What a wonderful and unique story about the experience of readers all discovering the same book and how each experiences the book in very personal ways.
The connections between the chapters come slowly and honestly I enjoyed each chapter, from a different reader, all on their own but when I realized the connections I was blown away. Also, it's interesting to note the research the author did so each character was so well developed. This is a story I could definitely reread again . I will definitely be recommending this one to lots of library patrons.

This book!! Profound, interesting and extraordinary! I LOVED "No Two Persons" by Erica Bauermeister and highly recommend it to everybody. Many fantastic characters with their stories of hardship and despair, pivot and transform as they read the same book. Flawless intertwining of people, beyond uplifting and powerful. Just WOW!!! Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advance reader copy, all opinions are my own.

This was an interesting book. One book can touch everyone’s lives differently. Sometimes it’s liked and others it’s not. Each chapter/year was different, I found I liked some better than others. Some I wanted to keep going, I wasn’t ready for it to end. It’s a good book
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

“No two persons ever read the same book,” is a quote attributed to Edmund Wilson, an American writer, literary critic and journalist. As thought-provoking as his writings were, I doubt that his words went beyond this alluring and spell-binding story written by Erica Bauermeister.
No Two Persons is the story of a reluctant writer named Alice and the impact of her novel on ten different readers, each of whom is struggling with a significant life issue. And each one is changed by finding a needed answer in Theo’s story. Each character is developed and described in words that are clear and succinct.
What a deeply moving book, one that touches the reader and the writer in all of us. Have we not all read a book that affected us, that spoke the perfect words, and our brokenness was mended? I found some lines so moving, so musical, that they flowed with a rhythm that called me to read them again and again. What a unique and beautifully written tale. It’s a story to be savored.

Have you ever wondered how one book can effect others? How it may change different people’s lives in multiple different ways? That’s what this book explores. We follow ten stories as we read, beginning with the author, then nine readers who have the book come into their lives in different ways.

I really enjoyed this book. Sometimes we never think of how a story can impact others and different ways than just an escape for a little while. I also really enjoyed how we got to see some of the process that a book goes through when we followed the story of it being written and the audiobook being recorded.

My one problem was that I didn’t think I got enough time with each character to really connect with them. And it seemed like their stories were a bit choppy because we were jumping through their timelines. I really loved how we discovered other connections between the characters, but I would have liked to have felt them a little bit more.

Overall this is a truly fantastic book that shows you the power that a single story can have, and the changes it can urge you to make or discoveries that you may have.

I really highly recommend that you check this one out!

Read if you like:
📚 Understanding how books impact different people
❤️ Connection through words
💔Trauma/Loss
💜 Multiple POV

I absolutely loved this one! I love how we got to see how the same book had dramatically different impacts on 10 different people based on their liver experiences. I also loved how it was also subtle in providing interconnection between the individuals impacted by the book Theo.

It was just so thoughtful in the way this book was written and I couldn’t get enough and loved how it came full circle in the end even though it ended with a somber note it was also hopeful.

I highly recommend checking this one out as it was unique and truly made you feel so much with even just one section per person and their impact the book had on them.

Thank you so much St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review! I truly hope others are impacted by this book the way I was!

I loved this! this was a surprising, delightful little read. Having read Bauermeister's earlier release, 'The Scent Keeper' bc of the Reese bookclub and not loving it, I felt trepidation about reading this one but I kept seeing nothing but 5 star review after 5 star review, and it was short so I figured I would try it.

It's length is deceiving, there is so much within this little book, It is essentially about Alice and the book that she manages to get published, and then about the many ways that her book has affected different people, and also the way that one book can transcend it's pages and mean many different things to many different people. As a book lover myself of course I was drawn to this book after reading the blurb but I did not realize the scope would be quite as large as it was.

This was full of many little stories within one story, many different character's and their storylines all interconnected by having read Alice's book, which is actually one of my favorite tropes in books, and when it's done well and I am invested in many or all of the storylines these can be some of my favorite books. This was coming along well and had a chance at becoming a 5 star book but I felt that it got a bit convoluted at the end and we could have done without one or two of the stories. Still a solid 4 star read for me though, I'm definitely interested in looking out for this author's future work, I have a feeling it will just keep getting better and better.

Five HUGE stars for No Two Persons. This book swept me up in its embrace, and I simply couldn’t put it down. This is a story for readers and writers and lovers of books, an imaginative tale spun out of the many iterations of the life of one novel. The magic is in its unfolding, and you will not regret one second spent in its pages. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.

It’s easiest to explain Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons through its premise: the book is a series of interconnected short stories centered around a book called Theo. Bauermeister’s novel begins with Alice, the author of Theo, exploring the origins of the book, which are connected to her own life, though it’s not completely autobiographical. Each new section explores the presence of Theo in the life of someone new—the artist who designs the cover, the assistant of the literary agent who discovers it, and myriad readers.

Through the short stories, characters reappear—we see Alice more than once—weaving a tribute to the power of books in our lives, the ways that they can change the way that we see ourselves, each other, the world.

The writing here is just gorgeous, and we see enough of Theo to have an idea of a book, though this isn’t completely a book-with-a-book situation (so there are no long passages of Theo building into the inclusion of the book in its entirety). Instead, it’s the idea of this novel, of the way it’s one thing for Alice and another thing for each person who comes into contact with it, that captures our attention.

The title comes from a quotation about no two persons experiencing a book the same way (and there’s a great story at the end from Bauermeister about the origins of the quote), and the way Bauermeister brings life to that concept resonated.

There’s deep empathy here, a nuanced understanding of the fact that we can only know the smallest part of the lives of most people we know but also a strong message that empathy can—and should!—arise from even that limited knowledge.

I think that anyone who’s a reader, anyone who has seen the way a book can touch someone deeply, anyone who has the urge to share a book with someone they know, will love this book.

“𝓝𝓸 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓼 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓫𝓸𝓸𝓴, 𝓸𝓻 𝓼𝓪𝔀 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮.”

✂️ P L O T L I N E
One book, one writer, nine readers, ten changed lives. “No Two Persons” is a beautiful story about how one single book can save your life and change your perspective on your path forward. Each chapter follows a different characters journey in finding the book “Theo,” and reveals how this one book changed each of their outlooks on life. Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and a book that will resonate with all.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
I highlighted the crap out of this book (on my IPad 😅). There were so many amazing quotes that hit so close to home. It was so hard to pick my favorite one! There were a couple characters that I connected with so deeply. I think that’s what makes this book a blessing, and a curse…because each chapter follows only one certain character, I felt like I wanted so much more from some of the storylines. Regardless of what I wanted, I understand that was not the purpose of this book and I appreciate that so much. Just like the book mentions, “life doesn’t get tied up with a bow very often.” Pick this book up when you feel like your life might falling into pieces and you don’t know what to do. I think this story will provide you with relief in knowing that there is possibility in whatever lies ahead 💕. Make sure you have your tissues ready.

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
💫Thought provoking reads
💫Emotional reads
💫Multiple character POV
💫Intertwined characters
💫Books about books

⚠️ 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: death, overdose, childhood trauma, sadness ⚠️

📖𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾📖
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

💕Q U O T E: “𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓈 𝓈𝓅𝑜𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒻𝒾𝒸 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒻𝒾𝒸 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑜𝓃𝓈, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈.”


🙏Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Erica Bauermeister for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts 💕

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
I've yet to come across such an eye opening novel. A novel with a compilation of short stories about, you guessed it, a novel.
Each short story glides into the next one effortlessly and relevantly. All of the character's are connected somehow and eventually the author perfectly comes full circle when reaching the end.
You have "The Writer", "The Narrator", "The Bookseller", "The Caregiver"....The list goes on. Reading each character's knee-jerk reaction of the novel entering their lives at just the right moment, was a special experience.
It's true. No two people read the same book.

Having read an earlier work by Erica Bauermeister, I was drawn to her latest, “No Two Persons”. From the beginning, I realized I was in for a reading experience like none previously encountered. While some describe it as a book of essays, it’s really a book of “connected essays.” Each character connecting with a book titled, “Theo” written by The Writer, Alice, whom we meet in the first essay. The epigraph sets the stage for a book that makes an impression with nuanced and unexpected connections between characters created through an exquisite narrative.

I finished this book a couple weeks ago and it continues too resonant deeply within me. This beautiful book is one of the most unique and creative reading experiences I’ve had in a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister in advance of the release.

Absolutely fantastic! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. Will recommend it to everyone I know!

Having loved THE SCENT KEEPER, I was excited to read Erica Bauermeister’s new book, NO TWO PERSONS. If I could rate the cover, I would give it five+ stars. It is gorgeous and is perfect for this story. When I taught a high school literature class, we discussed why each person reads a book differently (life experiences, interests, different stages of life…). Bauermeister explores this with the nine characters who come in contact with Alice’s book, THEO. I enjoyed and laughed how the Assistant, Lara, tried to cope with trying to keep up with her job reading manuscripts while breastfeeding…..I struggled with the rest of the book which read like an anthology of readers who somehow came in contact with “Theo.” I did enjoy “The Artist” and I really found myself needing to breathe after “The Diver.” I struggled for most of the book as my mind wondered. Maybe, at another time in my life, this reader would feel differently.
Cover: 5+ stars. Story: 3 stars. Overall: 4 stars. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

This novel once again showcases Bauermeister’s signature style of character studies told in short stories with a common thread. In this case, the people who read a particular novel, Theo, beginning with the author’s who writes it, to the agent that publicizes it, to the audio actor who records it, and then to various other people who read it. At each point in the lives of the people encountering the book, they take something different away from it. This is the essence of the title, that no two people will see the same story in the same way. The author has a gift for character development, fully fleshing out her characters in the space of a short story, yet the reader is drawn into their thoughts and feelings. As the book progresses, some of the characters cross paths, and Theo becomes a point of commonality. The plot of Theo is slowly revealed as different people identify with different aspects of that story. An interesting premise, and nicely written.

What an interesting format for a novel. It is almost short stories about different people, with one exception, the same book touches them all in different ways. The story evokes empathy for the characters and an understanding of the difficulties they are living through but at the same time there is hope in the form of a book.

Unquestionably a novel everyone should pick up and read and is best entering into not knowing very much.

Thank you @stmartinspress and @ericabauermeister for my prize copy of this. Also @netgalley for providing me with an advanced ecopy. @knightedbooks I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

What an interesting book. The idea that no two people read the same book is fascinating to me...and something I agree with. How is it possible for some people to give a book 5 stars and others give it 1 star? Because we are all individuals and we all grasp different parts of a book and a story. Certain things resonate more with me than others and vice versa. I loved how this book was a bunch of shorter stories all connected to the same book. I thought it was very well written and a fascinating take on storytelling.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

"No two persons ever read the same book or saw the same pictures”
The Writings of Madame Swetchine, 1860

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I’ve read plenty of books that made my heart ache, but very few that made my heart feel seen. There is something remarkably soothing about No Two Persons, this quiet novel told in vignettes. From beginning to end, one thought rang in me, heart, mind, and soul: “Ah. There you are.” I can’t articulate how it made me feel. The feeling it inspired isn’t big or showy, but it’s a feeling I’ve been seeking my entire life. Whatever that feeling may be, I’m incredibly thankful to have experienced it. And I hope other readers will have the same healing, soothing, quiet experience of being seen by what you love.

“I think each story has its own life. In the beginning, it lives in the writer’s mind, and it grows and changes while it’s there. Changes the writer, too, I’d bet… At some point it’s written down, and that’s the book readers hold in their hands. But the story isn’t done, because it goes on the live in the readers’ heads, in a way that’s particular to each of them. We’re all caretakers of the stories, Alice. Writers are just the lucky ones that get to know them first.”

The storytelling here is exceptional, and feels very unique. We follow a different person in each chapter, who are only bound together by their experience with a particular book, Theo, penned by the first character we meet. I would have bought this entire book for that first section alone, which said some brilliant things about stories and storytelling. But each perspective with engaging and insightful, and I was blown away by how brilliantly drawn and lifelike I found each of these individuals. And even though these characters are all radically different in every way, there began to be surprising connections between them further into the book. The story is a tapestry, tying the characters together in interesting, sometimes cyclical ways. Not only are there shared experiences between these characters and the titular character of the book that binds them, but some of them actually impact the story of another in small, unexpected, meaningful ways.

“Sometimes what she wrote felt more real than truth. But maybe that’s what writing was, in the end—a way to get to the bedrock, the oxygen. To search out the possible.”

I love books that make me feel, and this book definitely made me feel things. I wanted nothing more than to reach into the book and pull out my own copy of Theo, to see how the story that was so impactful for these characters might also impact me. I also love how the title comes into play, how no two of these characters experience Theo the same way or draw the same things from its pages. But not one of them is left unchanged by it.

“Wandering is a gift given only to the lost.”

“Inspiration.
Because wasn’t that what art was all about, in the end? Mentally shoplifting your way through the world around you, the thoughts inside you? Looking for the thing that makes it all click. Makes it all start. Makes it all worthwhile and whole and good again.
That could take a while. You might have to wander, but that didn’t mean you were lost.”

This is exactly what I’m always subconsciously hoping to find whenever I pick up a book about books. No Two Persons is all about the power of story to reveal and connect and heal, and how that journey can be radically different for each person who picks up the same book. And that emphasis on the importance of story, particular this one specific story, is the binding element of the entire work. Some books proclaim themselves to be a “love letter to book lovers” or an “ode to the power of story,” but they almost without fail forsake that promise as the plot takes over. Not so with No Two Persons. The book within this book is the plot, and nothing ever usurps it. Because it’s a quiet, thoughtful, meditative work, I don’t know that it will sing into the soul of every reader as it did mine. But that’s the entire point of the story here. No two persons ever read the same book in the same way. I’m just incredibly thankful to have experienced it in the way that I did. It’s my favorite book I’ve read all year.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️

I loved this novel! All the chapters center a different character, with the book "Theo" as a common thread among them, creating a wonderful web of stories. Each was so well crafted that I slowed my reading pace to savor the limited time I had with each. Thank you NetGalley, Erica Bauermeister, and St. Martin’s Press for this Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review of No Two Persons (coming out May 2nd!)



For 2023, I’ll be using this rating scale:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I mourned the ending of this journey 🥹
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ really enjoyed and would recommend
⭐️⭐️⭐️ it was fine
⭐️⭐️ I didn’t enjoy this journey
⭐️ I dnf’d or wish I’d dnf’d
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ this is smutty smutty erotica 🥵
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ medium burn
🌶️🌶️🌶️ slow burn
🌶️🌶️ romantic b plot / closed door / YA romance
🌶️ no romance / nonfiction

I loved this one. It was fascinating to see how the book - both the written words and the actual book itself - affect different people in different ways. And then the beautiful way that Bauermeister wove the readers' stories together - so good. There was just enough about each character to be left wondering a little, and then later to see the interconnection. It reminded me of