Reviews tagging 'Death'

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

280 reviews

soniaaaaaaaa's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

heartbreakingly good, the characters felt like real people and how murakami is able to explore grief and loss was really effective. 

i would also check the trigger warnings before reading, some stuff i read i didnt expect and it was quite disturbing

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

Minor: Lesbophobia, Death, Child death, and Death of parent

janainthebooks's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

I understand it is the perspective of a 19 year old boy but the way women are viewed and described in this book is extremely superficial, overtly sexual and plane boring. This one sided and objectifying way of storytelling takes away from the depth of the story and the of the characters. The story itself is rather slow paced and at times hard to get through, but gets more interesting in the last third. All in all its an intriguing plot and some passages are beautifully poetic, but it could've been executed better. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Grief, Suicide, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Minor: Classism

soubi1's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Death, and Sexual content

fiona_sch's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Misogyny, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

nesilla's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcohol, Death, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Self harm, Cancer, and Misogyny

boofaboo's review

emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Grief, and Suicide

thebookwasb3tter's review

It was maddeningly slow, I found the main character to be  awful and self absorbed, the women were written as sex caricatures, and the dialogue made me cringe. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Grief, Suicide, Bullying, Mental illness, and Self harm

mmari's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent and Toxic relationship

squirrel66's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Puh. Schwer zu entscheiden, wie viele Sterne ich dem Buch geben möchte. Fühlte sich insgesamt überbewertet an.

Die Erzählung ist an einigen Stellen lyrisch und wenn ich es nicht als Hörbuch gehört hätte, hätte ich sie mir gerne markiert. Allerdings überwiegt das Maß an Szenen, in denen es um Sex gibt. Die Gedanken aller scheinen sich permanent um Sex zu drehen, denn die meisten Interaktionen enden in Sex und/oder Suizid. Das nutzt sich dann doch ab.
Ich bin generell kein großer Fan von expliziten Szenen in Büchern, muss aber zugeben dass ich die Szenen an sich nicht schlecht geschrieben fand. Es kam für mich durchaus auch das Gefühl einer innigen zärtlichen Verbindung rüber, was den zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen in dem Fall auch Tiefe verleiht. Aber das wurde durch das schiere Übermaß der Sexszenen wieder genommen. Das ständige Reden über und Forcieren von Sex wurde irgendwann leider genau so nervig wie die unterwürfige und stets nach männlicher Bestätigung fragende Darstellung der Frauen.

Man könnte das noch der Zeit der Handlung oder dem Alter der meisten Personen zuschreiben, wenn Murakami nicht dafür bekannt wäre. Ich hätte die poetischen Stellen im Buch definitiv gerne mehr genießen können, aber bei der Erzählung hatte ich mit der Zeit einfach einen ziemlich sexfixierten älteren Autor vor Augen.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcohol

words_and_cups's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? No

2.0

I had a hard time finishing this book... The combination of mental illness, suicide and detailed sex scenes was not to my liking at all, rather borderline disturbing. However, this was the first book from Murakami that I read and I have to admit the narrative and the symbolisms, which I think I got, showed great storytelling and writing. I guess I will have to read more of his work to make up my mind.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Death