A plethora of adjectives. A dearth of full stops. The prose in The Book of Elsewhere reminds me of college literature courses. Here’s looking at you, James Joyce.
This book contains run-on sentences that quickly emerge as run-on paragraphs. I’ll admit that it took me almost 20% of the book to succumb to the style. Once I did, I saw the beauty of letting the words just flow over me like waves without worrying about WordPress turning its green editing smile into a red faced frown. [See what I did there? That is nothing compared to the huge sentences in this book. Really, this entire review would only contain one period, if written by Ms. Miéville.]
If you ignore the prose style, The Book of Elsewhere contains a simple plot of an immortal who just wants to die already. It has been done much better in prior manga and even vampire tales. I even enjoyed the manga this book is based on, BRZRKR: Bloodlines, more than the plot here but mostly because of the outstanding and vibrant artwork that emphasized the pure fun of fictional gore.
While I love genre mashups, this one doesn’t work because literary fiction and gory manga plot lines mix about as well as oil and vinegar. I can’t imagine many people being fans of both though I do think Keanu’s pure humanity might lead a few readers to buy the book. But I doubt they will finish it. 3 stars solely for the unusual mashup idea.
Thanks to Del Rey and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.