Reviews

The Unwritten Book: An Investigation by Samantha Hunt

blueberryhotel's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad

5.0

imogenrose97's review

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The final page of this book is likely the most perfect ending that I've ever read. I felt inspired by every page and ended up having to reread paragraphs as I slipped into planning my own creative endeavors and new writing I could do. It was just stunning, it has 3 chapters from her dad's unfinished book which she found after he died, she annotated it to tell little bits about what she thinks he was alluding to or meaning and it was so interesting and I want all authors to annotate and tell me everything they're thinking. As well as other personal essays about the world and life and I took soooo many notes. It also had the most perfect ending sentence that sums up what finishing a book feels like.

megancrayne's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

pennym_'s review

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reflective slow-paced

4.0

this has solidified samantha hunt as a favorite author for me. her writing is just incredible, and i love the connections she makes between seemingly disparate ideas. this isnt the kind of essay collection where you can easily pull out one or another to read alone; they are interconnected and best consumed together, but i want to highlight my favorites:
  • devour
  • empty boxes
  • a thousand deaths
  • citizens of the peace
  • queer theorem
  • ghost story

lunarpancakes's review

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hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

katrina_c's review

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.5

jrl6809's review

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challenging reflective medium-paced

5.0

Very Maggie Nelson-esque, I'm here for it. 

haveyseentis's review

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dark hopeful informative mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

Oh I love this book so much. On its surface, this is Hunt finishing her dead father’s unfinished book. But it resonates so much more deeply. For anyone who has felt a certain truth about what it means to be human but has been made to feel stupid about that important and spiritual knowledge, this book will cradle you. Writers need this book, people who are grieving need this book, women need this book, the living and the dead need this book. Hunt’s gentle and curious knowledge of the world is incredibly refreshing. 

surejan's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

2.5

The description sounded interesting. The book was not. I kept hoping there would be some points made, but really it was a smattering of stories with no overarching point. And why did I keep having to read the dad’s book? It was awful and the the author herself doesn’t even analyze it that deeply. 

kari_paul's review

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hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

perfection