Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

This book read like a fever dream. However, the replacement of seemingly central characters half way through, as well as a few other loose ends left me feeling like the story was incomplete. If I’m going to press on through what is at times a bit of a slow hard slog, I want a bit more payoff. Will try another Murakami one day, but probably not one 600 pages long.

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amelody's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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dsalazar's review

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

Really great read. There were parts where I did disconnect but that’s because it got a little too much into history or felt drawn out. Another minor hang up I had was with the sheer amount of information being thrown at you, at a very fast pace, in an intricate way. I get this was the intention and it may just be that it requires a second read. It kind of reminds me of Oppenheimer (2023) in that regard where it was fast paced and lots of details and Names are thrown out and the timeline isn’t chronological so a second or third watch helps with solidifying some details.

This is all minor because overall I enjoyed the depth the characters had. This is my first Murakami book and it was exactly what I expected in terms of magical realism and explaining a mystery just enough that you want to know more but also would rather not know at the same time. So many unsettling scenes that were page turners. He captures complex emotions so well I had to put the book down during some of the more (literally) torturous chapters.

100% recommend

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glorytowers05's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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cheuksin's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

First time reading a Murakami book , when people said his writing was overly horny they really weren’t joking
Malta Kano was wearing a trench coat. The lapels were closed tight across the front, but from the subtle fragrance of a woman’s naked flesh I could tell she was wearing nothing underneath.
It never really explained why toru okada doesn’t speak to his family
The sexualisation of the 16 year old May Kasahara is uncomfortable
At least it didn’t have a Cliff hanger
“She told me that the baby’s name was Corsica and that half the baby’s father was me, while the other half was Lieutenant Mamiya.” Isn’t lieutenant mamiya an elderly man, also when the fuck did they even meet like did I miss something?

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anastasiamakes's review against another edition

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Just too literary. The MC was beige personified, stuff just happened to him. There was no real core plot, just random mysterious events. And the nature of all the female characters and their relationships to the MC made me uncomfortable, something which I understand to potentially be part of a wider trend in Murakami's works. Not for me.

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kaitlyn_avecado's review

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slow-paced

1.5

I just...So many people said this book was 10 out of 10. I've read one other of his books, but after reading this.....I'm never reading Murakami again. I hate how his books focus on an uninteresting, unemployed male character who never seems to care about anything happening around him. Murakami's portrayal of female characters is the kicker for me. He only writes about eccentric women who float about the protagonist and have sex with him. It feels like he adds trauma to the female characters to make them "deeper/more interesting". I slogged through this book hoping it would get better. Finally, some plot unfolds in the last 50 pages. Not worth it. SKIP

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nmruss's review

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adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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