Reviews with content warning for Violence - Kitchen

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

21 reviews

annabella's review against another edition

emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

There is so much death!!! It’s a book about peace and loneliness. And the warm hug and comfort that kitchens and food from or with others can offer. And dreams. I felt the love story was written beautiful and not overly graphic or sentimental which made it kinda more intimate and personal to these characters, not for us as readers? As in it wasn’t a love story about two characters really and I liked that. The amount of joy that the character got from seeing a kitchen or eating delicious ramen was very wholesome and lovely and joyful too. But then the darker bits were also like hugs - as as they became lonelier they also forged connections with more people who supported them. The last bit made me cry:

Hitoshi:
I'll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven't a choice. I go.
One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I have yet to meet, others I'll never see again.
People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes.
I earnestly pray that a trace of my girl-child self will always be with you.
For waving good-bye, I thank you.

It’s a short read and I thought the final section was less engaging, maybe as less food was involved, but the mystery of the river drew it forward. I have a lot of love for Hitoshi and the other characters. I couldn’t really place them in the social world though like their school background and stuff, but I didn’t feel I needed to.

Edit: omg reading reviews I realised that in my stunted reading journey of this book it’s in fact two different stories with two sets of characters ngl I was confused why I didn’t recognise the names and stuff but put it down to my own tiredness 😭 well hey I think I preferred Kitchen. But liked both!

Content Warnings

booksandbulletjournaling's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

writingcaia's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

It’s slow and it captures you lightly, then it hooks you with the depth of character, the tragedy of life, the truth and feeling of the words. A book about grief, life, and the love that changes you and brings you back from the despair of living and knowing tragedy always looms ahead.

Content Warnings