Reviews - Kafka on the Shore

12.7k reviews for:

Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami

4.03 AVERAGE

adoboreader's review against another edition

3.5

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Unusual and dreamy. It started off really slow and didn’t pick up until

Nakata arrives at the empty lot.

It’s written curiously, smoothly swapping between third and second person POV and references classical music, movies, and literature.

It left me feeling like I need to read it again to really understand it.

Anyway if my literature class required an essay on this, I think I’d fail pretty badly. :|

Content Warnings

jimelest's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

giulia_ak's review against another edition

4.0

i read this in high school and in affected me so much. one of those tape-on-the-spine, always-in-your-bag sort of novels for me. i think the internet has colored my adult relationship w murakami in the negative , mostly by bringing to light certain things that i never interpreted uncharitably, but couldn’t ignore once i’d seen them. i respect what it did for me when i probably needed it though. i just like the way it helped me cultivate my own more magical thinking