Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Audition by Ryū Murakami

7 reviews

mossroot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

Audition is the second book by Ryu Murakami that I have read. Having started with Piercing, Audition was a bit slower paced. However, once it gets into the horror, it is so visceral and well described that it feels like a hot iron down your throat. 

I've seen some complaints about the ending, but personally I believe it fits so well with the characters and is a really good example of the characterization that Murakami uses. 

I really think the ending shows Aoyama finally being broken from his delusional point of view. The spell has truly broken and he sees in her what everyone else has seen the entire time.

Audition took me about two hours to finish. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Torture, Gore, Animal death, Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, Terminal illness, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Death, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent and Gaslighting

mareld's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Cancer, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Sexism, Cursing, Gore, Murder, Alcohol, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Medical content

owlribbon's review against another edition

dark tense

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Gore

Moderate: Infidelity, Grief, and Death

gasolinecupcake's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I think the movie does the storyline more justice. But the book is still a great read. 
The movie is my favorite movie of all time so maybe I'm a bit biased

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Body horror, Pedophilia, Torture, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Gore

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

-An animal dies -There is a whole chapter which is dedicated to sex that the characters have. It's pretty descriptive

sjstehly's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book starts out a little slowly and then definitely builds up a sense of dread. A friend once told me that you don't know if you're in a horror story or a romance until you've already made at least one bad decision and that idea really summarizes this book. The end is very violent and intense. I would have rated it harder if

there wasn't a very graphic and unnecessary torture and murder of an innocent dog. </Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief

There's a very graphic scene of a

dog being tortured and killed, and a man having his foot cut off.

There's one sex scene and it's reasonably graphic.