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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The ending of the book made me really angry and took it from a 4 to the 2.5 you see above. There were so many themes and quotes i loved but the ending undid all of it.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There might be demons in this book, but the real horror is the way that fear drives people to justify their hate.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not a bad pick for my first foray into historial horror. Suitably creepy and Katsu really excels at that feeling of tension and unease that runs through the narrative.
I did feel that the second half slogged slightly - not as well paced in comparison to the opening and thus the final reveal is slightly underwhelming. A good read but maybe not a great one.
Also if I had a pound for everytime I read a book wherein a woman was forcefed a slightly supernatural biological entity that takes over people’s minds, I’d have two pounds which, isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it’s happened twice (and two times in a row at that!).
I did feel that the second half slogged slightly - not as well paced in comparison to the opening and thus the final reveal is slightly underwhelming. A good read but maybe not a great one.
Also if I had a pound for everytime I read a book wherein a woman was forcefed a slightly supernatural biological entity that takes over people’s minds, I’d have two pounds which, isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it’s happened twice (and two times in a row at that!).
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Religious bigotry, War
Minor: Rape
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Antisemitism
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Japanese internment was a staple of my history lessons from elementary school through high school, so much so that I was shocked upon moving to the South for college that people in other parts of the country had only a vague conception of this horrific part of our national history. I think this book does an excellent job of capturing how atrocious this time period was while reflecting the relevance of understanding how we got there in a time when anti-Asian racism and violence are rising once again. I'm also a sucker for the "infectious violence" trope done well, which it is here.
However I felt that there were too many POVs in this book, and the characters didn't get fleshed out enough because of that. The ending also felt rushed with too much telling and no showing. Additionally, and this is a pet peeve of mine, the dates of Wasaburo's journals made no sense. They're dated to 1927, and we are told that Meiko was four years old at the time. That would make her 21, maybe 22 in the main timeline, 1944. But this isn't right because we know she's in her 30s and has a preteen daughter. Maybe the journals were supposed to be from 1917 and a typo got copy-pasted and never noticed? Timeline issues like this are such easy things to fix and really take me out of the story.
However I felt that there were too many POVs in this book, and the characters didn't get fleshed out enough because of that. The ending also felt rushed with too much telling and no showing. Additionally, and this is a pet peeve of mine, the dates of Wasaburo's journals made no sense. They're dated to 1927, and we are told that Meiko was four years old at the time. That would make her 21, maybe 22 in the main timeline, 1944. But this isn't right because we know she's in her 30s and has a preteen daughter. Maybe the journals were supposed to be from 1917 and a typo got copy-pasted and never noticed? Timeline issues like this are such easy things to fix and really take me out of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexism, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail