Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Tokyo Ueno Station

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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deezy's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

3.75

This book is perfect for someone who wants to be majorly depressed!

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cameronkast456's review

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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dratnoff's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

The book was such a journey, depressing but one worth taking! Like a first person stream of consciousness, full of sensory descriptions of sound and smell, combined with a sadness and regret that you can’t wash away. The protagonist is an old man who dies and recalls his unlucky life of those near him dying prematurely. But some very elegant and efficient passages in the second half of the book, each at the moment of euologizing another fallen character. Short and engrossing!

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ricaalvarez's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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anglefish's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.5

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sirisolh's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

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

2.0

It's not that it isn't a good read, but I couldn't connect to it. It's still, sombre, elegant and makes you think. I guess I just didn't want to think to much.

2,5 would be more accurate.

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surelyinthefountain's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Tokyo Ueno Station is short but poignant. It overflows with compassion for the little guy, for the downtrodden, for those who have experienced grave misfortune. The book is a meditation on life and death, on grief and how is it even possible to cope with suffering that reaches a certain point in a society that is drenched in inequity? It's one of the more genuinely empathetic pieces I've read that centers around homelessness -- the lived experience and how people end up there -- in that it touches on a sort of feeling of uselessness, of having no more ties, of one's life being over but still somehow being alive and waiting for death, that is not limited to being homeless. Perhaps many have felt that way at one time or another.
The novel turns a sharp eye to history, so it is important to keep the 2011 Fukushima disaster in mind as you read. There is also a strange feeling when reading this book in 2021 and seeing it mention the homeless population being evicted from Ueno Park in Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Olympics. The Olympics got delayed, of course, but with them rescheduled to happen this summer, there's a kind of tether there that is hard to put into words.
It's hard to say "I enjoyed this book" because it's just...very sad. All the time in every possible way. The topics it discusses and story it has to tell mean that has to be the case, though. If you're in the head space for it, I recommend this book highly.

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