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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
fast-paced
a fever dream (honestly think I would have grown to like it but there was incest in it so that's a big nope for me)
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I really adore banana yoshimotos writing style, tho I liked other stories like hard boiled, hard luck or other short stories more. For me the amount of incest was just too much
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Darker than some of the other books I've read by Banana Yoshimoto, but her writing is always languid and contemplative and gorgeous.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-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
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has some... wild perspective on incestual relationships. I get that the message is kind of "we're all broken and flawed, not just the ones who sleep with both their father and their half brother," but I think more could have been done to paint incest as what it is, especially when it came to the father. Sui was abused from a young age, so maybe that should be a more talked about subject in the book.
Kazami didn't really do much for me as a narrator. She felt sort of floating through without doing much other than being swept down the river.
Some quotes:
"There's no better way to get to know a person than having a meal together."
"I can't imagine life without a story."
"After a period of being unable to speak those words, something changed in my head. I came to see the array of colors that lay behind words. When my sister was being nice to me, I perceived a brilliant image of pink light. My mother's words and gestures when she was teaching us English were gold... Living like that utterly convinced me of the extreme limitations of language. I was just a child then, so I had only an intuitive understanding of the degree to which one loses control of words once they are spoken or written. It was then that I first felt a deep curiosity about language, and understood it as a tool that encompasses both a single moment and eternity."
Kazami didn't really do much for me as a narrator. She felt sort of floating through without doing much other than being swept down the river.
Some quotes:
"There's no better way to get to know a person than having a meal together."
"I can't imagine life without a story."
"After a period of being unable to speak those words, something changed in my head. I came to see the array of colors that lay behind words. When my sister was being nice to me, I perceived a brilliant image of pink light. My mother's words and gestures when she was teaching us English were gold... Living like that utterly convinced me of the extreme limitations of language. I was just a child then, so I had only an intuitive understanding of the degree to which one loses control of words once they are spoken or written. It was then that I first felt a deep curiosity about language, and understood it as a tool that encompasses both a single moment and eternity."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Self harm, Suicide, Death of parent