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lpdx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity and Injury/Injury detail
mlewis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
The prose often felt flat to me, and I wonder whether it's because -- at the risk of sharing too much and in an odd venue -- I've spent the pandemic feeling an increasing sense of derealization. I think this novel was doing something that I didn't appreciate until too close to the end, a feeling reinforced by reading “How ‘The Memory Police’ Makes You See,” a great review by Jia Tolentino. I’m also still learning to read deeply, and may still struggle with the stylistic choice to give a narrator a diegetic voice that doesn’t resonate with me immediately.
I think it’s still a great testament to a book’s force that you know you’ll continue thinking about it and want to revisit it, even if you can’t speak glowingly of it right away.
Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality
Minor: Body horror
u_0's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I was surprised that the novel within the novel was so mesmerizing and disturbing to me, the ending and the actions of the woman are still haunting me. I will say that the beginning of the book was an unquestionable 5 stars for me, middle slowed down and was a 4 stars, and the ending brought it back to 4 point something. I'm a little dissatisfied that most of my questions never got answers but I understand why Ogawa wrote it that way. The foreshadowing and laying of plot details was so good! I was so impressed with the way that information was revealed and later made relevant. I grew up really loving books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and this book easily stands among or above them as a cautionary tale and retaliation against oppression and totalitarianism.
The "tropes" felt familiar but then I realized it was the "tropes" of oppression, totalitarianism, and surveillance that were the same, that all these books are fighting the same evil. The last note to my stream of consciousness review is that this book really resonated with me because of my memory loss and disabilities too. The trauma of having something important indiscriminately taken away from you and having to live with a new normal without knowing what you've lost is an open wound for me and definitely explored in the book, if not in this context.
Everyone will walk away with something important to carry with them.
UPDATE:
[ I've sat with it a little longer and I now have an even stronger appreciation for this book. The text is quiet and slow paced, but it's also alive and screaming. I don't think everyone will like the format, but it really spoke to me. So much is written in subtext and to be understood and explored by the reader. This novel is so well crafted and I'm blown away that Ogawa was able to accomplish this tone and effect and still capture the beauty of humanity.
More and more I appreciate the ending and the choice of the slow, violent progression to the conclusion. Someone else wrote here in a review that the real terror of the novel comes from us having to continue reading the story although
I think the most important aspect of this book might be the refrain from making this book a fantasy or adventure about courageously overcoming the Memory police. Instead, the novel sits entrenched in the horror and sees the story to conclusion. The sense of normalcy and adaptation of the community is terrifying. The fact that life goes on is terrifying.
It left me with questions of what I expected from the protagonists. What should be expected from me If I was in their position? What is reasonable to expect of others? When one is powerless, what is there to do? Is there dignity in just surviving? What checks failed for this to happen and how could it have been prevented? How close are we to this now? Is it already too late?
I think it will be very natural for most of us to feel dissatisfied that we never got answers to the mysteries or that
Graphic: Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Ableism, Blood, and Medical content
gkgkgk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping
Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder and Blood
ollie_again's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Moderate: Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
savvylit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
At its core, this novel is a terrifying parable about the extreme duress and gaslighting inherent in police states. The citizens of the island are constantly surveilled by the titular memory police. Folks who have retained memories of the disappeared items are forcibly taken away from the community to meet unknown fates. Such scenes are all too accurately reminiscent of the treatment of radicals during extreme fascist regimes. Perhaps that's the scariest aspect of this novel - the way that Ogawa's dystopian world closely mirrors our own reality.
Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Death, Grief, Gaslighting, and Police brutality
suzannah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death of parent, and Death
sassyshark's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Confinement and Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder, Gore, and Medical content
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Infidelity
Moderate: Police brutality
darbo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The book has a slow start, and it may feel slow all throughout for some due to its mundane, everyday tasks, but it picks up eventually and just leaves you baffled and shocked at every turn. Especially so the ending. I truly love this and wholeheartedly recommend this to any dystopia and Orwell fans out there.
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Violence
Minor: Abandonment, Blood, and Death