Reviews

The Voids by Ryan O'Connor

thomoccasionallyreadsabook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-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

5.0

This needs to be made into a film. Really really good delve into someone’s life who is struggling with loss, addiction, isolation and so much more. Really shows the bleakness of life, and some of the joy in little things such as the collection of objects in the voids.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

jwrites1991's review against another edition

I wasn’t invested and I wasn’t going to enjoy it.

summerasimpson's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

samalabaster's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

sarahirish's review

dark emotional funny slow-paced

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

4.5

empalmer09's review

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.0

ellesbelles94's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.5

radiocryptid's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Something new was happening every page and I was so engaged as to what this funny little guy was going to do to ruin his life next.

tommooney's review

4.0

A startling debut novel by a hugely talented new voice. O'Connor blends deep sadness and destitution with manic dark comedy and lucid spirituality to produce an excellent novel that is never what you think it's going to be.

What starts out as a story about a mostly abandoned tower block primed for demolition soon morphs into a raw character study of a man whose life is in a desperate state and who seems to have an uncanny knack for digging lower to find a new rock bottom. Our narrator is floundering in a pit of drugs, drink and despair, lurching from one doomed sexual encounter to the next, from one hallucinatory interaction to another. Never really grasping for anything better, only pushing further down the pain of the past.

If this all sounds super bleak, well, it pretty much is. But the narrative is punctuated with crazy, hilarious set pieces, which lighten the story... to a point.

The writing is class throughout and, though it sometimes drifts off into its own world a little bit much for me, it is still a really high quality novel and I look forward to seeing what O'Connor writes next.

leekaufman's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

4.5