I was going through booktok the other day and came accross someone unboxing a very mysterious book. It was wrapped in black paper and when he uncovered the book, it immediately hooked me. I wanted it right then and there. The book was black with gold lettering. The sides of the pages were also black and the pages had beautiful art on them. The guy was talking about how the book was supposed to have this huge mystery to solve around it and if I wasn’t already hooked because of the look of the book, I would’ve been hooked right there. My favorite kind of books are the ones that you have a mystery to solve surrounding the books. The first book I read of this type was Cathy’s Book from Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman. You had a pocket with all these clues to go through to help you figure out the story. I had so much fun and I’ve been wanting to find another book like this for so long that when I saw this tiktok, I immediately went online to bought the book.
The book in question is The Octunnumi. To be more precise, it’s The Octunnumi Fosbit Files Prologue. Yes. A whole book is a prologue. Like I said, I already bought the book. But, I haven’t received it yet. It has been shipped, but since it comes from the UK and I’m in Canada, it might take a while to get here. In the meantime, I decided to take a look at their website to see if I could find some more information on what this mystery book is.
The first time you see when you go on their website is an intro. The intro welcomes the curious ones and says that it is us who will see beyond, who will understand and who will strive to redress the balance. It says we will be the difference, the change. Already more curious! When you go in the “About” page, there’s this long text trying to convince you that The Octunnumi doesn’t exist. That Fosbit and his files do not exist. It mentions the Tarelen people, the Avitens of Fethrist and says they are not real. It says there is no hidden world or mythical beings and no secret access points to these hidden worlds. From what I can tell, this page is meant to be written by someone who does not want you to believe what is in the book. Very interesting!
In the “More” page, they tell you about the made up language of the Tarelens and how there’s a companion booklet to help you understand it. They also have an AR app that can help you in the pronunciation of the Tarelen tongue. With this AR app, you can also scan certain parts of the book to find more clues. In this page you also learn that, yes this book is in fact just a prologue, and is the prologue of a promised TWELVE volume series!
This is sadly all I know about this book for the time being. I thought looking through the website would give me some answers on what this book is about, but it only deepened the mystery! Which is frustrating, but also very exciting! I can’t wait to receive my copy!
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