Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Audition

I’m always wary of foreign books translated into English because there’s so many things that could go wrong - a lack of understanding of one of the languages that results in flat writing, a lack of cultural understanding that results in a confusing story line, over explanation to try and avoid any potential misunderstandings, etc. but I’ve always heard such good things about Audition that I decided to give it a shot.

It wasn’t exactly the story I thought it would be. It was very slow in the beginning, but built up nicely. I wish they would have spent a little less time building to the climax, and I wanted there to be more wrap up at the end, but I enjoyed the overall plot. It was such a short book that the author definitely could have added more aftermath it to wrap things up better and it still wouldn’t have felt too long.

The only thing that seemed out of place was all the American pop culture references. It may have been what the author actually wrote, but it felt more like the translator was trying to make sports etc. more digestible for the English reader’s palette versus just keeping the original content. To me, it felt like a weird mashup you see in older anime where the English cast says something like, “gee, these cookies sure are great!” When the person is clearly eating rice balls.

Content Warnings

ariellogram's review

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

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

1.5

I finished it. So I guess there's that. But what a trite, boring little book. Local man decides to get a wife, much in the same way one decides to get a new car, and

bloodshed follows.

If any of the characters had depth, or if the female lead had a complex motivation, maybe it would be tolerable. As it is, it's just a snoozefest.

Content Warnings

nightmare_maven's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

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

3.5

Team Asami

Content Warnings

cviii's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-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

2.25

i think this might be the worst book i’ve ever read. the only reason i didn’t rate it lower is that i can imagine ways it could have been worse. also there were a few bits of prose that i liked.

the antagonist had potential to be interesting and complex but she isn’t, she’s predictable and her motivations are explained via exposition from the narration. side characters hint at ways she might be more interesting (suggesting she’s lying about her background, describing her almost as if she’s a supernatural entity), but in the end she comes across like a very tired cliche.

the protagonist is also pretty boring. he’s not exactly likeable (going along with a plan to trick young, aspiring actresses into thinking they’re auditioning for a movie when they’re really auditioning to be the protagonist’s future wife is pretty messed up) but he does have some decent qualities. not really enough to make me concerned with whether he’ll live to see the end of the novel but enough to keep me from actively rooting for him to die.

the writing style didn’t work for me for the most part, aside from a couple lines of prose, as mentioned above. a lot of the book comes across as exposition which i didn’t enjoy much. i’m not sure how much of my issues with the writing can be explained by nuance getting lost in translation so i don’t hold this against the book too much.

one thing i’ll give the book credit for is that it can easily be read in one sitting, maybe two, so you’re not investing much effort in reading it only to be let down in the end. i wouldn’t recommend reading it but you won’t lose much by giving it a couple hours of your day.

Content Warnings