Reviews with content warning for Stalking - Kitchen

Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

afternoondreamer's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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chiara_dose's review

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challenging emotional lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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clovetra's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

i went into this thinking i'd love this. but sadly i didn't :(
i have such varying thoughts on both of the novellas included inside this book, so i'm going to separate my thoughts;
kitchen was.. alright! i got quite bored and felt there was no underlying story or message. none of the characters appeared interesting to me except eriko. i understood there was supposed to be a message or theme to grasp, but i couldn't. sure grief was there, but it felt almost secondary, and there was just no overarching purpose to the story, and i found it such a slog. i enjoyed some parts, such as when mikage is at work or as she converses with eriko, but other than that, i did not enjoy this story. on its own this story is a strong 1/5 for me.
i loved moonlight shadow. i would've much preferred if this was the longer one out of the two novellas. it felt like everyone was character was well-written, and i thoroughly enjoyed the story and the voice employed. the theme of grief and holding on was very prominent here, and written wonderfully. the ending was sweet, and i enjoyed how grief was portrayed here. i also love the presence of urara, she was a great addition to this story, as well as hiiragi. solid 3/5
honestly, even though i quite enjoyed moonlight shadow, it's only 40 pages out of a 150 page book. kitchen took up way too much of this novel to rate this book highly.
overall i think my issue was how kitchen felt lacklustre, vague, and said nothing about the themes i could see it was trying to portray. moonlight shadow came and brought my overall opinion of the book up, but because it was less than half of the book, i still would say i didn't enjoy myself here, which is a shame because i was looking forward to this read. oh well! lets hope the next banana yoshimoto book i read is one i enjoy </3

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vaekay's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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lidia7's review against another edition

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hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

Spoilers throughout:
This book was a mixed bag for me.

I can see that the author had good intentions but parts of this book did not age well, one of the main characters who is trans is othered, misgendered and her deadname is shared. Her coworker gets a similar treatment. Given that in the second novella (Moonlight Shadow) there's a similar character who is a man grieving for his girlfriend and wearing her clothes, the fact that Eriko transitioned after her wife's death strikes me as odd because it's almost as if it's suggested that Eriko is still a woman because she couldn't let go of her dead wife while Hiiragi stops wearing his girlfriend's clothes once he gets the chance to say goodbye and it's implied he moves on. There's also Eriko's murder, how lgbt characters's lives are often portrayed as tragic and are brutalized in order to move the plot forward? Still, violence against trans women is a real societal issue and it's good to bring awareness to it. I just don't think Banana Yoshimoto was educated enough on trans issues and possibly didn't even know the difference between a trans woman and a drag queen...

Everything I mentioned before *really* took me out of the story so I couldn't connect. I wish the story would be revised at least a little.

The message overall is hopeful even though we follow grieving and lonely characters who are understandably depressed. Kind of reminded me of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room or Kafka's Metamorphosis - both books and authors that I love but I couldn't love this book. I haven't read a lot of Japanese books but there's a recognizable style. Very hard-hitting, getting to the core of feelings but from a somewhat detached perspective and at times "cheesy".

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