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

I finished this book and wasn’t ready to let it go. I immediately wanted to reread it again, forwards, backwards, and from right in the middle. It is about a boy named Benny who hears objects talking to him, including a book that narrates his life, and his mother, a woman who struggles with hoarding. Ultimately, this story is about our relationship with stuff and books in particular.

This book covers so much ground: mental health, trauma, access to appropriate supports for children and adults, consumerism, capitalism, art, the nature of reality, society’s treatment of homeless people with mental health challenges, and books. Over and over again, language, stories, poetry, books, and libraries are looked to for solace, connection, and help. Many characters take refuge in the library and get help from the community that it builds around it.

In this book, all things have spirits and voices and want to be heard. Benny goes in and out of live-in treatment when he starts to hear these voices, and an alphabet of diagnoses is sprinkled through the book as his doctors try to figure him out. But at the same time, as a reader I never felt that his hearing voices was wrong, with the book coming across as magical realism. Anybody who has read Ozeki’s “Tale for the Time Being” will know this style. In both books, the question of “what is real” is very present both for the characters and the reader. And ultimately, it is up to everybody’s interpretation what the answer is. I was fascinated to see in the Acknowledgements that Ozeki had consulted with various groups that support those who hear voices, which definitely leant itself to the way the topic is approached in the book.

I can’t say enough good things about this book. There is still so much I haven’t talked about, and I think everybody who reads this book will read something different and valuable out of it (a phenomenon actually referenced in the book). So I think anybody can and should read this book. It will be one of my favourites this year, and for many to come.

Content Warnings

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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? Yes

4.0

I knew almost nothing about this but I've loved all Ozeki's previous books so wanted to pick this up as soon as it came out. It felt different from her other novels, I think because of its teenage boy protagonist, but I really enjoyed it. There was definitely some level of it which went over my head, as it's quite literary in the way it plays with form, but I really love her writing and characters. I was often frustrated by their actions but I also really empathised with them and was invested in their journeys.
It's nearly 600 pages and it covers so many themes, including grief, mental health, capitalism, art and books. I couldn't really see where it was heading and while there were parts I found more compelling than others, I was intrigued the whole way through.

Content Warnings

deandra_lalonde's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-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

Content Warnings

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