Reviews

Hit Parade of Tears by Izumi Suzuki

jademb's review

mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

3.25

spikespiegel's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

juls191's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

tsehai's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

stitching_ghost's review

3.0

Started off very strong but then the last stories just dragged on and didn't feel particularly engaging.

porge_grewe's review

4.5

An excellent set of short stories, though not quite as polished and consistent as the previous collection, Terminal Boredom. In many ways it feels like a forerunner to Sayaka Murata's Earthlings - Even down to one of the short stories feeling like a prequel to it - But there's a punk irreverence to it all which stops the horror being too horrifying, and it goes in much more for the weird. A lot of the other reviews reference punk, which is apt because she talks about music a lot in the stories, especially the third story in the collection and my personal favourite "Hey! It's a Love Psychedelic!", which manages to do something which literature often stumbles over, and which must have been a nightmare for the translator - An effective and playful time travel story.

grytev's review

reflective slow-paced

2.75

zissoui's review

challenging dark funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

yaelvershkov's review

Maybe it was the translation, but I really hated the writing and the dialogue.

mariomenti's review

4.0

I really liked the first collection of Izumi Suzuki's short stories that came out in English a couple of years ago (Terminal Boredom). Hit Parade of Tears, the second collection, is just as good.

Suzuki, who died in 1986 at the age of just 37, was a pioneer of Japanese "punky" science fiction. Most of these stories are simultaneously quite sad and very funny, and despite being steeped in Seventies Japanese counterculture, somehow still feel very fresh today.