Saving Ellipsis
Laure Dargelos’s novel Saving Ellipsis is a playful jaunt through the topsy-turvy world of grammar and literature.
In Ellipsis, Prosperina fails to follow unspoken rules, opening a flower shop instead of a bookstore and breaking conventions in her conversations. Honorius, on the other hand, gets little acknowledgement from his father and brothers. He is from the Capital—stuck-up and closed off from charming Ellipsis. He berates Prosperina for her carefree attitude when her plant eats his cufflink.
Prosperina and Honorius find the body of Tom X, who lived on the outskirts of the founding Text and wrote “the sentence killed me”; the Text starts to deteriorate. With it go the memories and lettering abilities of Ellipsis’s residents; even Prosperina loses the tittle in her name. Honorius is pulled between Prosperina’s investigative ambitions and his snobby fiancée, Adelaide; later, ethereal Pauline appears to him, drawing him to her too.
Illustrations of Prosperina, her brother Ernest, and Honorius play alongside words that bend and mold on the page, darkening with black ink or enlarging to convey people’s disorientation and emotions. Prosperina and Honorius infiltrate Tom X’s house for clues, while Ernest dives into books for research. These flourishes introduce a sense of real danger and mystery to the investigation of Tom X’s murder.
With a bevy of characters and plot points, the novel is hectic. Still, it’s a fun ride through the world of English grammar and literature. Together, Prosperina, Honorius, and others uncover a bigger plot behind the killing of Tom X, the deterioration of the Text, and Pauline’s presence.
Saving Ellipsis introduces a mysterious fantasy world wherein the traditional bindings between books, grammar, and people break into an explosion of textual personality.
Reviewed by
Aleena Ortiz
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
