Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Book of Form & Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

47 reviews

roxyc's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Mental illness

Minor: Death and Death of parent

siobhanward's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

3.5

 

I appreciated how meta this book was at times and how it leaned into it, but I definitely struggled with it at some points. The idea of it was great, and Annabelle and Benny were solid characters, but at times it felt like things were just kind of meandering. I liked how Ozeki moved back and forth through plots to create the story - this seems to be a theme for her and is frankly something she does well. I also loved how Ozeki pulled events from the real world into the book. I think that added a lot in terms of grounding a magical realism book in reality. This was a fun read, but a bit too long for me at times.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

orlagal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Body horror, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Self harm, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Blood, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, and Rape

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

ckncert's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

 

 This book is the representation of if you were to open the suitcase of a frequent over-packer: so many clothes but they forgot to bring socks.

The Book of Form and Emptiness tells the story of a boy called Benny, whose life drastically changes after the traumatic death of his father and as he starts to hear objects talk. We follow his growth as he meets an eccentric Slovenian poet in a wheelchair and a mysterious artist who calls herself the Aleph. These new acquaintances validate his experiences and push him to explore his diversity, while the adults in his life (his mother, Annabelle, and his psychiatrist) are close-minded and clueless. However, Annabelle has her own issues to deal with: her immense grief and her hoarding problem, which almost gets them evicted altogether. Thus, the book follows these two characters as they try to collect the pieces of their broken lives through the help of people and books.

 The novel is built as a dialogue between the Book (Benny's book, the one which narrates his life) and Benny himself, as he sometimes interjects in the story to comment on what is going on. The aspect I liked most about this novel was the gorgeous writing. As a lover of literary fiction, the quality of the writing is essential to me. In this case, I found it compelling, profound, provocative, and very lyrical and poetic in some parts. The writing alone is why I stuck with this book till the end. 

However, because of the same writing, I developed a huge pet peeve as the book went on. I started to deeply despise Benny's chapters. Although they are often no longer than a page or so, they are written exactly as a 14-year-old boy would speak. The realism of the writing, with light cursing, informal turns of phrase, etc, made the sudden jump from the Book's prose to an annoying teenage boy's train of thought extremely jarring. Truly, Benny's comments weren't deep or insightful and I wish they would have added new information or have been cut in half. 

Finally, my biggest disappointment was the ending, which felt incredibly rushed. Throughout the book, Ruth Ozeki continues to add conflict and constantly ups the ante. However, despite having more than 500 pages to resolve most of the problems she has set up, she ends up making the issues magically disappear only in the last 20 pages.

Indeed, she even makes a character almost come back from the dead to end one of the conflicts. Benny can suddenly walk because he decided so and the voices are only background noise now, whereas they were still causing him problems a few pages before.

The reason the ending was so rushed and the characters didn't develop gradually was that Ozeki added too many elements, which suffocated the plot. The book is crammed with references to Buddhism, the Fluxus movement, Jazz, Walter Benjamin, Marie Kondo, and Japan, which makes it so that the plot is sacrificed. 

 Therefore, the enjoyment you will get out of this book depends on what you are looking for in a book. If you are in search of a well-told and developed story, you might need to read something else. However, it is undeniable that the book is a goldmine of references, most of which I was introduced to thanks to this book.

I would say it is a book worth reading anyway if I wasn't aware the length makes it very unapproachable for many readers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Death

Minor: Drug abuse

hduc's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Police brutality, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Violence, Animal death, Drug use, Addiction, Mass/school shootings, Pedophilia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Alcohol

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

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

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

futuretreeman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

I was in my favorite bookstore when we found each other. It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall used-book bookstore. But the hole goes surprisingly far back and the precariously leaning bookshelves touch the ceiling. It's a magical place that never fails to house several books I'm interested in. It was the first place I visited when I moved to college and the last place I visited when I dropped out.

Just like the book-within-the-book "Tidy Magic", 'The Book of Form and Emptiness', flew off the shelf to me. I was in the middle of several projects about homes and objects, the way objects feel and the way they make us feel and the memories they help us make. I even wrote poems about forks and spoons and napkins.

I was also beginning some self-discovery at the time. My dad died too when I was a little kid and after years of ignoring how it hurt, I finally started to recognize how it really made me feel and who I had turned into.

By the time I finished the book, I had gone through other changes too. I learned what a terrific friend I had been in college, unreliable, apathetic, and exactly the kind of person I had always feared becoming. I went through back-and-forth stages of putting the blame all on me, all on my friends, and realizing we all had roles to play.

I've felt much like Benny. I even feel like Annabelle as I write this review.

The certainly hasn't changed my life, and it will take far more than words on a page to heal my hurt and the hurt I've caused others. But this book has had a marvelous impact on me. I sometimes find myself wondering if a hot pan burns because it is angry at you for hurting it by putting it in the oven. But my family hasn't read this book and they'd think I was crazy if I said it out loud.

If you've read the book, you understand.

And if you find a book that makes you feel this way, listen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Drug abuse, Body horror, Car accident, Drug use, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Confinement, Blood, Bullying, Alcohol, and Animal cruelty

knupselmaus's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Alcoholism

Minor: Rape

augie_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Death of parent, Violence, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Mass/school shootings, and Fatphobia