Reviews - The Premonition | The StoryGraph

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1.41k reviews for:

The Premonition

Banana Yoshimoto

3.34 AVERAGE

matchaclump77's review against another edition

3.25

mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jasmintreha's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

meerkatblogging's review

2.75

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

thaisokubaro's review against another edition

2.5

dark 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: Complicated

lbburgess's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

meemawreads's review

0.5

adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book is as old as me and I know it's not fair to hold old art to modern standards but EUGH. Total spoilers await, if you don't want them all you need to know is I'm glad I can't remember which online book creator recommended this because I'd have no choice but to lose respect for them.
🍌
Onward to spoiltown!
🍌

Ok. Female main character can't remember her childhood and it turns out it's because she was adopted after surviving the car crash that killed her parents. Her older sister has been posing as her aunt. Now at 19 she's remembered and goes on a nonsensical adventure after her aunt/sister with her adoptive brother, who she has no qualms IMMEDIATELY having romantic feelings for despite having grown up as siblings 🤮 We meet aunt/sister's jilted lover, a high school kid who she slept with when he was her student because she "liked his face." She aborted his baby without telling him and dumped him. Everyone just accepts this and encourages a reconciliation??? By the end we leave the sisters reunited and FMC thinking about how breaking it to their family that she wants to sleep with her adoptive brother is going to be difficult, but doable.

AM I ON DRUGS? This book doesn't just NOT hold up, it's badly written (or maybe badly translated), the narrator reads like a mannequin, no character has any personality and none of their motivations make sense. The half point it gets is for being nonchalant about abortion in the eighties, I'm going to assume that was ahead of its time. Full ew, half a tater 🍠/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

Content Warnings

jennai's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

slowlychloe's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

shilohturner's review against another edition

2.5

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

onethousandoddfrogs's review against another edition

2.25

fast-paced

Banana Yoshimoto is my Haruki Murakami. Unfortunately, this particular story wasn’t very good. Her prose, & her introspective female protagonist, & her handling of relationships ebbing and eddying in and out of the different manifestations of Love (familial / platonic / romantic, etc.) were as always, yet somehow the execution felt less enchanting than usual. I still enjoy her distinctive style, and will continue reading her works, but the core threads to this particular book failed to resonate.

Content Warnings

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