a connection that inspires her.

This was an unusual book, but the way the story was told was interesting. We walk through moments in several characters' lives, getting glimpses into who they are and their journey.

I enjoyed how everything was full circle by the end; I found that clever. The characters were all interesting and well-developed. It was a unique concept how the book connected everyone in various ways.

This is more of a slow-burn type of literary fiction, but it is interesting and keeps me engaged. I enjoyed the way the story unfolded and how each character played a part in bringing everything to life.