Let’s discuss unique books. What is the first one that comes to your mind? The uniqueness can be about the book’s plot, structure, ideas, themes, topics etc.
For me such a book is Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It’s been a while since I’ve read it but I remember how mindblowing it was for me. Every time I thought it couldn’t surprise me more, it actually did. There’s a bit of everything there: peculiar characters, a substance called ice-nine that can freeze water on contact (as humans are around 60% water, it can instantly kill them), a fictional religion called Bokononism based on the idea that human life has no absolute truth or meaning, a tiny island nation with its own bizarre world. All of these come together to show us a satire of the absurdity of humanity.
As for a unique book structure, I have to say it’s Cain’s Jawbone by Edward Mathers. It’s a kind of puzzle book where pages are not in order and you need to arrange them in order to guess whodunnit. I haven’t finished this one yet but it’s a cool challenge.
Embassytown was a fantastic listen as an audiobook due to the heavy focus on alien communication.
(Blindsight… not so much. I’ll probably have to re-read that one. My brain can’t follow Watt’s prose audibly 😬)
I’m not much an audiobook fan but listening to Embassytown makes sense and would be a joy. I might have to do it.
Does it have the layered words? If so I gotta do it!
It sure does! I couldn’t imagine how the book would achieve a similar effect in text so skimmed through the e-book after: it gets the point across, but not the experience.