A review by judeinthestars
Outsider by Jade Du Preez

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Depending on how you’re doing, this impressive debut novel may be captivating, cathartic, or terrifying. Or a mix of all that, as it was for me.

Antoinette—Ana—Kutsuki is the daughter of a hideously rich Japanese businessman and a French Canadian ski instructor, whose death in New Zealand when Ana was a child is still very much weighing on her now twenty-seven-year-old daughter. Torn between two worlds, never feeling like she belongs, Ana is the epitome of the tortured artist, depressed yet sensing artistic possibilities in everything. Despite her wealth, despite being in a position to explore her art and let her talents flourish, despite the obvious love of her childhood friend become husband, her life feels incomplete, seldom worth living.

Ana’s character could have come across as self-indulgent. Excellent writing makes her relatable instead. And when she meets the star of a Tokyoite gender bending host bar, the volatile equilibrium slowly shatters as a nagging sense of déjà vu settles over her.

I rarely include content warnings in my reviews but since I’m wholeheartedly recommending this book, readers should be aware that it touches on topics such as suicidal thoughts, grief, death of a parent, depression… These and other important and challenging issues are also what make this story so good. One of the most complex and compelling aspects is the fact that Kyou is unregistered and as such, virtually nonexistent. Because of that, she’s stuck in the only job she could get, has no access to healthcare, no bank account, no passport, etc.

The title, Outsider, applies to Ana and Kyou both, the former as a biracial, tormented artist, the latter by law. Both outsiders in their own lives, in completely different ways, through opposite circumstances. While their story could fall under the opposites attract trope, it’s this shared condition that seems to bring them together.

The imbalance of power between Ana and Kyou is colossal but not always where it’s expected. The story is also told through the point of view of two other characters: John, Ana’s Australian husband who tries to forget his feelings of inadequacy through video games, and Miu, Kyou’s mother, who stopped talking some thirty years ago and lives on an island inspired by Naoshima, a fishermen village turned art gallery.

Outsider is a demanding book. It’s slow-paced, it’s sombre, it’s also dizzying at times. I don’t know if I would have made time to read it if not for Moni Henni Günther, as an admin of the Southern Cross Sapphic Readers and Authors group on Facebook, bringing to my attention that March is New Zealand Book Month, but I’m very grateful I did. I’m pretty sure it will stay on my mind for a long time while I examine what it means to exist—as a person and in a society—to love, to create.

I received a copy from the author and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Read all my reviews on my website (and please get your books from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars