Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Audition by Ryū Murakami

6 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

ripxw's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse

pranphetamine's review

dark tense medium-paced

3.75

A slow build with enjoyable writing. It felt like reading a screenplay. The ending was…a lot. It all happened so quickly and I was left feeling uncomfortable and confused. I think if

things weren’t so abrupt at the end and it unraveled a little more, or if she had more dialogue about her motive

, then this would’ve been a higher rating for me. This isn’t for everyone (I heard the film adaptation also left many feeling very disturbed), but definitely an effective horror book nonetheless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia

spooky_coochie's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

has a few great moments really dissecting how ridiculously high standards are for women and how men will completely disregard a woman's personhood in favor of their fantasy. Aoyama can only think of women as a dichotomy of good and bad, despite being told - "nice person, bad person, that's not the level this girl is at," and his eventual concession that she "was not a nice girl, but that was how he decided to think of her."

And OF COURSE the final third goes hard.

But I hate to say, Takashi Miike's film adaptation really elevates the source material. For starters, the tension building doesn't really work as well in the book - probably because we're really only in Aoyama's mind, and not getting things like flashes of Asami waiting by the phone or feeding vomit to a tongueless bag man (who is not present in the book at all).

It's fine that the violence and horror isn't as overt in the book, but it is so very unsubtle about Asami's motivations by the end. As Aoyama is being poisoned, he stops a moment and spells out Asami's entire psyche - oh, she must hate men because of her abuse and therefore wants to remove their feet just like her stepdad who molested her blah blah blah. It goes on for a page or so explaining everything in no uncertain terms. Like, thanks, I gathered that. And it's so unnatural, too - why would he have this moment pondering her entire schtick and thoroughly psychoanalyzing her when he's minutes from getting gored? Perhaps the bluntness is partially a translation issue, but even then, I think Miike draws this out much better. The film's not exactly subtle in how it connects the dots between Asami's past and her violent tendencies, but it's a bit more artful than this.

Anyways, I hate to say but I'd probably like this better had I not already seen the film adaptation. In comparison, this feels like...a half-baked treatment of the film script. Which obviously isn't the case, but...

also, and this is of course not Ryu Murakami's fault, I really cannot get over how atrociously bad this release's cover art is!!!! My other thought is that, based on how he's written women in the books by him I've read, Haruki Murakami totally would have fallen for Asami's shtick and had his feet removed lol 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Pedophilia, Homophobia, Sexism, Transphobia, and Misogyny

reneebkreviews's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Torture

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer

mariafernanda993's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Really hateable characters, but still couldn't put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Torture