Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - Heaven

Hmm. - I know that’s not a good sign to start that way, but I feel sort of conflicted (not that reviewing sth is that big a deal, I just want to do it justice if that makes sense). I had been looking forward to reading this while knowing that it had been described as a tough read. To say the least, imo. There’s a sort of nonchalant, reasoning/rationale to the writing. A detachment if you will. And it’s written in first person which says a lot about how this boy is attempting to distance himself from what is happening to him but also how his emotional state has been neglected and damaged by everything that has happened to him. There is no real “connection” to other ppl until he meets Kojima (which is what made me want to continue reading).
It’s important to be prepared as a reader for the disturbing bullying (violence) that is happening - especially bc of the way that is is endless and speaks volumes on neglect in general.

when he speaks to Momose and his pov is that “nothing matters” and that he doesn’t care when it is “unrelated” to him is so heartbreakingly true in the sense that some ppl are just not able to emotionally and empathetically understand that words and actions have consequences. That we can never see eye to eye with everyone even when it comes to things that are incredibly reasonable to some of us that you don’t treat others as they do in this book.

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alisonpurcell's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

3.75

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andellabella's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.0

La prosa de Mieko es muy especial de leer a pesar de ser un libro corto terminas queriendo a los personajes.
Son tristes y tensas las escenas explicitas de bullying de las que se relatan.
Es fascinante la conversación del significado o importancia detrás de lo que hacemos y cómo reaccionamos y la falta de consideración que los jóvenes tienen (o tenemos) en lo que los demás sienten. Y me hizo cuestionar mucho si es la naturaleza del ser humano reaccionar con violencia a lo desconocido o descargar tu enojo en los demás solo porque quieres.
Nunca vieron Heaven juntos :,)

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jamievincent's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

The strength of this novel lies in its character’s interpersonal relationships or lack thereof. Humanity seeps through every page, even when the novel makes you question if that’s a good or bad thing.

This is an amazing quick read that manages the careful balance of asking questions about life, death, and morality while being told through the perspective of a child believably. I would highly recommend checking the trigger warnings before picking it up as it does get incredibly heavy at some points. I will definitely be reading more by Mieko Kawakami.

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chaos_animates's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

2.75

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kajasversion's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.25

I absolutely adored the writing, I think it was truly phenomenal especially the vivid descriptions and the metaphors. However the story itself was… weird? Like I don’t get how a 14 yo bully can think the way it was presented in this book, and also I felt a lot of the time that I was being pushed an agenda or a way of thinking from almost every character. And the bullying scenes really did not have to be so graphic, especially considering how many there were. It was actually traumatising just reading about it since you spend the majority of the book reading about how they are being abused and not actually spending half as much time on developing them as a person and exploring how they are feeling. Idk it just felt flat for me and it had great potential at the beginning, however I was greatly disappointed.

TW: attempted rape

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cara_selene's review against another edition

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challenging 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? Yes

3.75

Absolutely incredible. This novel is going to stay with me for a while. I was afraid of jumping into this one after seeing content warnings and other people's reactions, it was a hard read for sure, but absolutely worth it.

"I wasn't crying because I was sad. I guess I was crying because we had nowhere else to go, no choice but to go on living in this world. Crying because we had no other world to choose, and crying at everything before us, everything around us."

The only reason it's not rated higher is because I was incredibly aggravated by Momose's arguments in the philosophical argument they have about why he bullies. I get the nihilism in his monologue, but it was just a whole lot of nonsense to me.

Read for WIT Month (Women in Translation), Aug 2023

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