Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

47 reviews

chaya_v's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I had a hard time getting into this book. I had to accustom myself to the writing style and the characters. But then all of the sudden I was hooked and couldn’t put this down. Benny, his mom, the Aleph they all felt so real and raw. This book was really emotional and makes you think so much. This was really beautiful. This is a strong 5 stars read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug abuse, Death, Self harm, Death of parent, and Violence

Minor: Suicide

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

rei_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

megangrace's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal death, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Blood

stwriter92's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

“A book must start somewhere. One brave letter must volunteer to go first, laying itself on the line in an act of faith, from which a word takes heart and follows, drawing a sentence into its wake. From there, a paragraph amasses, and soon a page, and the book is on its way, finding a voice, calling itself into being.”

Thus starts The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. Set against the backdrop of the turmoil of the 2020 presidential election and the BLM movement, the novel centers on the lives of twelve year old Benny Oh, who has just lost his musician father in a terrible accident. His life and the life of his mother, Annabel, immediately begin to unravel as each finds a way to deal with the trauma of loss. Annabel begins to hoard items, longing for connection and desperate to surround herself by things and items that will never leave her. Benny, on the other hand, begins to hear the voices of the objects around him and, after listening to a particularly violent pair of scissors, ends up admitted to a psychiatric ward where he meets all manner of people. Among them is the beautiful, artistic, self-named Aleph with whom Benny falls in love with almost immediately. She is an experimental artist who, while she is not in the ward, roams the streets of the unnamed, vaguely American city with a homeless philosopher and poet, Slavoj. In them, Benny finds a sense of belonging that he does not find anywhere else. He finds an ultimate sense of refuge in the Library, where he meets a book that narrates his life to him in a way that is so compassionate and honest that it's nearly painful. 

After reading A Tale For The Time Being in 2020, I knew that I needed to pick up more books by Ruth Ozeki. This book deals with major themes of death, grief, the transience of existence, and the universal longing to connect in a world that is both completely connected and disconnected at the same time. It urges us as the reader to approach it with a sense of compassion for its broken, beautiful, lonely characters. It holds a mirror up for us, asking us to truly look into what makes us human and real. As we grasp for connection, we find ourselves slowly distancing from one another like orphan planets drifting apart. There were many times I had to put this book down for a few days just to calm and gather my thoughts. This was an uncomfortable read, but an incredibly beautiful one. I would highly recommend anyone and everyone to read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Grief, Drug use, Mental illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Blood, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Vomit

emudds's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.5

i enjoyed the first half more than the second, and i think the elements of mystery or suspense were very well done. sometimes playing with form through the book/author's perspectives was effective and sometimes it felt more like doing it just for the sake of the gimmick to be honest, but it was unique and didn't detract from my enjoyment overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

iliveinletters's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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: Mental illness and Grief

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Alcoholism, and Grief

roaming_ro's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Cursing, Sexual assault, Grief, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body shaming, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Racism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Police brutality, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use

candournat's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

This book is honestly unreal!! I can’t even begin to explain how clever Ruth Ozeki is. 

The Book of Form and Emptiness is beautifully written, philosophical, and absolutely full of clever metaphor.

I cannot recommend it enough, I’ve honestly never enjoyed the form and structure of a book as much as I have with this one. Using the Book ( / Benny’s voices) as a narrator and having Benny give his thoughts on the direction of the story between chapters is so clever and original. 

It has truly cured my big book fear! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Addiction, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Bullying, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis