Ruby Tombstone Lives!’s Reviews > City of Saints and Madmen > Status Update

I've got no idea what I can possibly follow this book up with..

The previous quote was from AppendiX (8) - A covering note from Dr V, who is the psychiatrist of X (presumably VanderMeer), on a transcription of an encrypted note, using a code based on a copy of City of Saints & Madmen, left behind by X on his "escape" from the the Voss Bender Memorial Mental Institute in Ambergris, presumably into the real world.
We're pretty deep down the metafictional rabbit hole now, folks.

"I could not move or speak for several minutes, frozen from the belief that the book itself had changed and was now writing me.."

Sitting outside in the sunshine chuckling out loud at the "Occupation" section of the glossary. Some of these little side stories are brilliant. I'm thinking at this point that when I get to the end of the book, I could easily pick it back up and start again. And no doubt find new side stories I missed the first time.

So much to love about this book. It really is amazingly detailed & complex.

I wish some of the books in this bibliography were real. Bring on the Torture Squid series!

References within references to other references which refer to yet another reference.. So many little stories going on. This is wonderful. And mind-bruising.

This from a fictional bibliography section in one of the appendices: "Mating Rituals of the Freshwater Squid".. .."(As debauched a book as one is likely to own. Salacious and steamy - complete with hard-to-follow diagrams.)

I must admit, the idea of another 80-odd pages of faux "squidfact" is not filling me with enthusiasm.

I really would like to see a picture of the Exploding Kalif Squid.. BTW, from here on in I'm guessing at the page number %, since the pages aren't numbered consecutively.