Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Audition by Ryū Murakami

78 reviews

lindetiel's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.0

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mayankaris's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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mossroot's review against another edition

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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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rhythmixia's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lobsterlemons's review

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

2.5

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claudgazing's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.5

interesting plot but its execution leaves much to be desired. the build up goes on for most of the book, and when the climax arrives it's gone in no more than a few pages.
most of said climax was about torturing the dog — which felt like an empty attempt at showing the extent of asami's cruelty, an unsuccessful use of shock value
. the ending was so abrupt it surprised me; it's not unclear what the last lines of dialogue were referencing, but they fall flat without any real development of
asami's
reasoning.
for a character so crucial to the story and the thriller aspect she reads as strictly two-dimensional, especially once her true nature is revealed
. there was almost more focus on the sexual flashbacks than the actual final act. overall a disappointing read. 
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apieceofskye's review

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

1.5

Her killing the dog was an odd move to me. It was if Murakami did it only so she would seem more cruel then the text made her out to be. It would’ve made more sense if she’d went after Shige as well as his father since he was the catalyst to her feeling betrayed. Him somehow overcoming the drugs would’ve also been more believable if his son was in danger. And shige just showing up at the end? Just came off as a lazy climax to me
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cronasbookshelf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

for the first half of the book, the story was actually pretty interesting and i liked it, but then the second half was just terrible, the pacing was off, the sex scene was awkward and disgusting,
the plot twist of asami being a murderer wasn't at all developed, she just killed the dog and tried to kill aoyama, also i never understood why she wanted to kill him in the first place, plus the whole murder scene was underwhelming, it wasn't scary, just grotesque
. i really didn't like the ending and thought it was just straight up lazy. the protagonist is a creep and his colleague too, they were 40 something year old men trying to get with 20 something year old women and nobody around them thought of it as weird or told them anything. i don't recommend it. i think the author knows how to write interesting characters and the first part of the plot isn't bad, he just couldn't develop the characters or the story in a compelling way + his male characters in this story are all creeps except for shige.
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ripxw's review against another edition

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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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lagoonablu3's review

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.75

I'm really torn on how I feel about this book. Yes. The movie adaption is better and I will 100% say that. But, I expected more from this book. It was well written and well planned out but just fell flat for me. The graphic dog killing scene too really turned me off. I know it's weird to say when I actually wanted the main character to die after having to read through the sex scene but. It was so.. ugh
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