Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - No Longer Human

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

42 reviews

iinasomnia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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books_onthe_ground's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was drawn to this boo on my search for literature that was horror related, disturbing or simply unpleasant to read but not in a ‘this book is shit’ way and yeah this book definitely fits that criteria. More so, I finally picked this up after it being on my list for a while after a youtuber I really admire published a video on this book titled “The most disturbing book I’ve ever read”. Safe to say, I finally bit the bullet and bought it soon after that video was published.

This book isn’t an enjoyable read and it’s so good at making you simply unhappy without wanting to put the book down. It is depression on paper. This thing is, is that it’s also beautifully written. There are some truly beautiful lines and the impact they create is masterful. The subject matter is painful and deeply upsetting but the wording makes it impossible to put down. There are no monsters and it’s not particularly graphic. There is nothing that would exist outside of this world to take the horror from. No, the horror in this book is human. It's human and goes undedicated. There is no help, no support and no hope. This book is depressing in its complete lack of hope in humanity.

You have to look up trigger warnings for this one because it contains most of the things that come to mind when you think of what trigger warnings might include. Suicide, self-harm, derealisation, desocialisation, death, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and more. This book has the lot. Its definitely one of the darkest books some people will ever read and it’s a book that will stay with you long after you’ve read it. It is a perfect example of a car crash you can’t look away from. It’s a difficult book to rate because of this because it’s difficult to say I loved it or enjoyed it because how can I? I’m happy I bought and read it and I’ll probably read it again. I’m also intrigued by Dazai’s other works now.

For these reasons I gave it 4 stars. Would I recommend it to someone? It very much depends on the person and they would have to be in the place to read it because this book really does have the ability to impact someone negatively, especially if they are in a vulnerable place. But yes, if I think it’s okay to do so, I would recommend it. It’s one of those books where if it wasn’t about the topics it is and what I previously stated wasn’t true, this would be a book that you could argue everyone should read but again, I said what I said.

Content Warnings

manel_'s review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

5.0

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ollie_again's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

While there are some thoughtful parts of the narrative, a lot of the struggle of the main character is pushed onto other people, mainly women. Every time he spirals, the fault is put onto women, it's their fault he both feels inadequate and above all others, it's their fault they get abused and raped, their tragedy is their fault and the man's tragedy is also their doing.

The first part of the story was somewhat good, focusing on the feeling of alienation by society, feeling lost and putting on a mask. The part I thought about a lot is when Dazai talks about that not even the best actor wants to perform in front of his family, as it is the hardest performance one has to do. After the first half of the book, though, I had no sympathy for Yōzō because of how he treats other people in his life. I felt sorry for most of the other characters, but not him.

As I said, some good nuggets here and there, but I was ready to be done with the book pretty early on.

Content Warnings

apricot_orchid's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I'm fairly certain you need brains to read and understand this book and I am not one of those people. I understood it...but I also didn't. I knew going into this that it would be depressing but the biggest vibe I got from the mc, Yozo, was that he was just pitiful. He seems painfully introverted to the point where he does "funny" or "odd" things to make his peers laugh in order for him to seem less lonely. But he doesn't want anyone to look too closely. And when they do it becomes a "keep your friends close but your enemies closer" type of strained relationship. It's written like Dazai wants you to sympathize and empathize with Yozo as I'm sure many humans in the world feel like they don't belong and are alienated in one way or another, but at no point was I rooting for him. I kept waiting for him to fail (or win depending on how you see it).

This book definitely covers many sensitive subjects. Half of the book is him drinking and the other half is him having horrible thoughts and relationships with women. Heavy on the misogyny and suicide talk. He does many many questionable things and it's best to thoroughly research the trigger tags ~~as I did not~~. It's not so much as graphic with some stuff - topics are more mentioned like statements if that makes sense.

Did I enjoy the book? Not entirely but I think it captures well the struggles that a lot of people can face concerning mental health etc. It is a pretty short read, but the pacing is painfully slow. It doesn't really have a plot since most of it is Yozo's thoughts. It's hard to give a rating for this and I wouldn't necessarily recommend others to read it, but it was interesting to say the least.

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kashila's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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henrisaurous's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

royourboat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Such a captivating book. Yozo is an apathetic narrator who mostly speaks in short sentences, which made the book hard to read at first but once I got used to it I was able to appreciate how genius the writing style/decision was.

The writing style was extremely affective at portraying Yozo’s isolation and alienation. And while I recognize that it was a genius decision, because it accurately represents the thought process of a fractured mind, it did make the book less enjoyable at times, which is why I’m not giving it 5 stars. Yes, it succeeded in portraying the protagonist’s disconnection from the world around him, but it also made me feel disconnected from the story.

Nevertheless, the decision to have a very plain, monotonous narrator did make the book more compelling in a way. Yozo always got straight to the point in an almost shocking way which made me eager to know what happens next.

I have very conflicting feelings about our protagonist, I dislike him but I also feel for him at times. The misogyny was revolting, and since this book is semi-autobiographical it really makes you wonder which of these thoughts belong to the protagonist and which belong to the author himself?

I really disliked the epilogue. It was so unnecessary. I wouldn’t say it ~ruined the book for me but I would have definitely enjoyed it more if I hadn’t read the epilogue.

Finally, here are 2 things to keep in mind to make your reading experience more powerful 1) Osamu Dazai committed double suicide alongside his lover right after this book was published and 2) Japan’s views on topics regarding mental illness and how taboo they are to this day, let alone when this book was first published 70 years ago. Osamu Dazai was a brave man.

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cnidariar3x's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Ooooo boy.

"Id like to report this photo, Im in it and I dont like it."

Gonna have to ruminate on this one for a bit.

Read through this in a day. I think I liked it? I also hated much of it? It was real, but some realities are best digested over time.

The misogyny and contempt for women in general is very jarring. (Sex workers are literally people, Yōzō, they are not lesser women).

At the same time, the descriptions of alienation, social camouflage/masking and heavy malaise are too richly detailed and personal to me to ignore.

This is a complicated text that made me feel many conflicting emotions.

Content Warnings

fairyribs's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

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