Reviews with content warning for Rape - A Tale for the Time Being

This is a story of Ruth in Canada and Nao in Japan telling the story of their lives, their trials and the personal horrors that they face, and how they find a way through with the people around them. I really don't know how to feel, but I was really engaged by this reading experience. It was an interesting exploration of time and identity, who we are in the grand scheme of things. I really connected with Nao and her relationship with Jiko was so beautiful. I liked the deconstruction of a story. Like it's such a meta experience and what we bring to a story as readers. What we read and what we get out of a book says as much about the reader as it does about the writer as it does about the characters in the story themselves. We all make each other. This isn't coherent lol!

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tahsintries's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

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henrylee1202's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Overall, this book was very good. I really enjoyed reading it! I wish I can explain all I feel for this book in this review, but I can’t. In short words, I will say that it is a book that I will never forget.

It’s interesting how the author decided to use her real name and her husband’s for the characters.

I definitely enjoyed Nao’s parts of the story more than Ruth’s but having both perspectives made the plot whole and complete. Nao,

the poor girl 😭 she really lived a rough live which was really a result from her parents. While I understand the father, I thought the his course of action was ridiculous and it ended up hurting Nao. The great grandmother was so great though. I’m glad she had a part on Nao. I cried so much during the funeral parts.

This might be because I didn’t read carefully but I was surprised by how worried Oliver got about the cat. Maybe Ruth’s uncaring nature toward him(? I think Pest was a guy) got to me. Glad it was alive in the end 👍

Such a good way to explain Japan through the story. Was able to immerse myself into both of their worlds.

A book that reminded me how much I love books 😻 also another book with a great message: love prevails

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amethyst_sea's review against another edition

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hopeful sad medium-paced

5.0

So well written. The narrative style is so different and I really liked it. this book is so sad and heavy yet, keeps you hopeful. It was really jarring sometimes how Nao would talk about really heavy/disturbing things in such a light manner. As if it's normal to her, but that just made me feel more for her. The dream element was really interesting and a little unexpected, but I didn't really mind it. Honestly, having some parts of it not be very realistic made things slightly less sad. Really liked this overall. It's heavy, sad, and uncomfortable at times, but reminds us that's what life is sometimes and there's still hope for things to turn out ok.

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