Knox's work is such a blend of genres, and such a patchwork quilt of stories, I can understand why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I adored it. Ranging from demonic possession to the history of libraries, and from academic concerns to gunfights and murder attempts and climate concerns, right into the semantics of things like shape-shifting and criminal investigations, the characters in this book cover so much territory that it's impossible to know where the book will move next as it unfolds. There were moments where it felt like I was reading suspense and horror, and others where I felt as if I'd fallen into sword-and-sorcery or epic fantasy, but through it all, Knox's gorgeous prose and ever-so-real characters kept me anxious to continue.

On one hand, the length of the book and all of the genres are an Achilles heel--there are bound to be some slow spots because even if you love all of the genres represented here, there's a good chance you'll at some point come to the book at a moment when you're just not in the mood for what's in front of you, despite the connection to the larger quilting of the novel. And yet, it's rather impossible to imagine the book in any other shorter form because it feels so...well, absolute.

In the end, I loved this, though I feel as if I need to read it again (perhaps twice over) to feel comfortable thinking I've caught even half of the intricacies and details, particularly in relation to the more minor recurring characters. I'll certainly recommend it and read whatever else Knox writes. ( )

I'm not in a book-reviewing mood, but the backlog is getting ridiculous so I'll give it a shot. I've enjoyed other novels by Elizabeth Knox, notably [b:The Vintner's Luck|157387|The Vintner's Luck (Vintner's Luck, #1)|Elizabeth Knox|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388947593l/157387._SY75_.jpg|1129547] and [b:The Angel's Cut|6436154|The Angel's Cut (Vintner's Luck, #2)|Elizabeth Knox|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328008923l/6436154._SY75_.jpg|6625725], so found myself intrigued by the concept of 'The Absolute Book' and the praise it had garnered. I found it a substantial and involving work of fantasy, with a lot going on. I appreciated its distinctiveness; the pace and plot are both a little odd. It did not surprise me to read in the acknowledgements that the book was inspired by a conversation about what Knox liked and found frustrating about 'arcane thrillers'. 'The Absolute Book' definitely seemed to be deliberately avoiding or subverting the structure of a more conventional fantastical thriller. That made it more interesting, although I'm not sure all the different elements entirely fit together. It was certainly great to see really weird stuff happening to protagonists in their thirties. On the other hand, I did grit my teeth at some inaccurate details about Britain. Beleaguered as it is, we have a National Health Service so people do not need health insurance and definitely don't worry about the cost of a hospital stay. That concern threw me right out of the narrative. A couple of other phrases like big rigs and tract housing also made me twitch. I know it's especially absurd to be pedantic about a fantasy novel, but I can't help myself.

That off my chest, I did enjoy getting caught up in the intricacies of 'The Absolute Book'. Seemingly set post-Brexit but pre-pandemic, it combines a fairyland mythos with Christian hell, angels, and demons plus Odin and his ravens. There are shades of Mike Carey's 'Lucifer' graphic novels and [b:American Gods|30165203|American Gods (American Gods, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1462924585l/30165203._SY75_.jpg|1970226], although the atmosphere, settings, and plot are quite different. Knox is particularly skilled at vivid settings, which is much in evidence here - and part of the reason I resented the inaccurate details, as I was enjoying my immersion. Her depiction of fairyland as akin to pre-colonial North America is full of thoughtful detail. She even goes out of her way to explain how fairy toilets work! Perhaps the most memorable sequence takes place in Purgatory, a truly spooky and haunting place. Yet the Norfolk coast becomes nearly as frightening and treacherous in the scene where Taryn and Jacob are chained to a tyre and left to die. Not that I didn't appreciate gentler parts of the book too.

The three main characters are an appealing set. Taryn is the author of a book about libraries (which I loved the sound of), periodically possessed by a demon, and stalked by a man who murdered her sister's killer for her. Shift is half-fairy and, it turns out, the son of Lucifer. I was somewhat nonplussed by that revelation, I must say. Jacob is an intelligence operative who gets bewitched by handsome fairies. I liked the ambiguously romantic dynamics around the three, especially as Knox subverts expectations by making the romance most explicit between Jacob and Shift. Several other fairies are main characters in their own right, while Odin and the demons remain suitably mysterious. The macguffin of the title is a neat concept and I enjoyed how the wrangling over it was finally resolved.

There is undoubtedly a lot I'm forgetting to mention here, as 'The Absolute Book' is complex but not always cohesive. Themes abound, including memory, language, libraries, story-telling, mortality, and environmental management. The combination of theological and mythological elements is original yet I wondered why Taryn and Jacob didn't ask more questions about it. If Odin's about (and apparently warped by neo-nazis interest in him), what of Frigga, Thor, and Loki? And non-Western pantheons? This would probably have bothered me more had I not loved the ending. Knox's approach to reinventing the arcane thriller did not always constitute an improvement, but the final chapter was a stroke of genius. I adored the concept of fairies taking over management of Earth's environment and sorting out climate change, with some help from frost giants. It was delightful to find climate change given such priority in a fantastical but not apocalyptic novel. I very much enjoyed the idea of supernatural creatures with godlike powers losing patience with human idiocy and reviving our environment for us:

"We're being saved, by the by. Maybe not all, but most of us. But our salvation is a side effect of someone else's. The fossil fuels, plastics and insecticides, the droughts and floods and hurricanes were going to kill us in our millions. This is better. This will be better."
"But we don't have a choice!" Price shouted. Then blinked. His vehemence had surprised him.
"Most of us didn't, anyway."
"They're dictating our futures."
"They aren't. Only one of them made a decision."

[...]

"Nothing is ever on the table," Price said. His face was white with fury. "You mean to take out sovereignty. You have no respect for the rule of law."
"Look," Taryn said. "I'm going to try this one more time. It's like that thing in Star Trek. The Starfleet regulation that says the doctor can relieve the captain of his duties. The writers probably got it from the real-life navy. Anyway, humans are the captain. The doctor is the trees and the grasses and the marshes, and the beasts of the field and birds of the air. We humans were declared unfit for command."

I found 'The Absolute Book' fairly overwhelming, as it was involving and escapist to read but difficult to form a clear opinion of. My thoughts about it are rather muddled. Maybe reading it in two days was too fast and didn't give me time to reflect? It's a strange, thought-provoking, sometimes puzzling, detailed yet ambiguous book, and well worth reading. ( )

It’s no “Jonathan Strange..” ( )

3.5 stars ( )

Rich, wonderful (as in �full of wonder’), challenging, well-written. I kept thinking about it for a long time after I had finished reading it (twice), which is always a good sign. ( )