The Book of Form and Emptiness

The Book of Form and Emptiness

2021 • 548 pages

Ratings26

Average rating4.1

15

A book with a story told from the perspective of a book. I think that sums up some of my frustrations with this book - it tries hard to be clever and meta but ends up just being weird and nonsensical. Our main characters are suffering from mental health disorders - the mother is an obsessive hoarder and the son hears objects talking to him. How much of this is real is left very much up to the reader to determine. In the end, I found the characters strange and annoying. The basic concepts and ideas were interesting enough, and the way that these mental issues creep up on you as a result of external factors was well realized, but the characters themselves just were not interesting or engaging enough for me. The meandering prose and structure really did not help me either.

I am sure there are going to be plenty of people who enjoy this kind of thing, but this was not for me

December 18, 2021Report this review