A review by bookedbymadeline
Butter by Asako Yuzuki

challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I’d been longing to read this book because of friends who raved about it but it fell short sadly. It was really slow paced, and the long chapters made it hard to read for longer periods of time.

The highlight of the book was the food descriptions 🤤 don’t read this on an empty stomach though! I also marked quite a few pages with well written (and sometimes relatable) quotes. 

The main characters are quite complex, and often morally ambiguous. I could relate to them occasionally or understand where they were coming from, while other times I deeply disliked them 😂 Also we suddenly get to know Reiko and get her POV at one point which only felt forced and random. But otherwise I loved her infertility storyline as I could deeply relate to it.

Now my expectations going into this were a problem at first. I knew very little about the synopsis and went in based on various summaries I’d hear from others. So because I went in knowing the bare minimum, and I guess I was expecting more of a “chase” like a Killing Eve or Hannibal situation, I felt let down. The Crime aspect gets a little lost, like how is this labeled a literary crime/thriller? It’s mainly a litfic focused on misogyny and food (which I did enjoy those parts but if you’re gonna sell me crime, GIVE ME CRIME!!
it’s suggested maybe she had a partner but then it goes nowhere?!
Eventually I let these expectations go and just went along for the ride.

I did enjoy the explorations of gender roles and misogyny in contemporary Japan, I felt like I learned a lot about the culture and food with Butter! And again, the food descriptions were deliciously detailed. 

As the story goes on, it could drag at times. There were moments that were overly descriptive or had too much telling over showing, so that certainly didn’t help. Plus this book could’ve been 100-150 pages shorter and had the same outcome/message for the reader.

Overall it wasn’t what I hoped for but was still enjoyable enough. If you liked the discussions of society’s expectations for women in Japan in Convenience Store Woman then you’ll like this, it goes a lot deeper than that book! I’d also recommend if you’re a big foodie 🧈 But fair warning don’t go into this expecting crime/thriller/mystery as that was more of a back burner sub-plot.
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