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halsteady's review
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Death
Moderate: Homophobia
lynnofseptember's review against another edition
2.0
i am ashamed to own this book, truly horrific.
listen, beautiful writing, at times, but god damn the pedophilic commentary is one of the many things you have to look past, and it’s not worth it.
listen, beautiful writing, at times, but god damn the pedophilic commentary is one of the many things you have to look past, and it’s not worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Drug use, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, and Pedophilia
bexdot's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.0
3.5 ⭐️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Death
Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Minor: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
mollyp's review against another edition
I couldn’t read anymore of this, I was struggling to read it as it was and then the sex scene with a thirteen year old and the description of someone with mental health issues as being rotten on the inside where the final straws for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Grief, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Homophobia
ireallyneedtofinishmywork's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
4.25
The dedications of the sense of confusion and losses in the teenage year are stunning, I would for sure give it that. The clarity, honestly of a hurt teenage boy negativing his youth, life, and relationship with death, grief.
Despite its many greatens, some part is indeed archaic. In short love the book, but hate the sexualization of women, and (lowkey) homophobic plotline. btw not rlly related,but if it matters to u, you can definitely tell it it is written by a man lol
Despite its many greatens, some part is indeed archaic. In short love the book, but hate the sexualization of women, and (lowkey) homophobic plotline. btw not rlly related,but if it matters to u, you can definitely tell it it is written by a man lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Homophobia
ford_defect's review
dark
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Rape and Homophobia
mahtab's review
emotional
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? It's complicated
1.5
The book is very problematic in its approach to... well, anything. First of all women are a huge part of the book but the female characters either have only traumas for their personality or are manic pixie dream girls there to satisfy the male protagonist's ego. The two main female characters, Midori and Naoko whom the protagonist is supposed to be in love with are only seen in the light of their sexual appeal. There is nothing to make their characters convincing and realistic, their attitudes do not resemble those of real human beings.
The interactions and sex scenes felt a lot like unrealistic boyish fantasies of a teenager bragging about sexual encounters he never had "look at him he sleeps with a lot of pretty girls and he is so good at it the women decide to never have sex again with anybody else!" I was grossed out by the sheer amount of misogyny and objectification.
There is a scene in which a sexual encounter between a 31-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl is described. Unbelievably the 13-year-old girl is blamed for plotting this relationship and is constantly described as an evil manipulative lesbian who drew the innocent middle aged woman to her trap. So yeah, problematic as problematic goes.
The main character prides himself on being exceptional, different from everybody around him, and honest and nice. I actually found him to be mediocre, an incredibly self-centered liar. I know not every main character should be likable though, as long as you don't make them as bland as Toru is.
About the writing, I found it to be very mediocre and underwhelming. The text is not lyrical or poetical for what it is usually praised for. On the contrast the writing is very dry and bland but maybe the translation from Japanese doesn't do the original text justice.
There are good points to this book, the last paragraph is fascinating in the way the uncertainty of life is captured, the way memories come back to Toru I found to be realistic, there is a character Nagasawa with an interesting philosophy of life. But not enough to make this book worthwhile.
It was my first Murakami book and I don't think I will be able to pick up another for a long time. Maybe I should take Nagasawa's advice on not reading books from an author who has not been dead for at least 30 years.
The interactions and sex scenes felt a lot like unrealistic boyish fantasies of a teenager bragging about sexual encounters he never had "look at him he sleeps with a lot of pretty girls and he is so good at it the women decide to never have sex again with anybody else!" I was grossed out by the sheer amount of misogyny and objectification.
The main character prides himself on being exceptional, different from everybody around him, and honest and nice. I actually found him to be mediocre, an incredibly self-centered liar. I know not every main character should be likable though, as long as you don't make them as bland as Toru is.
About the writing, I found it to be very mediocre and underwhelming. The text is not lyrical or poetical for what it is usually praised for. On the contrast the writing is very dry and bland but maybe the translation from Japanese doesn't do the original text justice.
It was my first Murakami book and I don't think I will be able to pick up another for a long time. Maybe I should take Nagasawa's advice on not reading books from an author who has not been dead for at least 30 years.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Misogyny, and Mental illness
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
gw7's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Why am I giving this one star? Because I feel like it.
I think the main thing dragging it down for me was this cishet view, or exploration, of sexuality which simply doesn't interest me anymore. Unfortunately, that meme where the first picture is of a primary school teacher and pupil and the second is of ancient philosophers (talking with cis people about sexuality vs talking with queer people about sexuality) rings true. The first possibility being that these are indeed important, earth shattering, interesting and new ideas for cis het people still, today, or the second being that this is simply an older book and, while the ideas may have been fresh and intriguing at the time, are now pretty obvious to a lot more people.
Now, I'm sure that there was plenty of stuff in here that went over my head, but that's not the reason I'm rating it lowly either. If I look at authors like James Baldwin and Ocean Vuong, reading their astounding works my brain is almost constantly in the kind of writhing torment of a 12 year old in an advanced calculus class (or whatever kind of maths is hard, I'm gay, I don't know), and yet I still understand it. Why? Because they're writing about humans, and the human experience, and if they can't explain that in a way that the average reader can understand, well, good for them and it has its audience- but essentially, that's on them, not me. But, to double back, that wasn't the case here, either- the characters were all perfectly understandable, with the only confusion around them arising from me not being entirely sure what Murakami was trying to write them asas in did he realise he was writing a pedophile or were the characters/world juts extremely homophobic and that's all the thought of it- but also, why no police when they literally thought she'd molested a child?!?!?!?!???? but, back to the cishet-isms, these were perfectly good portrayals of teenagers, especially teenage boys, but why on earth do I want to read about them? Why should I care? Why is this groundbreaking? Why is this a modern classic?
I did not dnf this, though. I did read 209 pages in a day... just so I didn't have to be reading it tomorrow still... but, that means there is something to be said about the easy flow of the writing (which is always hard to talk about with a translation but... eh...)... but like... still not enough to be a... highly regarded modern classic??? Like, it's not a bad book... but I genuinely don't get it. I can't even be bothered to think about why I didn't like it. I don't even think there was enough information in this book for me to be morally opposed to it. I'm not a woman, so I can't comment on that but, as far as the rest of it goes, I feel like I would have to read more Murakami and watch/read interviews etc. to understand if they are just flawed characters or whether he actually believes that, y'know? Neither of those things will I be doing thought. Probably. I don't know. I kinda indifferent, I guess. And I'll probably forget it shortly. It was fine.
Also, it wasn't that sad? Like...??? I don't even know anymore. I'm just done. (don't get me wrong though, dark, full on topics, I just mean, as far as works of fiction go... I don't know what to say- I acknowledge that these particular characters went through some kinda rough stuff. It's these kind of things that make me go, okay, sure, if these things happened to actual people, of course I would be devastated for them and yes they would have every right to be entirely destroyed and grieve and grieve and grieve but like... when they happen to fictional characters...??? I don' know, man, just kinda makes me realise how terrible my life is, y'know? Genuinely a reason I tend to stay away from books that people say are sad and devastating- cause they usually turn out not to be... which makes me feel... great...)
Weird review, okay bye.
I think the main thing dragging it down for me was this cishet view, or exploration, of sexuality which simply doesn't interest me anymore. Unfortunately, that meme where the first picture is of a primary school teacher and pupil and the second is of ancient philosophers (talking with cis people about sexuality vs talking with queer people about sexuality) rings true. The first possibility being that these are indeed important, earth shattering, interesting and new ideas for cis het people still, today, or the second being that this is simply an older book and, while the ideas may have been fresh and intriguing at the time, are now pretty obvious to a lot more people.
Now, I'm sure that there was plenty of stuff in here that went over my head, but that's not the reason I'm rating it lowly either. If I look at authors like James Baldwin and Ocean Vuong, reading their astounding works my brain is almost constantly in the kind of writhing torment of a 12 year old in an advanced calculus class (or whatever kind of maths is hard, I'm gay, I don't know), and yet I still understand it. Why? Because they're writing about humans, and the human experience, and if they can't explain that in a way that the average reader can understand, well, good for them and it has its audience- but essentially, that's on them, not me. But, to double back, that wasn't the case here, either- the characters were all perfectly understandable, with the only confusion around them arising from me not being entirely sure what Murakami was trying to write them as
I did not dnf this, though. I did read 209 pages in a day... just so I didn't have to be reading it tomorrow still... but, that means there is something to be said about the easy flow of the writing (which is always hard to talk about with a translation but... eh...)... but like... still not enough to be a... highly regarded modern classic??? Like, it's not a bad book... but I genuinely don't get it. I can't even be bothered to think about why I didn't like it. I don't even think there was enough information in this book for me to be morally opposed to it. I'm not a woman, so I can't comment on that but, as far as the rest of it goes, I feel like I would have to read more Murakami and watch/read interviews etc. to understand if they are just flawed characters or whether he actually believes that, y'know? Neither of those things will I be doing thought. Probably. I don't know. I kinda indifferent, I guess. And I'll probably forget it shortly. It was fine.
Also, it wasn't that sad? Like...??? I don't even know anymore. I'm just done. (don't get me wrong though, dark, full on topics, I just mean, as far as works of fiction go... I don't know what to say- I acknowledge that these particular characters went through some kinda rough stuff. It's these kind of things that make me go, okay, sure, if these things happened to actual people, of course I would be devastated for them and yes they would have every right to be entirely destroyed and grieve and grieve and grieve but like... when they happen to fictional characters...??? I don' know, man, just kinda makes me realise how terrible my life is, y'know? Genuinely a reason I tend to stay away from books that people say are sad and devastating- cause they usually turn out not to be... which makes me feel... great...)
Weird review, okay bye.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Lesbophobia and Homophobia
anotherbookwithtee's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
2.0
This book made me feel very uncomfortable didn’t enjoy the readin experience- but as a whole it’s a very interesting book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
sunny_not's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.5
I was going to give this 4 stars but it lost me at why would he sleep with Reiko as well bro it doesn't add anything to the plot. That's the problem with this book even though I enjoyed it a lot at times in the middle of important events and sad situations people would sleep with each other and tell each other dirty jokes for pages and pages and for no reason. Reiko's back story was almost good with the failing pianist storyline but then it all got ruined for me with the Adult/minor bits. I don't know I just don't think there was any need for that. In Kafka on the shore it was like this as well, I don't know what the whole deal is with this authors books and adult minor content but I really don't like it. Also the misogyny... I did like the plot mostly, it was depressing, tragic but it had some good lessons and it was quite reflective. Characters were quite interesting and flawed and I'm glad I gave this book a chance after all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Mental illness, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny