Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Kafka On The Shore

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami

396 reviews

klbreyfogle's review against another edition

3.75

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ok so I did finish it and it was really interesting conceptually. Lots of playing in the alternate reality and altered time and space sandbox. Also lots of introspection and long, semi-academic conversations. In a lot of ways it reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude. One of those ways is the

heavy use and emphasis of incest (I guess pseudo-incest since he doesn’t know for sure that they’re related?)

and I could’ve done without that, ended up skipping through most of those scenes. I also skipped through that

graphic live cat dissection and murder.

that part almost made me DNF the book until I confirmed with a friend who’d already read it that it wouldn’t get worse.

Overall, definitely not my favorite book I’ve ever read but it did have some interesting themes and a heavy lean into magical realism.

Content Warnings

divya_s's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

maybeebee's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 31%

I genuinely was enjoying this book and was intrigued by the multiple mysteries going on, I could even look past the questionable way the women in the book were described, and the VERY iffy relationship between Kafka and Sakura…but the GRAPHIC animal abuse out of absolutely NOWHERE? No thank you, directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200, JAIL. If it had been a background occurrence I might have been able to deal with it but (TW for less graphic description but still horrible)

vivisection and decapitation of cats who had been drugged so they were passive but could still feel everything?

I pulled a face so distressed when I was reading this that a random person sitting near me wanted to know what the hell was happening in this book. You can’t just make cats talk in a book and then do THAT to them. Honestly you just…can’t do that to animals in a book full stop. Ugh, it was so awful, and I am so disappointed.

Content Warnings

jacobrgibson's review against another edition

4.25

emotional mysterious 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

Content Warnings

julia_1230's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious

Content Warnings

holy_morangos's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Não sou uma pessoa do realismo-fantástico, porque gosto quando as coisas fazem sentido e se interligam no universo onde decorrem. Só li outro livro de Murakami - After Dark - que é ligeiramente diferente do que ele costuma escrever, deste modo, achei que não ia gostar muito do livro. Aliás, em várias passagens não gostei do livro. É sempre difícil ler sobre abuso sexual e animais torturados.

Contudo, ao virar a última página do livro e sem ter respostas para o que quer que seja, veio-me à cabeça o quanto gostei de conhecer algumas componentes importantes da cultura japonesa e a forma como são exploradas: a sombra e o espírito.
"Nos sonhos começa a responsabilidade". A forma como na história as personagens são enfrentadas com os seus segredos e demónios mais profundos, como são obrigadas a cumprir o seu destino - a responsabilizarem-se por ele - para poderem encontrar a paz - a sua metade, a sua sombra, sossegar o espírito que nasce da escuridão.

"A felicidade é uma alegoria; a infelicidade uma saga."

Este livro merece uma segunda leitura, uma vez que a primeira não dá para absorver e pensar em tudo. Algumas reflexões às vezes pareciam atiradas para as páginas, mas não deixam de ser relevantes.

Também tenho algumas coisas a apontar sobre a escrita de Murakami - nomeadamente descrições de certas personagens e o seu papel -, mas penso que preciso de ler um pouco mais dele para poder tecer uma opinião mais concreta.

Content Warnings

sleepyriv's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark hopeful 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

murakami having a trans man as a major character was not something i expected!!!

Content Warnings

onamoonbeam's review against another edition

1.5

reflective

????? i dont get it.... and even so, some books i don't quite get i like because of some seeming meaning. what is this. it must be some sort of talent to keep writing sex like that, murakami why do you keep on only writing sex w characters in questionable circumstance. also the prose was simple in a way i did not like at many times
notes from highlights:

still don't know what to make of kakfa/nakata parallels, names and circumstance, lack of shadow
the sakura sex scenes haunt me why the fuck did i write a paper about them. i know why but. oh god having to reread them even for a second makes me hiss in discomfort
DID NOT EXPECT CAT GORE. symbolism for the death of companionship? who knowss
shoutout midnight's children! read that and this for a class which. hoo boy. non-blood-related sister sex scenes sure have been processed!
koichi tomura name of kafka's father, komura name of library and last name of saeki's dead bf

Content Warnings