Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

11 reviews

charlieeee's review against another edition

lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Outing

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Death of parent, and Death

adawada's review

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

2.75

The first story in this book has started off very strong for me. I loved the main character’s relationship with kitchens but thought that it wasn’t developed far enough. 

The themes of grief in this book have been written very well, especially in the second story. What I couldn’t believe was

Mikage’s grief for Eriko being much deeper than for her recently deceased grandmother, despite only knowing Eriko for a very short amount of time.

I thought that the ways of grieving, both alone and collectively were interesting. 

What I didn’t like was that most of these characters, in both stories, felt very one dimensional and just blended into each other too much. 

Now, what I absolutely hated about this book is the transphobia. There was so much misgendering in the first story which was also at the heart of jokes between the main characters. There was trans shaming in the second story. The idea that both characters just seemed to decide on a whim to either “become women” or “cross-dress” is so appalling. I get that the book was first published in the 80s and that was predominantly the thinking of the time (one could argue that it still is in some cases) but what I don’t get then is that the book still gets so much praise despite the transphobic language. 

It wasn’t the worst book. It was my first time reading Yoshimoto’s work and I must say that it didn’t inspire me enough to pick up anything else by her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Outing, and Transphobia

Minor: Self harm

lolaloupiotte's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, and Transphobia

Minor: Outing and Self harm

recycled_personalities's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Progressive for it’s time. Seen through a mordent lens, it could be better in its representation. Great examination of grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Alcohol, Murder, Alcoholism, Medical content, Bullying, Grief, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Abandonment, Addiction, Death of parent, Death, and Hate crime

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

relaxing sad fast-paced

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

3.0

Read this as part of my book club’s March pick. It wasn’t on my TBR before and I didn’t know much about it going in. 

What I liked:
•Short and quick read

•Interesting looks at loss and grief

•I enjoyed the second story much more which is why I gave it 3 ⭐️s

•Even though “Moonlight Shadow” was shorter I somehow felt more emotion and connection with those characters than with the characters of the “Kitchen” novella
•I finished it 😂

What I didn’t like:
•Characters felt one dimensional and writing was just okay; I felt bored at times and found myself speed reading the last 30 pages of Kitchen
•Transphobic af-lots of misgendering and deadnaming-
Eriko is a trans woman and her son described her life story by saying that after her wife died she asked herself “what do I do now?I want to be cheerfully uplifted so I’ll become a woman” as if that’s something you just decide on a whim?!
•Also her son outed her to the MC upon the first time they meet. Throughout the book they make jokes at Eriko’s expense where they continue to misgender her. I’m not sure if this was intentional by the author or if it’s a translation issue but the trans rep is poorly portrayed.

•Won’t be a memorable read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Hate crime, Outing, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism and Body shaming

Minor: Deadnaming

spookily's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Transphobia

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Hate crime, and Alcohol

Minor: Stalking, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, and Terminal illness

zannayo's review

hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

My own love for this work snuck up on me as I read on. The themes explored within these two stories could easily have been overwhelmingly sad, but there was always enough hopeful lightness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Alcohol, Car accident, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Outing, Alcoholism, Murder, and Transphobia

Minor: Cancer and Deadnaming

rieviolet's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

2.5

I think that the book was really not for me. I did not get along with the writing style, it was too sentimental for me. 
Also, I did not connect with most of the characters, so many times while a character or another was going on and on with a monologue I found myself thinking "What is this person talking about? Should I care? I'm just bored".

I do not like the way transness was handled in the main story (and in the attached bonus short story), I should maybe be a little less harsh in my judgement given that the book was published in the 80s but, still, it was not pleasant to read, especially seeing how it ended.

Also, I listened to the audiobook and it made the reading experience even worse. I have to accept that audio format is not for me; I was already not much taken by the story, but by having to listen to it instead of focusing on a written page, my mind wandered time and time again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Grief, Murder, Hate crime, Deadnaming, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Outing, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Car accident, and Fatphobia

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

freckled_frog_boi's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

1.75

I loved the writing style and how she described simple moments was absolutely delicious to read. However, as a trans person, the writing surrounding trans characters was horrible and openly transphobic. The characters love their friends who are trans women but out them, and call them men, make jokes about them being masculine, and are constantly reminding themselves and others that they are still men. The trans characters themselves are beautiful and I wished they were treated better. Also, there is a weird phenomenon where transness is treated like mental decline when faced with grief(?) which was weird and unsettling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Moderate: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcoholism

sarah984's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

3.0

"Kitchen" contains two novellas about recovering from the death of a loved one, and helping others cope with loss. Both stories were sweet and melancholy. However I did want a little more from the titular story (it dwelled a little too long on the will they won't they romantic relationship stuff and the most interesting character had way too little page time) and both stories are a bit weird about gender (which is sort of understandable since this was originally published in the 80s).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Child death, Transphobia, Death, Death of parent, and Hate crime

Minor: Deadnaming, Outing, Terminal illness, Car accident, and Alcoholism