Scan barcode
sarah_mwangi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-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? N/A
3.5
bloodruby29's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book with no expectation and I thought that was the best way to enjoy this. Another book I can also file under "what an actual fuck". A story about a man being hired to search his relative's missing fiancee but soon the pursuit embroiled into an unexpected rip of a harrowing crime. This narrative path goes darker and darker, gave reader no rest to experience its drip-feed of dread. I liked how Miyuki exquisitely brought a lesson 101 about financial world here without making them too complex to be absorbed. The ending UHHHHH, of course it’s a fierce ending 5/5 but seriously, I'm compelled to submit a petition to the author to write that a lil bit longer!!!
asuma's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
debumere's review against another edition
2.0
How long did that take me to read. Kind of picked it up last week and read from there. My reading abilities are fading! Or was it cos the book was long? Read on!
Anyway, the book, little noir thriller, lots of twists and turns and, in the end, turns out to be a waste of my bloody time.
WHERE IS SHOKO'S BLOODY HEAD?
All that and no closure. Nothing. We don't even know for sure that Shoko died. We don't know what her weirdo friend, Kyoko, did kill her or who pushed the mum down the stairs and where Jun went, the guy who started the whole investigation.
Granted, they were doing it on the sly, looking for Shoko, or rather Kyoko, and so no official investigation was being done but I have rarely felt so dissatisfied when reading a crime story.
I like all loose ends tied up.
I have a feeling that I may have missed all, or some, of the answers to my questions but so what. I should have known them as I was reading it.
2/5 because I liked the binding of the book - America does a great paperback binding and it was interesting in parts.
Anyway, the book, little noir thriller, lots of twists and turns and, in the end, turns out to be a waste of my bloody time.
WHERE IS SHOKO'S BLOODY HEAD?
All that and no closure. Nothing. We don't even know for sure that Shoko died. We don't know what her weirdo friend, Kyoko, did kill her or who pushed the mum down the stairs and where Jun went, the guy who started the whole investigation.
Granted, they were doing it on the sly, looking for Shoko, or rather Kyoko, and so no official investigation was being done but I have rarely felt so dissatisfied when reading a crime story.
I like all loose ends tied up.
I have a feeling that I may have missed all, or some, of the answers to my questions but so what. I should have known them as I was reading it.
2/5 because I liked the binding of the book - America does a great paperback binding and it was interesting in parts.
dyaneka's review against another edition
4.0
Topik ekonomi yang erat kaitannya dengan kehidupan masyarakat dipadukan dengan cerita detektif yang sangat menarik di buku ini. Alur cerita yang cukup padat dan detail cukup mampu buat saya ingin terus membaca untuk segera mengetahui kebenaran cerita di antara Shoko Sekine dan Kyoko Shinjo.
Kekurangannya bagi saya yaitu begitu banyak tokoh di buku ini, karena memang Detektif Honma berkeliling menemui orang banyak, dan untuk saya itu sedikit membingungkan. Terkadang saya lupa tentang tokoh 'figuran' yang sedang berbicara atau dibicarakan, sehingga saya perlu kembali ke halaman sebelumnya untuk mengingat tentang tokoh figuran tersebut.
Tapi selebihnya novel ini worth to read!!!
Kekurangannya bagi saya yaitu begitu banyak tokoh di buku ini, karena memang Detektif Honma berkeliling menemui orang banyak, dan untuk saya itu sedikit membingungkan. Terkadang saya lupa tentang tokoh 'figuran' yang sedang berbicara atau dibicarakan, sehingga saya perlu kembali ke halaman sebelumnya untuk mengingat tentang tokoh figuran tersebut.
Tapi selebihnya novel ini worth to read!!!
animatorinator's review against another edition
3.0
It was fun. A cheese read. Solid average detective fair. The ending was really good.
silvernfire's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book, but "thriller" is a misleading description: this is a quiet, sort of cerebral, mystery. Police detective Shunsuke Honma, semi-recently widowed and on medical leave, is trying to find the fiancée of his wife's cousin, who disappeared after the cousin learned of her bankruptcy. All violence takes place off-stage, and the story mainly focuses on Honma's efforts to untangle the paper trail leading to the missing woman.
All She Was Worth is set in the early 1990's. It'd be easy to get lost in the setting or have cultural references go sailing over the reader's head, but Miyabe included exposition about Japanese consumer credit, family registers, and so on. I don't know if Japanese readers found it useful or boring, but reading an English translation 25 years later, I thought it was helpful (although the explanation of credit could've been shorter!). It's also nice to read a Japanese story that has nothing to do with anime, manga, or high school (Honma is middle-aged, with a young son). This wouldn't be a good mystery for people who like a lot of action or a hero in danger, but those who like mystery novels that give you a peek into other cultures might enjoy this one.
All She Was Worth is set in the early 1990's. It'd be easy to get lost in the setting or have cultural references go sailing over the reader's head, but Miyabe included exposition about Japanese consumer credit, family registers, and so on. I don't know if Japanese readers found it useful or boring, but reading an English translation 25 years later, I thought it was helpful (although the explanation of credit could've been shorter!). It's also nice to read a Japanese story that has nothing to do with anime, manga, or high school (Honma is middle-aged, with a young son). This wouldn't be a good mystery for people who like a lot of action or a hero in danger, but those who like mystery novels that give you a peek into other cultures might enjoy this one.
scarylions's review against another edition
4.0
I never read mystery novels but this was so good I could become interested in the genre.
I picked this up in Title Wave Books in Anchorage years ago along with another and never picked them up to read until now. Glad I spent the time with this gem.
I picked this up in Title Wave Books in Anchorage years ago along with another and never picked them up to read until now. Glad I spent the time with this gem.
pilesandpiles's review against another edition
4.0
File this under "great genre fiction of late capitalism"?? Tokyo, 1992. A young woman disappears. Her fiance turns to his uncle, a police detective, to track her down. Uncle Detective seems to be on her trail ... then discovers that the woman he's been sniffing out is a completely different person with the same name and legal existence. Two human beings, a single record on paper. When did one end and the other begin? From this point on, the book is impossible to put down!! JK, I drank a lot of coffee before writing this. But it is a totally absorbing novel if you're interested in debt and credit, what makes legal personhood, and how a flesh-and-blood person can slip in and out of visibility in the eye of the state. There is even a whole 10-page treatise on the debt and credit system and its evils that Miyuki Miyabe only thinly disguises as dialogue. This is not a character-driven novel; none of the characters are particularly interesting in themselves. That feels intentional -- in the end, All She Was Worth implies the impossibility of fashioning a true, free self in a society where everyone is constituted by the intersection of consumer culture and state-defined personhood.