Reviews

Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki

lilaceous's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

characters - .5⭐️

plot - 

engaging to read - ⭐️

would recommend - .5⭐️

would read again - ⭐️

reading this was disorienting in the best way. were the endings good? no, not at all!! were the characters great? not really!! did it make sense? nope!!! but it pulled me in so good that by the final story i had moments where i could not discern what was sci-fi and what was realistic. i loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gore, Murder, Fatphobia, and Mental illness

viridiantre's review

2.0

just an appendage of terminal boredom, huge disappointment

jasminflavia's review

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

savshelfinger's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

reading this as an artifact of its time; wish I could say these stories gripped me more. 

the storytelling style is at some points confusing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Mental illness, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Suicide

dee9401's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

I loved her first translated collection, Terminal Boredom, so I was very excited when this volume was released. It’s not as good but there are some good pieces. I really liked “My Guy” and “Hey, It’s a Love Psychedelic!” 

“The Covenant” is bizarre and just a fun twisted read. It is classic Suzuki and my favorite piece in the collection. 

“Trial Witch” was a fun piece, like one of those ultra short Night Gallery funny/horror pieces they’d use as fillers. It could have been a darker, more exploratory piece if it was longer but it still worked as a cute short piece. 

frozen_tangerine's review

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

leer_libros_1111's review

I couldn’t get into it. The translation was not the greatest 

hannahmatsu's review

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

three_seagrass's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

theciz's review

medium-paced

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

3.0

Another collection of sci-fi short stories. The stories start out weird and fun enough, but once they start getting interconnected, they get nonsensical and repetitive. I think the turning point is the one about time travel laced with endless incomprehensible references to Japanese bands in the 1970s, like a weird American Psycho parody. Despite different settings, a lot of the characters start to feel the same as well - depressed and disaffected young women, sometimes alone, sometimes with shitty male partners, struggling with the meaning and lack of love and connection in their lives. Also, for some reason, psyonic aliens. This was fine, but not as varied as Terminal Boredom.