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gardens_and_dragons 's review for:
S.
by Doug Dorst, J.J. Abrams
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
This was a fascinating piece of ergodic literature. This is stories within stories and truly a masterpiece and love letter to the written language.
You have the conceit of a fake novel *The Ship of Theseus*, a novel that in the world of “S.” is taught in English classes and picked over by grad students because of the controversies and mysteries surrounding the author and his writings.
*SHIP OF THESEUS* tells the story of “S,” a man with amnesia trying to discover his identity and becoming embroiled in a much larger plot along the way. The same can be said in the meta textual story of Jenn and Eric, who are writing in the margins of this book as they pass it back-and-forth between them. They meet because of their love of literature and this particular book, but as they study and uncover the mysteries within the novel itself, they begin to understand that there’s a lot more play.
I found the actual act of reading the book to be really engaging. I ended up going with a recommendation from Reddit that I should read *Ship of Theseus* in its entirety first. Then I started to read the annotations in their specific color-coded pairings for Jenn and Eric. I would take a look at some of the inserts in the book (postcards, newspaper clippings, etc..) and if it didn’t make sense with the current set of annotations, then I would wait till the next go around.
I love a good mystery and being able to uncover the mystery with the characters themselves as a reader of the novel was very cool.
To say much more of it would be kind of spoiling the fun of it. I think that knowing as little as possible and uncovering everything as the characters do is probably my preferred way and my recommended way of reading this.
You have the conceit of a fake novel *The Ship of Theseus*, a novel that in the world of “S.” is taught in English classes and picked over by grad students because of the controversies and mysteries surrounding the author and his writings.
*SHIP OF THESEUS* tells the story of “S,” a man with amnesia trying to discover his identity and becoming embroiled in a much larger plot along the way. The same can be said in the meta textual story of Jenn and Eric, who are writing in the margins of this book as they pass it back-and-forth between them. They meet because of their love of literature and this particular book, but as they study and uncover the mysteries within the novel itself, they begin to understand that there’s a lot more play.
I found the actual act of reading the book to be really engaging. I ended up going with a recommendation from Reddit that I should read *Ship of Theseus* in its entirety first. Then I started to read the annotations in their specific color-coded pairings for Jenn and Eric. I would take a look at some of the inserts in the book (postcards, newspaper clippings, etc..) and if it didn’t make sense with the current set of annotations, then I would wait till the next go around.
I love a good mystery and being able to uncover the mystery with the characters themselves as a reader of the novel was very cool.
To say much more of it would be kind of spoiling the fun of it. I think that knowing as little as possible and uncovering everything as the characters do is probably my preferred way and my recommended way of reading this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Stalking