Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami

19 reviews

erin2802's review

dark emotional tense 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

3.75

Horrifying and gruesome are good words to use, especially one part in particular. A commentary on the loneliness of regular people and their moral ambiguities. Frank is a terrifying character and the calmness and stoic nature of him makes him all the more creepy. Kenji is no saint either, he did not do the things that Frank did, but he was complicit in his actions. Though after experiencing something so traumatic, I don’t know what anyone would do, I suppose it was a matter or survival? All in all, an interesting book, it did what it set out to do, which is to horrify and intrigue the reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Mental illness, Stalking, Vomit, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Sexual harassment

jan_coco_day's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Ryu Murakami is the superior Murakami. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Blood, Misogyny, Murder, Hate crime, Violence, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Torture, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

melodyseestrees's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

1.75

This is a gore-filled book and has a lot of violence against women characters. The majority of the killer's victims are women somewhere between high school age and their thirties. The killer talks about sex with the dying bodies of women in a particularly grotesque manner.

He slits one woman's throat, exposes her vagina, tries to get another man to fuck her as she is dying and then ends up putting a severed ear inside her. He also rants about dead woman's "pussy being the best best" because "the brain is dead but the pussy is still alive so there is no resistance."

There is one man killed as brutally as some of the women. There are two other men killed but not much detail is given. There is a homeless person who also dies with details given via the news.
The killer's motives for their actions are lackluster and dissatisfactory.

The killer has no motives behind killing or whom he chooses to kill. He just kills.

The killer's backstory and skillset are also very lackluster.

He learned how to slit throats without them gushing blood from people in reform schools. Even though he was 4-7 years old when he attacked his mom, killed a swan, or killed two people that are never described in detail. Oh and he was also into black magic and hypnosis too, of course.

This is a story to read if you love gore, hate women, and aren't fussed about the details. This is not what I look for in horror and I think it should be categorized as Gore Porn or light Splatterpunk instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Body shaming, Child death, Gore, Body horror, Fatphobia, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Torture, Animal death, and Rape

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Toxic friendship

The main character is in his twenties and dating a sixteen year old, at least one on-page victim is also a high schooler and may have been a minor.

epeolatrist's review

dark mysterious tense 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

Incredibly gory and gruesome—I was drawn in by the bone-chilling suspense of part one and the stomach churning gore of part two, but felt part three dragged and ultimately bored me a bit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Self harm and Adult/minor relationship

booksthoughtsandtea's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Oddly terrifying and fascinating. I am unsure if I think the mental illness representation further harms the mental health community (I'm in that community) or not. In some ways it shows the harm of forces institution, and how it does not help if the patient doesn't want to change. This book was very fatphobic. The only fat person in this whole story is an American... and it doesn't sit right with me. I think this book is a meditation on the fasination people have with foreigners, how classism is so prevalent in wealthy and less wealthy countries, lonliness,  and how we are all fascinated by death. Either way, this book had me empathize for the bad guy... That's a hard feat when murder is involved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Stalking, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Animal death, Gore, Murder, Sexual violence, Torture, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Rape, and Drug abuse

Please take care of yourself and read the content warnings.

ashpociadlo's review

dark fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Violence, Sexual violence, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Gore, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Death, Body horror, Torture, Physical abuse, Medical content, Sexual assault, and Blood

larseneiii's review

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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, Animal cruelty, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Rape

haunted_klaus's review

challenging dark tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

lreeve's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Animal death, Alcohol, Violence, Death, Torture, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexism, Self harm, Gore, Gaslighting, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

cinderrunner's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Concept is interesting but the execution could have been far better. Im not sure how much of my issues with the book are due to the translation vs the actual writing. The language felt very odd and stilted. The story dragged a lot in multiple places. We spend far too much time in Kenji's head as he critiques and runs commentary on Japan. Felt less like a thriller and more like I was reading some bitter dude's interpretation on Japanese culture and history. Even after the biggest murder happens, the pace drops right back down and continues to slag. I was honestly bored for most of the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt