Reviews

Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto

celka's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

charlottekook's review against another edition

3.0

interesting. i definitely prefer the other, shorter novel of hers i've read (kitchen), but this is still quite endearing. i found it slow to get through, though nothing in particular happens, and even when it does it's not at all what i was expecting - there's barely anything about her sister's death and the book her boyfriend wrote about it, which the blurb suggests is a main point of action.

it's sweet, it felt very representative of someone in her early twenties finding everything deeply important and significant, and doing that while trying to recover from physical and emotional trauma. there's a nice naive profundity to it.

indy148's review against another edition

4.0

Lovely novel about the journey of life we take. Set in Japan, it mentions many places I visited when I lived there. Really well written.

aeski's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I love Banana’s writing style but this book was so long and bland. I wanted to like it but I really struggled to stay engaged. It is possible that I didn’t relate to the themes as much as her previous books and that is why it didn’t appeal to me. I also wasn’t a fan of the supernatural elements. Of all of Banana’s books, I would not recommend this one to a friend.

cami19's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted 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

1.0

greeniezona's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

boyishkid's review against another edition

3.5

really beautiful characters but just a little too slow and sad for me. 

annaslitpages's review against another edition

1.0

Oh so very boring.

jesslynnstudio's review against another edition

3.0

I finished Amrita, by Banana Yoshimoto, today. The story is about a young woman adjusting to the tides of life after a head injury left her with partial amnesia. She travels, works, dates, and helps her brother surmount struggles caused by his burgeoning psychic abilities.

While I enjoyed the meandering plot, I wasn't a fan of the repetitive writing style. At one point, for instance, the narrator writes a letter explaining a scene that just occurred, then describes the letter immediately afterwards. Many paragraphs could have been condensed to a sentence or two. There is a tendency to name the feeling metaphors are meant to inspire, within the imagery itself.

Some of the repetition might be due to the story having been translated. Perhaps in the original Japanese, there are many synonyms for single word English equivalents? I don't know. But it took me months to push through this book.

mistypb's review against another edition

1.0

Like a 1.5….

Why is she dating her dead sisters boyfriend… and why doesn’t anyone in the book acknowledge how weird that is….

It’s not really a coherent novel imo