A review by dreamgirlreading
Butter by Asako Yuzuki

3.75

Butter tells the story of a journalist who becomes obsessed with a female convicted serial killer based on a real life murderer, Kanae Kijima, dubbed the “konkatsu killer.” The accused, Manako Kajii, met three different men on dating websites, cooked for them, accepted their monetary gifts, promised them marriage, then she was the last to see each of them before their untimely deaths.  In Japan, Kajii takes over the media headlines not because of her convicted crimes but due to not being a conventional beauty because she’s overweight. The journalist, Rika Machida, writes and writes requesting visits and is denied every time. It is only when her best friend, Reiko, suggests she ask for the recipe of the beef stew last served to one of her victims that she agrees to meet. Once there, the murderer only wants to talk about food. Never having cooked much before, the journalist takes the time to indulge in restaurants the killer suggests, then begins taking an interest in cooking herself. All the while she is researching Kajii’s background to decide if she thinks she’s guilty or not. Rika seems quite charmed by Kajii and wants to impress her, befriend her, and interview her in order to write about the case from her perspective. 

I’m not sure how to rate this book. I think the marketing for this book kinda misled readers. I’ve seen this book all over the place the past couple weeks. From the brief description I read, I assumed it would be a murder mystery but the murders do not take the forefront and this is not a thriller. From the first chapter, this book made me hungry. Oh, the food descriptions had my mouth watering while listening to this on audiobook at work. However, the fat phobia that comes about from the people in the journalist life once she gains a few pounds was really off putting. I also didn’t think it was necessary to describe the exact weight of multiple characters. Another thing, this book was unnecessarily long! However, I found myself thinking about it whenever I wasn’t reading it. There is a lot to unpack in this book and I will be reading lots of reviews as well as articles on the true crime that it’s based on. By the end of the book, the plot had almost completely strayed away from the murders and instead focuses on friendship and safe space. One last thing that I picked up on was Rika’s best friend Reiko was clearly in love with her but that was never addressed 🤔 if you’ve read this one, I’d love for you to hop into my dms and tell me what you thought!