Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

17 reviews

amberinbookland's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Animal death, Drug use, Medical content, Drug abuse, Self harm, Body shaming, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence

storykath's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.75

Whew, finally made it! I read this book in fits and starts over the last two weeks, and a lot of the time it felt unending, but in the end it was a worthwhile story that will probably stay on my mind for a while.

This book tackles a lot; there's commentary on mental health, addiction, the nature of stories, politics, and society as a whole. It was an effort to continually wade through them all, but the switches in POVs were effective for keeping things balanced.

There's also a lot of nuance and ambiguity in this book, and I think it was handled incredibly well. We hear the subjective thoughts and feelings of characters with mental illnesses and addictions, and we can see how easy it is for them to fall into deluded or dangerous ways of thinking. At times I was totally immersed in each character's perspective, and at other times I could approach it more objectively and see the truths that they were missing. To handle this type of writing so sensitively and faithfully is really a feat.

I don't think I would read this book again, as a lot of the philosophy was too nebulous for my tastes, but I would recommend it to anyone looking for an absurd yet bracingly real story of struggle and survival.

Definitely check content warnings before diving in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Blood, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Medical content, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual assault, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Violence

karenmariscalo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

 A book about empathy for all things and people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Car accident, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Addiction, Alcohol, Fatphobia, and Bullying

_inge's review

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? Yes

4.0

This was really good, though I can’t exactly explain why. I think Ozeki’s writing has a lot to do with this. Her writing really is amazing; her sentences are poetic and beautiful, but still very clear and easy to follow. The structure helped as well, the chapter length made it easier to digest what was happening in the story. The subject matter is quite heavy, but because of the overall style it never manages to be so dark you’d want to put this book away. 

I also really loved the characters in this. They are very flawed, but therefore very human. Like them we don’t know whether they’re doing the right thing or not, and we question what’s real and what isn’t in this story. Often I’d totally understand where both Benny and his mum came from and it hurt to see them argue. 

The book itself as a narrator worked so well too. I’d read stories where the book itself addresses you before (‘Wij Zijn Licht’) but I really liked the dialogue between Benny and the Book. Benny sometimes didn’t agree with what the Book was saying about his life, and these moments were some of the greatest in this novel for me. The book itself made me think too; I too prefer ‘happy’ books on my shelf, for instance, and often rate those more highly, even if their message isn’t as profound. 

At times I did think the plot dragged a bit, but that was mostly because I wanted to see what would happen next. Sometimes characters went away for a bit, and I felt annoyed they didn’t do anything to work on their issues instead - but maybe making the reader feel annoyed at this was the point? I also didn’t really like the connection between the Zen cleaning aspects (and Marie Kondo references?) and how this tied into the story in the final part of this book. I don’t quite know what these cleaning methods actually did for Annabelle and whether this even helped her clean at all. But perhaps it’s more about the ideas behind this cleaning method and what the Zen book represented for her. 

I hesitated picking this up because of the overall length, but I felt drawn to it and decided to give it a go. And I’m really glad I did. I still don’t know why I wanted to keep on reading as soon as I picked this up, and I can’t really form a clear opinion about this book as a whole. This’ll be a book I’ll think about for a long time to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, Addiction, Abandonment, Ableism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Death, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Self harm, Drug abuse, and Violence

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

She had me with the intriguing premise, but this book delivers a nuanced look at mental illness, a thoughtful exploration of grief (both individual and the climate change/post-Trump Weltschmerz), and a celebration of love in all its forms. If I could distill this book into a single idea, it would be the forces that divide us and the ways we can connect in spite of them. This book has a lot of pain and disconnection in it, but it gave me hope that we can all somehow make it out of *gestures vaguely* all of this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body shaming, Violence, Blood, Grief, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Mental illness, Cursing, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Sexual violence

Minor: Ableism, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Classism, Gun violence, Antisemitism, and Suicide attempt

This book has a lot of heavy content but it does not stay in its dark parts long and its overall tone is hopeful. It never lingers on lurid details, and the narrators tend to talk around what's happening/has happened. Both the mother and son are traumatized and both have traumatic interactions with institutions of the state, and she

was sexually assaulted by her stepfather

.

The police violence includes violence at a protest and one of the periods of institutionalization. The institutionalization includes the threat of separation of mother and son.

ukki's review against another edition

• 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Body shaming, Medical content, Addiction, and Fatphobia

Minor: Self harm, Police brutality, Rape, and Drug abuse

lilly_anne's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Fatphobia

Minor: Bullying