I can see this as both a good and a bad thing. There were times when I had to reread passages multiple times, because the style and what was happening were so peculiar that I couldn’t follow. This in itself instills a level of disorientation in the reader, which mimics the feelings and internal conflict that Nicholas himself is going through. She uses almost a stream of consciousness style that grows more and more erratic and confusing as the novel progresses. She employs sentence fragments and run on sentences like no other author can. The tone is gritty and dark and ripe with twisted metaphor. Koja writes with a style that’s not quite like any other. Because it has already seared his flesh, infected his soul, and started him on a journey of obsession – through its soothing, blank darkness into the blinding core of terror…

Now from down the hall, the black hole calls out to Nicholas every day and every night.

Then Nakota began her experiments: First, she put an insect into the hole. She had to make love to Nicholas beside it, and stare into its secretive, promising depths. She had to see the dark hole in the storage room down the hall. It began with Nakota and her crooked grin. Nicholas is a would-be poet and video-store clerk with a weeping hole in his hand – weeping not blood, but a plasma of tears… Date of Publication: Initial publication 1991, Rerelease: September 15, 2020

The Cipher by Kathe Koja