The Hurricane Caged Inside of Her – by Erik Hofstatter – Book Review

Sirin AKA Tristan Grieves is a death bringer. A borrower of lives with a loose moral compass that points to Liene. A continent eater and the daughter of the Alkonost.

He travelled everywhere. Now he must travel in her. Cannibalise her energy. They chase each other from door to door, star to star. Across borderless boredom. Immortals on pause. Only time can resume them.

Will he survive the hurricane caged inside of her?

Dark bleatings, everyone! The Hurricane Caged Inside of Her… where to start? I suppose with this: it made for very weird reading. That’s neither good nor bad. Hofstatter is an unusual author in that he’s unlike anyone I’ve ever read. His writing is beautiful and poetic, but on an entirely different level than even the most poetic of other authors I’ve experienced. So much so, in fact, that I found the story a little hard to follow at times.

You’re better off going with the above blurb for information on what the story is about because I don’t think I can explain it well enough to do it justice. I’ll go ahead and admit that it wasn’t for me, just not my cup of tea, and generally speaking, I usually opt not to review a book myself if I didn’t love it. However, I feel compelled to in this case for two reasons – firstly, there’s nothing wrong with the story, that just came down to personal preference. I guess I like my books a little more commercial. Secondly, the writing.. oh my gosh, the writing. I can see Hofstatter having a career in literary horror/fantasy, for sure.

Hofstatter has a way with words that make his book unsuitable for a casual read, for me at least. It requires deeper thought, immersion, absorption, and consideration. There are no throw away sentences – hell, there aren’t even any throw away words! Every thing he writes is weighted with meaning (or multiple meanings).

Have you guys seen the film ‘Men’? This story is nothing like that, but it reminded me of ‘Men’ because it’s so full of metaphor. Reading this book was sort of like the literary equivalent of watching the final few scenes of that film. I found it funny in places because we’d get this absolutely beautiful wordsmithery but the context of the scene might be vile, and it was pretty jarring (intentionally so, I believe).

Honestly, this story wasn’t quite for me, but it definitely has an audience (an audience with a higher IQ than me, I think!). I’m intrigued to see what Hofstatter does next.

If you’d like to snap up your own copy of this book, or check out the author, the links you need are below:

AMAZON LINK – THE HURRICANE CAGED INSIDE OF HER

ERIK HOFSTATTER ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

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