Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

128 reviews

bananaza55's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

 highly advise reading trigger warnings prior.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Death, and Rape

minnie_xx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

so many gorgeous lines and thoughts on the world. beautiful beautiful book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Dementia, Adult/minor relationship, and Lesbophobia

samchase112's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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

4.5

Media — especially books and movies — about grief have hit me quite hard, affected me a lot, in the past year, and this novel is absolutely no exception. Intimate, nostalgic, it's a dreamy exploration of living and living with death. I'm not quite sure how exactly I feel about it, but I know that I do feel because of it. I've pasted some quotes below that I couldn't help dog-earing, but beyond that there's nothing more to say.

Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life… Death exists — in a paperweight, in four red and white balls on a billiard table — and we go on living and breathing it into our lungs like fine dust.

Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit to forget that.

I miss you awful sometimes, but in general I go on living with all the energy I can muster.

And I'm just going to keep on getting stronger. I'm going to mature. I'm going to be an adult. Because that's what I have to do. I always used to think I'd like to stay seventeen or eighteen if I could. But not anymore. I'm not a teenager anymore. I've got a sense of responsibility now. I'm not the same guy I was when we used to hang out together. I'm twenty now. And I have to pay the price to go on living.

By living our lives, we nurture death. True as this might be, it was only one of the truths we had to learn.

What I learned from Naoko's death was this:

No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.

And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Sexual content, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Vomit, Rape, and Medical content

ccpetrikas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, and Toxic relationship

giulia_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent

bexdot's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

3.5 ⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

rushh's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, Suicide, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Medical content and Infidelity

artsyfartsybooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This book was so deeply moving in the most exquisitely beautiful way. Murakami has an incredible talent for weaving the pain, grief and loss we face in our ordinary, everyday lives as humans into such a profound, lyrical story that it makes you reconsider the "banality" of normal life - there is so much depth to us, even when nothing seems to be happening (I don't know if this makes any sense, but it struck me quite deeply). There was a great sense of melancholy running throughout this book, which is to be expected given the subject matter (suicide and mental illness). What I found most striking, however, was the grief faced by the loved ones of those suffering from mental illness, and how they struggle to cope not only with the loss of those close to them but with confronting the "sickness" themselves. I really can't do this book justice in a short little review, I feel like there is just so much more to explore and uncover, but that could take me ages! This is the sort of book that really teaches you something about life and encourages you to reflect, pause and reconsider. Anyway, Murakami's writing is simply exquisite, it is beautifully descriptive and captures the emotional experiences of the characters with such profound subtlety. Also, I just love all the characters, especially Midori and Reiko, they were so much fun! I would really recommend this book to anyone and I know that I myself will be revisiting it for many years to come. '

NB the one criticism I had of this book was all the graphic sex scenes. It doesn't necessarily take away from the quality of the novel, but it is quite confronting and I believe it didn't add much to the story. I'm fine with authors discussing sex in their novels, but it doesn't need to be done in such detail every time (I think perhaps I understand it in the scene with Naoko, but none of the others, especially the one with Reiko at the end). Anyway, this isn't to dissuade anyone from reading the book because it's still brilliant, but just be on guard for graphic sex scenes if this is something you are sensitive to.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Death, Suicide, and Mental illness

mollyp's review against another edition

I couldn’t read anymore of this, I was struggling to read it as it was and then the sex scene with a thirteen year old and the description of someone with mental health issues as being rotten on the inside where the final straws for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Grief, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Homophobia

nzmerchant's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I kinda hate how all the female characters were defined by their relationships with the main character (at least that’s what it felt like to me). The writing was beautiful of course coming from Murakami and I felt suspended in sadness while reading the book. Really interesting ideas about the space between life and death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content and Rape