This book will keep your interest. That's for sure. Not plot-wise so much. But everything else wise. There is creative stuff all over. Some of the anthropomorphisms while originally creative, after a while, kind of "nah, save it for when it would really work, not every time do you have to anthropomorphize every thing." There are lots of post-modernism tricks (even though written rather longer ago). The author referring to his writing and so forth. And some passages seem X-rated. Not quite tittillating, but the language. And what the author wrote. X-rated more in attitudes than descriptions of the doings, I guess you could say. But that stuff was always intriguing and not as over-done as the anthropomorphisms, or the thumbs stuff. The uniqueness of the thumb and so on was good. In fact there is science as well as a descent amount of philosophy in the book. The latter though, you have to decide what is truly insightful versus that which takes up rather too much reading time for what there is to deliver.
Well, I seem to have mentioned more negatives than seems fitting for a 5-star rating. There's no other book I've ever seen like this. That is for sure. It is that different. There is no need to have seen the movie (which doesn't help anything). And parts you don't like (such as the Countess's teeth making noise descriptions, or thumbs again and again, well they are easily skipped).
This book is fully enjoyable. And so very different. You are guaranteed a very interesting reading experience.
Dr. Drea
Martin J. Coady