Tournament of Books discussion

Space to discuss the 2025 TOB contender The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa.

Did anyone love this as much as I did? It is like Fahrenheit 451 for a new generation.

I wish I could say so, but the absurdist elements really didn't work very well for me. I feel the topic is very relevant in today’s world and I enjoyed the many literary references. I liked it but didn't love it.

Joy D wrote: "I wish I could say so, but the absurdist elements really didn't work very well for me. I feel the topic is very relevant in today’s world and I enjoyed the many literary references. I liked it but ..."

I'm in the same place as Joy. I liked the concept and the execution was fine, but characters in a satire always feel flat to me, so it's hard for me to stay engaged if it goes past novella length. Still, my heart did ache for the daughter though.

Mixing whimsy with fascism just doesn't work for me.

Audra wrote: "Mixing whimsy with fascism just doesn't work for me."

Hard same. Well said.

I enjoyed this a lot. Should have seen his name being Montag coming. That felt like a nice touch though. makes me want to reread Fahrenheit 451.

Joy D wrote: "I wish I could say so, but the absurdist elements really didn't work very well for me. I feel the topic is very relevant in today’s world and I enjoyed the many literary references. I liked it but ..."

This.

Can anyone enlighten me about the rabbits? Initially I thought they were supposed to be an allegory for the resistance? But that thinking didn’t totally hold up and in the end they just seemed kind of random? Someone smart explain this to me!

Theresa wrote: "Can anyone enlighten me about the rabbits? Initially I thought they were supposed to be an allegory for the resistance? But that thinking didn’t totally hold up and in the end they just seemed kind..."

I am not claiming to be either smart or correct, but I thought they might be a call-back to the white rabbit of Alice in Wonderland. Anyone else got ideas?

That's what I thought. It's the White Rabbit in Alice who leads her to Wonderland. And I assumed all the rabbits represented the underground flourishing of the imagination, no matter what the government did.

BTW, this is my favorite so far. Is anyone else finding this year's crop of books generally better than the past few years (11 books in)?

I'm finding them better but a bit to heterosexual for my liking.

Ellen wrote: "BTW, this is my favorite so far. Is anyone else finding this year's crop of books generally better than the past few years (11 books in)?"

This year is the best year by a wide margin. (13 books in, +1 DNF)

I think the Alice in Wonderland rabbit connection makes the most sense, thanks everyone for putting that together for me.

Maybe the rabbits are a metaphor for imagination then? I thought it was interesting the censors and other establishment figures kind of shrugged them off and didn’t seem that threatened by them, while at the same time a child wearing an un-approved princess dress was such a threat. I should probably stop trying to make every metaphor fit perfectly!

Audra, that's a really good point. Compared to the last couple of years, the books do seem pretty overall hetero-centric (that's from the perspective of being 12 in, or 13 if you count the abandoned The Book of Love, which I will grudgingly go back to if I finish everything else early enough). Only Martyr! and Rejection so far are not.

I was also iffy on the more satirical elements of this one, but reading it this week in particular was chilling and super effective. I'm going to need something a little more escapist, stat.

Half way thru this and the best thing about it is that I feel totally justified and vindicated for my never ending desire to buy and shelve books.

Yeah I appreciate the validation

I like this one but don’t love it. I particularly liked how the story showed the tension of a parent trying to follow the rules to protect their child while, at the same time, being drawn to protect the banned books (and imagination itself). That tension felt very real to me as a parent. I didn’t like the sketchiness of the characters. I feel like the author could have done a lot more to bring these characters to life. They all seemed pretty flat to me.

I liked this book but some things about it confused me and I was hoping for a happier ending. (Stupid, I know.) I found some parts downright depressing. But I loved the basic plot and all the literary references to Alice in Wonderland, 1984, Pinocchio and Fahrenheit. I thought it was well written and I liked the narration of the audiobook too.