The Familiar, Volume 2 Into the Forest

PRAISE FOR THE FAMILIAR, VOLUME 2:

Now we have Volume 2 (Chapter 2, really) and it is somehow, remarkably, amazingly, almost impossibly better. . . . I have never worried so much for a character as I did for [Xanther] in the final pages and, honest to God, I'm not even entirely sure what happened. Or to whom. Or how. But maybe Volume 3 will make it clear. Only six more months to wait. That ought to be just about enough time to recover, I figure, before The Familiar crawls into my lap and blows my mind all over again.   Jason Sheehan, NPR Books

The series at times recalls Ulysses, Infinite Jest, and Cloud Atlas in its complexity, structure, and echoing parallel narratives . . . The literary world is stronger for having boundary pushers like Danielewski.   Ryan Vlastelica, The A.V. Club
 
Volume 2 reads like a graphic novel with very few pictures, though the images are critical. The wide array of plotlines create disparate parts that are slowly converging, encoded as a codex, the decoding of which what we loosely call reading renders an open-ended experience. Highly recommended for the intrepid reader. Library Journal (starred review)
 
Readers with an interest in the latest in literary experimentalism will thrill at Danielewski s approach.   Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI:

One of the most gifted and versatile writers of our time. Steven Moore, The Washington Post

His use of evocative typography words that visually reinforce their meaning on the page leaves readers dazzled.   Kim O Connor, Slate

You hold on for dear life by your fingertips, but the exertion is worth it when you finally get to the top and see the panorama of Danielewski s literary universe.   Dylan Foley, Chicago Tribune