Reviews with content warning for Murder - In the Miso Soup

I have mixed feelings about this but I kind of liked how it deviated from the normal pace of a thriller. I liked the social and psychological themes explored from the angle of night life in japan. However, this book still falls into misogynistic tropes and is still a patriarchal point of view despite the author clearly trying to criticise the objectification of women in sex work.

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kozumethan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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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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sisa_moyo's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

This is Murakami at his most dark and twisted. This is about an American Frank who comes to Japan to tour the red light district through the services of Kenji, the tour guide. But as the night darkens and the 2 walk through the streets of Japan the mood and tone get darker, deadlier and murderous.
I think Murakami excels most in these shorter books. Compared to his longer book Coin locker babies which at times felt like it meandered into tangents a bit, this felt more whittled down and straight to the point.
In the miso soup is well written in my opinion, the descriptions of Frank, of Japanese night life are so vivid you can clearly picture it, and also feel the creeps from Frank. There was wonderful commentary on America vs the other, of Japanese condition, loneliness and poverty that made the book a spectacular read.
I think while the ending was vague and extremely open ended I quite enjoyed it, the lack of concrete, blatant resolution keeps one thinking about the book long after it, about what happened to each character afterward.

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jordanpmck's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

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yuuqen's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-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? No

3.0

Of course, I'm not sure there is such a thing as a real self. You could ransack your innards looking for the real you and never find it—slice yourself open and all you'll find is blood and muscle and blood.

Este es mi segundo libro de Ryū Murakami (El primero fue Audition). Se nota que tiene opiniones muy marcadas que no teme mostrar en su escritura. In the Miso Soup es una meditación interesante sobre las cosas que oriente y occidente aman, fetichisan y odian sobre la otra. Si bien el "antagonista" era obvio desde muy temprano en el libro, no por eso lo hizo menos tenso. La paranoia es un estado constante en donde la pregunta no es quién si no cuándo. Y cuando finalmente llega la explosión de violencia (Porque demora en llegar, y ese a mi parecer es su gran defecto), no decepciona.

No sabía que había tantas maneras diferentes de describir un cuello cortado a la mitad. La habilidad de Murakami de describir estos escenarios horripilantes y sangrientos es evidente!

.

Reconozco que, desde un punto de vista cultural, muchas referencias pasaron por sobre mi cabeza. Es muy probable que haya disfrutado mucho más el libro si mi conocimiento sobre la cultura japonesa fuera más extenso. Lo de la sopa de miso por ejemplo, no terminé de entender pero la puse en mi lista de alimentos que tengo que probar :). Creo que ese no era el punto pero bueno.

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yer_real_da's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Brilliant metaphor of the West's mystification and fetishisation of Japan and the East as a whole. The book takes a very dark, gruesome turn so not for the squeamish.

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