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A review by saunak
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
3.75
This book was extremely hard for me to listen to and even harder to rate.
'Heaven' follows two middle-schoolers' treacherous bullying experiences. Initial frustrations and experiences slowly evolve into philosophical musings and questions to understand existence and nihilism. The author highlights everything from mockery due to physical appearance, morality, good vs evil, humanity or the lack of it, innocence or the loss of it, and more. Although spoken via fictional experiences of 14-year-olds (their words, thoughts, and actions are shocking and quite disturbing), the author vividly holds up a mirror to prick the audience's morality through these extremely uncomfortable cascading narratives. The end does have a positive note, but the book left a bitter aftertaste and truly so (what the author aimed for, I guess).
'...weakness matters, it has real meaning....but know what? If weakness matters so does strength and I don't mean weak people using the idea of strength to justify their weakness...'
'Heaven' follows two middle-schoolers' treacherous bullying experiences. Initial frustrations and experiences slowly evolve into philosophical musings and questions to understand existence and nihilism. The author highlights everything from mockery due to physical appearance, morality, good vs evil, humanity or the lack of it, innocence or the loss of it, and more. Although spoken via fictional experiences of 14-year-olds (their words, thoughts, and actions are shocking and quite disturbing), the author vividly holds up a mirror to prick the audience's morality through these extremely uncomfortable cascading narratives. The end does have a positive note, but the book left a bitter aftertaste and truly so (what the author aimed for, I guess).
'...weakness matters, it has real meaning....but know what? If weakness matters so does strength and I don't mean weak people using the idea of strength to justify their weakness...'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt