Remember J.J. Abrams' Fake Movie?

In 2013, director JJ Abrams surprised the world with a spooky trailer. Turns out, it was for a book... and the book is kinda out there. Let's talk about S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst.

[Conflict-ffpi]

I appreciate that JJ skipped all the formalities in this instance and just made the entire product the Mystery Box

[ryanpmcguire]

I thought this was going to be a disappointing “it was only a book!” trailer, but this book is actually really cool.

[boobootittleman]

“S.” was so unique, it’s kind of daunting considering there’s three different stories going on in one novel.

[sneb]

This sounds like some House Of Leaves-esque deep rabbit hole kinda book. Gonna check it out! I had no idea this existed

[vanishingllama]

I stinkin' love books like this that blend fiction and reality, I would have never found out books like this exist without you. Thank you, Austin, you rock!

[giovannileo]

I loved this book and it took me basically all of highschool finish and I’m still not sure if I’m finished or not

[LouisWritingSomethingCrazy]

Sounds like the perfect Abrams project. Layers upon layers of useless mysteries all without the pretext of actually coming up with a plausible ending.

[Rytoc]

To be fair, a ton of projects that Abrams has been attached to since The Force Awakens haven't come out. So those are the REAL fake movies.

[christina]

this book *just* came up on my social media timeline yesterday and i put a hold on it at my library immediately. what great timing! thank u so much for the tips, would’ve gotten really frustrated otherwise

[jodofficial]

One of my favorite books presentations despite not getting... probably most of it. Also led me to discover another book you'd covered, House of Leaves. Both very unique, for very different reasons. Folks should definitely give it a read! Thanks for sharing Austin! As always, great overview.

[wyattm_]

Very fascinating video. I appreciate this new “out-of-the-box books” series, especially since I haven’t read any books in the past few years and had no clue that books like these even existed. This one sounds right up my alley. Thanks!

[vdvklaas]

I hope you keep coming to us with these type of books as this one or Cathy's book, really enjoying these books that have a history of people owning it, writing in it, reading it a spart of the experience. loving these videos.

[meanolduncleeli]

It’s interesting learning about these odd books.
I don’t think I could get through it, but I’m glad they exist.
Reading unfinished Tolkien stories with footnotes is the closest I’ll get.

[fostena]

Does it pay off? I'm always skeptical with JJ. Is it a mystery for mystery's sake or does it contain something meaningful to discover?

[lawrencecalablaster]

I’ve seen this book on the shelf at my local library so many times (mainly because it’s early in the alphabetical-by-author shelf & interesting), but never checked it out.
Maybe now will be the day :)

[redstaticofficial]

This book almost gives off House of Leaves vibes. I might get this book.

[erichall]

J.J. "A Ton of Ambiguity" Abrams

[tux]

im so glad austin is doing more vids on these kindsa books!

[_modnar_]

In my comment on the last video I mentioned "House of Leaves" and "S", so seeing this video now is really funny for me 😁

[dimesonhiseyes]

You need to check out the book "Cain's Jawbone".
It is a murder mystery/ puzzle book where All the pages were printed out of order. Supposedly there is a prize that has never been claimed if you arrange the pages correctly.