The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

Title: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Kingkiller Chronicle #1.5

Synopsis: The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a short novella that explores a week in the life of Auri, a former University student now residing in tunnels and rooms beneath the University. The narrative is slow, not plot-driven as much as delving into the ordinary everyday things, including the grip of mental illness and obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

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Content Warnings

General Rating: Family Friendly/Clean (G / PG)

Spice Rating: None

Violence Rating: None, though there are brief descriptions of a mental illness episode that may be triggering

Profanity Rating: None

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Book Review

Overall rating: 4/5

What I Liked
I loved it. Books don’t need to be a checklist of what they should or shouldn’t contain. Sometimes, a book can simply be the goings-on of a strange, mentally ill girl who lives in the underground. I found Auri’s mind fascinating. It was beautiful and occasionally dark, but mostly filled with joy for the simple things. Her relationships with places and inanimate things were charming. 

“To be so lovely and so lost. To be all answerful with all that knowing trapped inside. To be beautiful and broken.”

Themes and Reflections

• Mental Health and Neurodivergence: The story is unique as it offers a close-up, intimate view of Auri's everyday routines. Her perspective is beautiful; she views inanimate objects as friends, or at least persons to be respected. In all things, she seeks harmony and balance... at least, from her perspective. It's a fascinating glimpse at the inner workings of neurodivergence.

• Order and Harmony: Auri is driven to create order and harmony in her world. She hesitates to allow anyone into her world (though Kvothe, it seems, has won her heart). She seeks to place everything in their 'proper' place, but she recognizes that what is proper one day might not be right the next day. There is a fluidity to her order. It's not rigid, though it does fit certain criteria that are known only to her. 

• Solitude and Self-Discovery: Auri's world of silence and solitude is magnificent. As an introvert, it was a balm to my soul. Her daily explorations were gentle, slow, and soothing. Introspection has a place in the world, and Auri, though she doesn't 'fit' in the world above, has made her home in the Underthing.

Writing Style

As usual, Patrick Rothfuss employs a lyrical and poetic prose style in this novella. From within Auri's mind, we are privy to rich metaphors and sensory details (since she is ever so sensitive to sensory details). Rothfuss says that this novella will not be popular, and perhaps not. It doesn't follow a plot or conventional writing structures. If he wrote the novella today rather than five years ago, I imagine that he might not have been concerned with this. The nature of writing has become so much more fluid, and various writing styles and genres have become accepted. No longer does an author need to stay within the confines of certain publishing orders. This book is an invitation to slow down your life and find beauty in the small things. That's a message that always needs to be heard. 

Tropes

• Ordinary life

• Unreliable Narrator

• Mental Health Representation

• Character-driven

Books Like This

• "The Starless Sea" by Erin Morgenstern

• "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers

• "The Vintner's Luck" by Elizabeth Knox

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