Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

10 reviews

ka_cam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Weaving an omnicient Book narrator with a youthful young man who hears voices of objects and unseen entities (including the Book) as him and his mom grieves the loss of his father and finds his way through early adolescence. Some of the characters felt a bit flat/different from a teen boy narrator, but otherwise a solid read. The self proclaimed ‘big question’ is “what is real?” But themes of family, friendship, mental health, anti-capitalism, suffering, zen, substance use/abuse, and family/care.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism

thursdd4y's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

The ending was lovely, but this book felt 200 pages too long and I really started to hate picking it up. Personally a lot of it could’ve been cut and made everything a lot more powerful and engaging, because at times it felt tedious.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

coolfoolmoon's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very respectful of people with different minds. Very kind. Very well reseaeched into the intersections of people's lives and how their mental illnesses or impairities can / may be affected by outside factors. Very very, very real, living, loving book. 🥰 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Confinement, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lottiegasp's review against another edition

I found it boring and too slow-paced after the first few chapters. I did not find myself caring enough for the characters or the outcome to continue 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Death of parent

Moderate: Fatphobia and Mental illness

Minor: Racial slurs

bookish_history's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Grief, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

alicelalicon's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

willows's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

 That was absolutely bonkers and had very memorable characters. Literally wack, it's been weeks and I still think about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Self harm, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Police brutality

librarianlayla's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you're looking for a book that has a lot of emotional range, but not overly littered with joy or hope - then this is for you.

Whilst beautifully written, raw and real - there wasn't a lot of light within this book. It holds a lot of pain, confusion and loss.

This book is designed to make you feel and to think on a broader spectrum. Less about enjoyment and more about emotional expansion within the realm of sorrow.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

spcandybars's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have to say that I absolutely love, no, completely adore this book. So much feels so relatable - the depiction of the mother’s ADHD, the presence of the Marie Kondo + Japanese minimalism tidying boom, the odd complications of aging into adulthood within a rapidly changing society - but then there are the the moments that aren’t relatable, that don’t make you feel nostalgic about your life. There’s pain and struggles with mental health that may seem far away but are so close anyway.  I heavily appreciated the tie between Benny’s auditory hallucinations, the likely ghost of the Kenji, and the incorporation of the Japanese/Shinto beliefs surrounding the spirit of all things. I also love “the book” and how it encompasses many a book lover’s inner ramblings about their favorite item while also representing something much more abstract. I could dig into so many pieces of this book but in this moment I’m just so happy to have added it to a never ending collection of stories (which I think would make the book happy as well). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug abuse and Police brutality

Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, and Death of parent

thebacklistborrower's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 I finished this book and wasn’t ready to let it go. I immediately wanted to reread it again, forwards, backwards, and from right in the middle. It is about a boy named Benny who hears objects talking to him, including a book that narrates his life, and his mother, a woman who struggles with hoarding. Ultimately, this story is about our relationship with stuff and books in particular. 

This book covers so much ground: mental health, trauma, access to appropriate supports for children and adults, consumerism, capitalism, art, the nature of reality, society’s treatment of homeless people with mental health challenges, and books. Over and over again, language, stories, poetry, books, and libraries are looked to for solace, connection, and help. Many characters take refuge in the library and get help from the community that it builds around it. 

In this book, all things have spirits and voices and want to be heard. Benny goes in and out of live-in treatment when he starts to hear these voices, and an alphabet of diagnoses is sprinkled through the book as his doctors try to figure him out. But at the same time, as a reader I never felt that his hearing voices was wrong, with the book coming across as magical realism. Anybody who has read Ozeki’s “Tale for the Time Being” will know this style. In both books, the question of “what is real” is very present both for the characters and the reader. And ultimately, it is up to everybody’s interpretation what the answer is. I was fascinated to see in the Acknowledgements that Ozeki had consulted with various groups that support those who hear voices, which definitely leant itself to the way the topic is approached in the book.

I can’t say enough good things about this book. There is still so much I haven’t talked about, and I think everybody who reads this book will read something different and valuable out of it (a phenomenon actually referenced in the book). So I think anybody can and should read this book. It will be one of my favourites this year, and for many to come.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Violence, and Alcohol