This book within a book shows handwritten notes in the margins from Jen and Eric as they read the book text, speculating about the mystery surrounding the author. The main text of Ship of Theseus is the story of a man with amnesia who is shanghaied aboard a strange ship where time seems to move differently than on land. The sailors all have their mouths sewn shut and are unable to speak. The man discovers a vast plot that spans many years, where he becomes an agent trying to stop an evil warlord. Jen and Eric believe that the author, Straka, wrote the story as an allegory to represent certain world leaders and powerful businessmen, hoping to expose their evil deeds. As they get closer to the dangerous truth, they also becomes closer to each other.

There are also little notes, newspaper clippings, letters, and photographs tucked in between the pages where Eric and Jen have "left" them. The book includes a code breaker disc so that you can crack the hidden codes along with Jen and Eric.

I read through the entire main text of Ship of Theseus, then went back and started reading through the notes in the margins. I got to page 101 of the notes, and DNF'd the book. There was just such a lot of cursing/profanity in the margins that I couldn't stand it anymore.

I stuck through the horrific main text, because I had read other reviews that said the margins with Jen and Eric were wonderful. I kept hoping it would get better. I kept hoping that the mystery of the ship and the sailor's sewn mouths would eventually be explained. I kept hoping that the mystery of the main character's amnesia would be explained. NOTHING was explained. It's just left there in an open ambiguous ending. I hate that.

The main text was violent and creepy. All the characters are weird and their behavior is strange. The violence was really nasty. The notes in the margin are random and out of order. You can follow Jen and Eric's different timelines when they were writing notes, because the ink color changes. But it's still very easy to get lost and confused.

However, the writing style is very powerful and deliberate. Every little detail has a meaning, usually on two or three different levels. There is the main meaning to the story, then a hidden meaning underneath because the writer was actually referencing something in their own life, then an emotional or spiritual meaning as the character represents some allegorical concept, and then probably some obscure etymological reference to birds. It's beautiful and exhausting. Beautiful in a wild destructive tsunami kind of way that leaves mud and death behind it.