Scan barcode
A review by mojochan
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
3.0
Okay, so I was a bit hesitant about reading this book because as usual I went ahead and read the reviews for it, which gave me mixed signals. A bad habit of mine...
Talking about Book 1, it was pretty much the standard Murakami vibes with the story just flowing as it progressed. It did feel a bit dragged in the middle but rest assured it is just another Murakami-writing. I do feel that this should not be the first book if one is ever trying out Murakami, well I don't think anyone would as well looking at its size. But pretty decent story pace making the readers question where is this story going.
Book 2 felt a bit too stretched to me. I am no expert but seriously thought the stretch was unnecessary and if the fluff was cut off it would be better and a bit more interesting. I noticed that as the book progressed it was lacking the Murakami essence and magic, in such a way that writing this book was more of a task for the author. You might argue that the Murakami essence was very well present and I am blind, but if you cut out the part where he describes the women in the story, no essence was to be seen.
Finally reaching book 3 got my hopes up again thinking about the wrap of this series of unfortunate events (see what I did here ... XD) would be good but all hopes came crashing down when getting through this part became super tiresome and made me want to end it asap. I wanted answers but the book decided against it and kept going on and on, the same repetitive cycle of mundane events.
When the book did come to an end, it felt as if it didn't do justice. Many questions were left unanswered, and plots which were left midway made me a bit uneasy. You will say that's Murakami's style but there's a clear difference between leaving an open-ending and abandoning unanswered questions.
Overall it was a meh-read, I would only recommend this book to Murakami fans who are well-versed with his writing style and still enjoy his work even though he has a pretty shitty way to describe women in his books.
Talking about Book 1, it was pretty much the standard Murakami vibes with the story just flowing as it progressed. It did feel a bit dragged in the middle but rest assured it is just another Murakami-writing. I do feel that this should not be the first book if one is ever trying out Murakami, well I don't think anyone would as well looking at its size. But pretty decent story pace making the readers question where is this story going.
Book 2 felt a bit too stretched to me. I am no expert but seriously thought the stretch was unnecessary and if the fluff was cut off it would be better and a bit more interesting. I noticed that as the book progressed it was lacking the Murakami essence and magic, in such a way that writing this book was more of a task for the author. You might argue that the Murakami essence was very well present and I am blind, but if you cut out the part where he describes the women in the story, no essence was to be seen.
Finally reaching book 3 got my hopes up again thinking about the wrap of this series of unfortunate events (see what I did here ... XD) would be good but all hopes came crashing down when getting through this part became super tiresome and made me want to end it asap. I wanted answers but the book decided against it and kept going on and on, the same repetitive cycle of mundane events.
When the book did come to an end, it felt as if it didn't do justice. Many questions were left unanswered, and plots which were left midway made me a bit uneasy. You will say that's Murakami's style but there's a clear difference between leaving an open-ending and abandoning unanswered questions.
Overall it was a meh-read, I would only recommend this book to Murakami fans who are well-versed with his writing style and still enjoy his work even though he has a pretty shitty way to describe women in his books.