Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

91 reviews

funktious's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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

Amazing book. Absolutely loved it. I wanted to climb into the pages and give Annabelle a hug. A must read for those who loves books and stories and the potentiality of libraries and blank pages. Although I must now go and apologise to the books on my TBR shelves for leaving them there so long.

A small note of warning for Vocational Awe re librarianship though. As a librarian I feel duty bound to point out that we aren’t all left wing activists, there’s plenty of right wing librarians too that you wouldn’t necessarily know by looking at them and there’s also plenty of curmudgeonly arses in the profession. Like all professions, we contain multitudes. And yes, some of them are amazing bad ass women, but they’d be amazing bad ass women whatever job title they had. And the lack of respect and funding, plus constant attacks from the government / public will eventually break a lot of those women and it won’t be their fault if they stop going above and beyond for their users. Libraries are amazing, librarians are just people, and they both need your support. The end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape

grace_anna's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

daydreamereyes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Fatphobia

willows's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

3.75

 That was absolutely bonkers and had very memorable characters. Literally wack, it's been weeks and I still think about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and Mental illness

Moderate: Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Grief, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Racism

librarianlayla's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

If you're looking for a book that has a lot of emotional range, but not overly littered with joy or hope - then this is for you.

Whilst beautifully written, raw and real - there wasn't a lot of light within this book. It holds a lot of pain, confusion and loss.

This book is designed to make you feel and to think on a broader spectrum. Less about enjoyment and more about emotional expansion within the realm of sorrow.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Abandonment, Addiction, Car accident, Drug use, Dysphoria, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death, Animal death, Cursing, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Hate crime

cozjetez's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm and Drug abuse

tayyiba's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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: Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, and Car accident

heidi_meredith's review against another edition

challenging funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

I liked the way this challenged perceptions of mental illness, yet I also wondered if there were elements of the "Just pull your socks up" attitude, which can be unhelpful, although it worked for the storyline and character development. 

I loved the writing style and cast of characters, especially the mother-son relationship and its bittersweetness, with the changes of adolescence and their shared grief. For me, it spoke deeply about our relationships with the objects around us and the value we impute to them. I enjoyed seeing the parallel journey of mother and son in this, with the mother often imputing personality or intent to objects in a way that her son was also experiencing through his mental illness. This ties in with conversations the son has with his friends regarding the nature of mental illness and where the boundaries for 'normal' are set. 

I found this book hopeful and accepting of those on the fringes of society. It seems to seek connection and beauty in lives otherwise adversely affected by trauma, grief and illness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Grief

Moderate: Violence and Fatphobia

Minor: Child abuse

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death of parent, Bullying, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcoholism

cmgriffin's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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

This is the kind of book that takes you apart and puts you back together again. It’s great, and I’ll never re-read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicide, Animal death, Drug use, and Addiction

Minor: Bullying and Body shaming