Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Book of Form and Emptiness

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

7 reviews

support_lesbian's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

Sometimes I come up with a numerical score for these reviews and sometimes I don't, is what it is. There more nuanced review below if you wanna read but this book is a hard do not recommend for me due to the 14 year old being groomed by the 18 year old gross shit happening here.

The writing style and the slow pace of the novel isn't for everyone I would say but I will give credit in saying that the author does know how to write and is good at my but the problem lies in the story itself. It had a good foundation and characters I really empathized with and were this a story written written by a person who has struggled with autism and schizophrenia and delusions these characters could have gotten the respect and pay off they really deserved to have but that wasn't given here. I can only describe as the way these characters with mental illness and addictions were being piloted by the story just felt off.

The best way I can explain it is that there was three different stories going on and the author didn't want to commit to any of them, which is fitting cause in the end the author had nothing to say about any of it..like there was no point being made. Goes to show whenever any author writes anything outside of themselves that research is one thing but being able understanding it is another.

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alicelalicon's review against another edition

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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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danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I kept going back and forth on my rating for this one between a 4 and a 5. And to be honest, if I was rating only on the quality of the writing, both prose and structure, it probably deserves a 4. Still a very good book, but there were parts that definitely didn't work or felt narratively clumsy, but truthfully, forest for the trees I found it deeply emotional, moving, and what did work was breathtaking and deeply deeply affecting for me. So this is sort of a “you know what, f**ck it, despite its flaws I loved it” 5 stars. A teenager and his mother both battle mental illness in the aftermath of the sudden death of their father/husband. The teenager, Benny, hears voices. And inanimate objects speak to him. And one of those is an omniscient voice called "The Book". And the narrative toggles back and forth between Benny's perspective and the perspective of the eponymous anthropomorphic book. And this device was used brilliantly to drive home the book's larger themes about the meaning that we give objects in our lives, especially when dealing with grief.

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