Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

86 reviews

katiecatlady's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I love Kawakami's writing so much, her prose is so poetic and mundane at the same time. She is so good at capturing the human experience in all of it's boring inconsequential moments, and yet also in huge philosophical ideas I never even pondered before.

I'm also very happy with how it ended. It ended in a similar way to Breasts and Eggs, in that the narrator finds happiness and carries on regardless of what they are told and large philosophies and theories about themselves. They just live their life anyway.

I also enjoyed the ambiguity of Kojima and her relationship with the narrator. Imo she sort of fetishized his pain and used it to justify her own in a way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Ableism, Blood, Bullying, Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Moderate: Eating disorder

fairyribs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

what a beautiful exploration on grief, friendship and youth. I just wished for more closure for Kojima, personally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

amberinbookland's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, Abandonment, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Ableism

lycheejelly's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abandonment, Blood, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, and Violence

Minor: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Suicide

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

"When they say that they're grossed out, they're lying. They're just scared. They're terrified."

an unsettling and incredibly smart take on the subjects of bullying, life and friendship. this book was so much more than just two teenagers trying to strike up a friendship in the face of all the bad things their lives have to offer. it's about insanity, about how blind and yet fully knowing people can be, about how the world works and about all that has meaning. it's about the two protagonists, victims of today's society, but it's also about their bullies and their truly human and inhuman views on the world.
also, the writing is so beautiful. i lost myself in the long dialogues and stunning prose for pages and pages on end, forgetting that i was reading in the first place. i think there's no greater compliment than that.
Heaven is about how life affects us all and about how we can and cannot choose the positions we stand in.
smart, horrifying, beautiful if a bit strange at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Death, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, and Suicide

ameliasbooks's review

dark sad fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Ableism, Bullying, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Grief, Suicide, Self harm, and Sexual harassment

niamhreadgood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Blood, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual assault and Ableism

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

Not that you can ever be in the right mindset to read about violent bullying, but I couldn’t get into the deeper themes of power and (self-)perception that Kawakami had woven into the story. She uses bullying as the tool to get those points across, and frankly, it was a bit gratuitous at times.

I also felt the story itself didn’t quite come together in a way that would hold your attention, most likely because I was taken aback by the sheer amount of bullying that was happening across the pages. However, even without the exorbitant amount of bullying, the story felt a bit disconnected. I can’t quite tell if this is a translation issue (which I don’t think it is, because Breasts and Eggs was fine) or what, but I felt something was missing. There was also that ending that I had mixed feelings about that kind of lean towards negative.

Kawakami still writes with a distinct voice and does an amazing job with imagery (well, maybe for worse in this case…) that I think makes her stories worth reading. However, I wasn’t as invested in Heaven as I was in Breasts and Eggs.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Body shaming, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Eating disorder

beesbumblebooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really have a lot of thoughts on this book, but they are complex, and they are confusing, and everything I read come to my thoughts in a haze. A lot of persons said they didn't get the ending. For me it seemed like it just didn't have this one message and one ending, but many strings moving in different directions. I really liked how the author didn't give one answer, but let the characters, who are just finding their way and try to navigate in a cruel world, try themselfs out, try to understand what makes the world the way it is. 

I'm not sure if I find the ending a bit ableist, with the protagonist "fixing" his eye. But for me it had the deeper meaning which in my opinion Kojima was preparing us for: The world is cruel, and you have to keep seeing it to stay kind and do the right thing. But you don't have to suffer to understand. You can help yourself and try to be happy and still be you, and everything you experienced. She didn't want to let go of everyone in bad situations, and I felt that very deeply. And I also felt how she tried to take responsibility with her signs, to make it bearable and to be solidaric. But it showed me that you can be strong and stand up for yourself without losing yourself. Like the protagonist, who found a quite literal way to see beauty, without solving all his other problems, and without seeing where his life will lead. Still in the end I was astonished how Kojima found her own way, and rose from a symbolic to real frightening strentgh. But the price she payed was madness. Oh well.

 Good book anyway. The writing is beautiful, really image-y, even in the german translation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Vomit, and Violence

keona_aw's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Ableism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence