Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - N.P.

I enjoyed being in the world but it wasn’t my favorite of Banana’s books. I thought the incest theme was strange and the teen-adult romantic relationship was very normalized. As always with Banana’s books, it was a quick and easy read with powerful messages.

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sleepyriv's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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sara_dawn's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective fast-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

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james1star's review

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

TW: this book and review contains mentions of suicide and incest

I don’t know what to say about this book. It’s well written with characters and a ‘plot’ that makes you carry on reading, it’s engaging to start but then… I dunno? ‘n.p.’ follows the story of Kazami as she’s recounting around 6 months of a year whilst also thinking back to things (sort of). The central storyline consists of a book by the Japanese author Sarao Takase who shortly after completing the 89th story died by suicide and then the three people who have tried to translate the final story into Japanese (as it was written in English) then decide to die by suicide too. Kazami is roped into this world by the book’s latest victim Shoji who was her boyfriend. In the present day she’s reintroduced to Takase’s twin children Otohiko and Saki, then later to someone else involved with the family called Sui but revealing her connection is kinda a spoiler. Other things happen and it’s decent-ish, I liked seeing the MC becoming friends (kinda) with them but also a large chunk of this book was a little frustrating sort of.

The book does have some positives with Yoshimoto’s writing being somewhat like a dream - it’s very strange to describe but it’s very intriguing. Parts of ‘n.p.’ are also very funny in a not witty or humorous way but just so bonkers I guess that I did quite like. The premise is also very fascinating and as soon as I got this I wanted to give it a read but held off to the beginning of July. But around halfway through I felt a little let down and it’s not that I had very high expectations but more I didn’t know where it was going or more importantly why. The discussion of incest and the ways certain characters try to minimise or romanticise it was very uncomfortable, and the more things fitted into place and the book developed I did want to remove myself in some essence… does that make sense? Like a few books I’ve read recently where suicide is a primary focus/motif, I wasn’t very pleased with the discourse on this matter. The character’s attitudes seemed rather blasé and it frustrated me when an inappropriate/unconcerned level of attention was given to the topic - I get suicide is viewed differently in East Asia then the ‘West’ but I don’t know, it’s a strange one to ponder. As I went on reading I was still enjoying the act of reading it but not necessarily the story or engaging with the characters. That being said, the ending was very good and I liked the ambiguity to it.

I do and don’t recommend this book. That that as you will.

Content Warnings

generalmalfoy's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this book in German.
What I enjoyed the most was the prose, especially how the author wrote so picturesque that I could really see and feel the situation in my head. It all felt very gentle but at the same time matter-of-fact. The translator did wonderful work of achieving this so well in the German edition - I am sure the Japanese and English editions are very similar in this.

It was my first book by Banana Yoshimoto, but it will surely not be the last.
The story itself was interesting, albeit a bit unusual for me - I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction. The way the author dealt with the heavier topics of this book (see content warnings, though they might be minor spoilers) read very well and it didn't feel too overwhelming or uncomfortable, even though the topics themselves can easily be so.

While reading, I felt rather calm and somehow content and comforted, in a very weird way. For me, it was a meditative read, if one could call it that.
I loved this book, the love being calm and meditative. Being like this, I give it 5 stars.

Content Warnings

that_vnr's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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

3.0

Content Warnings

isa_civ's review against another edition

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dark sad

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

2.5

Hay cierta estética y los temas son interesantes, pero distan mucho de estar completamente desarrollados. A pesar de que las escenas intentaban estar cargadas de emoción, me era imposible conectar con los personajes. La calidad de la obra es muy inferior a kitchen desde mi punto de vista. Por otro lado, es el libro más extremadamente problemático que he leído este año y la autora es una mujer? No hubiera ganado esa apuesta.
“Todas las diferentes personas que hay en este mundo tienen derecho a vivir como crean y donde quieran, sin sentirse amedrentadas por nadie” . Mhmmm cariño hay lítimes.
Recordatorio si tienes quince años y un hombre de más de cuarenta mantiene relaciones sexuales contigo y luego de que descubre ser tu padre las sigue manteniendo, no está mal solo por el hecho de ser incesto, esta mal porque es VIOLACIÓN y el hecho de que este dato no sea mencionado es increíble. De nuevo si un chico que va a la universidad, terminándola casi, pongamosle unos 24 años, mantiene relaciones sexuales con una niña de 15, sigue siendo VIOLACIÓN, no un primer amor, violación. Lo moralmente censurable no es solo el incesto entre los personajes sino el continuo patron de abuso y violación hacia niñas disfrazado como amores pasados y nostalgia. Vale hagamos que el suicidio y el incesto sean cosas normales, surrealismo, perfecto, pero al menos reconoce las violaciones. Última cosa, si una chica le da un beso a otra cuando esta se encuentra dopada por su culpa, no cuenta como relación lesbica inclusive, es ABUSO, gracias.

Content Warnings

manaplayground's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

3.25

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