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skazhavets's review against another edition
4.0
Basically people who love horror movies are people with boring lives. They want to be stimulated, and they need to reassure themselves, because when a really scary movie is over, you're reassured to see that you're still alive and the world still exists as it did before. That's the real reason we have horror films-they act as shock absorbers-and if they disappeared altogether it would mean losing one of the few ways we have to ease the anxiety of the imagination.
I see myself as being like a virus. Did you know that only a tiny minority of viruses cause illness in humans? No one knows how many viruses there are, but their real role, when you get right down to it, is to aid in mutations, to create diversity among life forms. I’ve read a lot of books on the subject—when you don’t need much sleep you have a lot of time to read—and I can tell you that if it weren’t for viruses, mankind would never have evolved on this planet. Some viruses get right inside the DNA and change your genetic code, did you know that? And no one can say for sure that HIV, for example, won’t one day prove to have been rewriting our genetic code in a way that’s essential to our survival as a race. I’m a man who consciously commits murders and scares the hell out of people and makes them reconsider everything, so I’m definitely malignant, yet I think I play a necessary role in this world.
darniy's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Violence, and Sexual assault
anitahacker's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
jrice92's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars for In the Miso Soup.
I really enjoyed this read so dont let the 3.5 stars put you off, this is a short punchy read in a horror/thriller genre mix, I've been really into Japanese horror recently and I wanted to try some slightly different reads.
Minor spoilers/plot points below (you've been warned)
In the Miso Soup follows a tout/tour guide called Kenji.
Kenji shows tourists (mainly Americans) around Japans version of the Red Light District showing the best clubs and pubs along with the more X rated stuff that i'm sure I dont need to spell out.
Kenji is hired by an American tourist called Frank (instantly seems odd) for three days, Frank wants to see all the spots, his story doesn't add up and he keeps tripping up on small white lies, making Kenji doubt how much Frank is saying is true. Then the bodies start piling up in all the spots Kenji and Frank visit.
I wont say much more other than this is an enjoyable read, I wouldn't say its a classic but I would recommend it to people who want to try something different especially people like me who are fascinated by Japan.
FYI
There is one very VERY graphic killing scene that I found difficult to read through, if your triggered by heavy violence this might not be for you.
I really enjoyed this read so dont let the 3.5 stars put you off, this is a short punchy read in a horror/thriller genre mix, I've been really into Japanese horror recently and I wanted to try some slightly different reads.
Minor spoilers/plot points below (you've been warned)
In the Miso Soup follows a tout/tour guide called Kenji.
Kenji shows tourists (mainly Americans) around Japans version of the Red Light District showing the best clubs and pubs along with the more X rated stuff that i'm sure I dont need to spell out.
Kenji is hired by an American tourist called Frank (instantly seems odd) for three days, Frank wants to see all the spots, his story doesn't add up and he keeps tripping up on small white lies, making Kenji doubt how much Frank is saying is true. Then the bodies start piling up in all the spots Kenji and Frank visit.
I wont say much more other than this is an enjoyable read, I wouldn't say its a classic but I would recommend it to people who want to try something different especially people like me who are fascinated by Japan.
FYI
There is one very VERY graphic killing scene that I found difficult to read through, if your triggered by heavy violence this might not be for you.
weirdly_reading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I am simply mesmerized by Ryu Murakami's writing. I am just as dragged into the history, as Kenji is into Frank's web of strangeness, lies, and half truths.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Sexual content
lunacarmona's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
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
screamdogreads's review against another edition
4.0
"I'd worked for nearly two hundred foreigners by now, most of them Americans, but I'd never seen a face quite like this one. It took me a while to pinpoint exactly what was so odd about it. The skin. It looked almost artificial, as if he'd been horribly burned and the doctors resurfaced his face with this fairly realistic man-made material."
In the Miso Soup is a vibrantly unsettling cult classic novel that delves deep into the seedy underworld of the tourism funded sex industry - it is at once meaningful and deliberate while also being purposefully hollow and detached from itself, it's akin to a sexually charged, quieter, much more intimate version of American Psycho. It's really rather unhinged and wild but, it's not without purpose, the violence hits us in short, shocking waves and yet, we're never full emerged in it, instead, forced to bear witness from afar to the grotesqueness that is this book.
It's so exceedingly perverse and brutal that experiencing it feels like injecting gasoline into your veins, this results in an intensely sensational reading experience. Yes, it's the tale of a serial killer on a rampage but told in a more quiet kind of manner. As a novel it's sickening and soaked through with gore but, it's also thought-provoking and challenging, in its brilliance, this novel manages somehow to cast a sympathetic light upon its killer. Creating such a dichotomy is a difficult thing so easily ruined, Murakami however, knocks it out of the park.
In the Miso Soup is a vibrantly unsettling cult classic novel that delves deep into the seedy underworld of the tourism funded sex industry - it is at once meaningful and deliberate while also being purposefully hollow and detached from itself, it's akin to a sexually charged, quieter, much more intimate version of American Psycho. It's really rather unhinged and wild but, it's not without purpose, the violence hits us in short, shocking waves and yet, we're never full emerged in it, instead, forced to bear witness from afar to the grotesqueness that is this book.
It's so exceedingly perverse and brutal that experiencing it feels like injecting gasoline into your veins, this results in an intensely sensational reading experience. Yes, it's the tale of a serial killer on a rampage but told in a more quiet kind of manner. As a novel it's sickening and soaked through with gore but, it's also thought-provoking and challenging, in its brilliance, this novel manages somehow to cast a sympathetic light upon its killer. Creating such a dichotomy is a difficult thing so easily ruined, Murakami however, knocks it out of the park.
"The images flicked through my mind like drug flashbacks, but unaccompanied by any real sense of revulsion or outrage. I remembered the sound of the guy's neck bones cracking, but all I could think was: So that's what it's like when you break somebody in two. Maybe my nerves still hadn't thawed out. I tried to feel sorry for the people who'd been killed but found to my horror, that I couldn't. I couldn't feel any sympathy for them at all."
The fact that this novel is told entirely in a nonchalant conversational style, and is built up of mostly narrative discussions adds such a sobering and uneasy feel to the story. There's an arresting vividity that's just shooting throughout the novel, it's a depraved and violent thing that folds such complex themes into its horror. Degeneracy, isolation, loneliness and corruption are so marvelously explored here. It's so brazen in its artfulness and intelligence. It really is delightful how fucked up this book is.
Being such a short and break-neck paced little novel, makes it entirely easy to devour in the space of a night. It's not even all in the length of the story, it's so damn enrapturing that putting the book down is a difficult task. There's this neon-noir dread laced through every single word. What begins as a sleazy, filthy and seductive pulp tale descends quickly into a maddening bloodbath of murder and psychopathic musings. It's a brilliant, pleasurable reading experience and also so grim and vile that even the most ardent of horror fans will feel their stomachs churning. It's a novel so absolutely worthy of its cult-like status.
"It's fun trying to build a castle on a moving train, you can like lose yourself or whatever and not have all these weird thoughts, because at the time I kept having this weird thought about poking some little girl's eyes with a pin or a toothpick or a hypodermic needle, something pointy like that, and it scared me to think about what if I really did it."
emperorxzee's review against another edition
dark
reflective
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? It's complicated
3.75
ezrasupremacy's review against another edition
3.0
book 4/18 for my october horror reading challenge
genuinely have no idea how i feel about this book — reasonably easy and quick to get through, not particularly horror-like in my traditional understanding of it, but intriguing enough.
this is the second ryū murakami book that i’ve given a try (coinlocker babies being the first) but it’s the only i’ve finished so far. i’m definitely interested in reading more, though overall i feel kind of indifferent towards his writing.
genuinely have no idea how i feel about this book — reasonably easy and quick to get through, not particularly horror-like in my traditional understanding of it, but intriguing enough.
this is the second ryū murakami book that i’ve given a try (coinlocker babies being the first) but it’s the only i’ve finished so far. i’m definitely interested in reading more, though overall i feel kind of indifferent towards his writing.