Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

12 reviews

haslerts's review against another edition

reflective sad fast-paced

Loved this book and it was a super fast read. Low key a spoiler, but the way the character is visually impaired but he is the only one who SEES the moral truths of the world around him. And then when he has the eye surgery and sees the beauty in the world with its own value. LOVE THAT. To me, this book kind of goes against those people who say that nothing really matters and there is no objective morality but… maybe I’m wrong but that was my takeaway…. Also the last paragraph, damnnnnn. I’m also probably never going to reread this book because it was so upsetting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Violence

dizzzybrook's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

fairytomie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

This book truly ripped my heart out. This is my introduction to Kawakami’s work and i’m in love with how poetic her writing is. 

Justice for these characters and the fact we don’t know what happened to Kojima is so heart-wrenching.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death, Vomit, and Death of parent

milkteeth's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

roshma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

yuyuv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

exorbts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Eating disorder and Self harm

loneliness, alienation, introversion

anica990's review against another edition

Reading about how viscerally the main character is bullied was extremely difficult. It made me feel horrible because it's basically graphically described abuse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism

kia_y_k's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

gloomyheart's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? N/A

4.0

I think I have a very conflicting, bordering on love-hate relationship with this book. Having just finished it, I wish to explore and decode the small or large points in this book that have impacted me.

To begin this review, I would like to emphasise how talented the translators are as writers. Both of them have the ability to portray agitated, confusing scenes with such ease and lightness. 

Reading many of the reviews for this book, a lot people have given it three stars because they "don't get it". Truth to be told, I can't hold this against them. The writing is beautiful, but the topics at hand are both complex and dark. Classically 'fun' reading is not the point of this book. It reveals the complex and devastating truth about bullying and teenage sadness. It is interesting to note that even the order of the book reveals a raw portrayal of life, as the first page is already a letter from Kojima asking the narrator to be his friend. Then we witnessed him being bullied and met his family. The order is messy. It is a reflection of real life. We learn things about people who are being bullied in real life in a more complicated and messy way than in a straight-line. We gradually unravel the meaning and all the little signs we see at the beginning as the bullying proceeds. It almost resembled a puzzle as it progressed. There is almost an impression that the book isn't fiction, the reader feels as if they are reading a true story. It is often the case that we do not meet a person's parents or see them being bullied when we first meet them in real life. In the beginning, we may simply observe them to be a bit awkward or with a friend. In this book, the chaos and unexpectedness that are found in everyday life are prominently depicted. 

The book also succeeds in exploring the nature of bullying. To avoid spoilers, I will not go into too much detail, but I found the way that Mieko Kawakami approached these themes to be quite striking. The book is more philosophical than entertaining in nature. 

That said, my love for this book was not pure unbiasedness as many of the scenes being portrayed hit very close to home, and Kojima in particular eerily resembled my girlfriend. 

And whilst the book depicted the horrors of bullying and sadness well, there were moments that seemed a bit unrealistic. How is it that throughout the entire book, the teachers never once noticed anorexic, depressed or bullied students? Or even the parents, they never once thought that something might be off? 

One final complaint I would like to make about this book is the fact that I found the ending quite disappointing. The book is in my opinion near perfect from a philosophical standpoint, but as a reader who is looking for entertainment, I found it to be somewhat disappointing and actually a bit flat. Although there was much anticipation for what would happen at the end, I found that it was a rather dull experience. While I understand the book's intent to reflect society and life, as a reader, I expected that there would be some excitement at the end.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Toxic relationship