Get your reviews elsewhere, such as, the Nobel literature committee, and the Booker award committee. I use Goodreads to keep track of what I’ve read, and to keep a list of what I want to read. I get excellent suggestions of what to read from Reddit, from this sub, and from r/suggestmeabook.

I agree that audiobooks must be included. It’s all language processing, and it’s wrong to dismiss the experience of those with low vision, mobility concerns, or who prefer audiobooks.

I think that the author of HOL is playing a joke on us readers. He starts off sincere, except for the fake footnotes, then diverges into more and more time-wasting trash. HOL contains a hell of a good novella that needed a good editor. I felt patronized and taken advantage of, with the author snickering and thinking “look, they are still trying to see something deeper in this”. Read the mother’s letters when you get to where they are mentioned.