A review by the_bookish_rose
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

  Okay…. This book was way more depressing than I thought. Throughout the novel, we are following Toru Watanabe as he recalls these two women he fell in love with; Naoko, who he was in love with, but she struggled with depression and hearing voices, and Midori, who had a lively, liberated spirit. It took me a while to enjoy this book, as it is really slow-paced, and the themes of suicide and depression are hard to swallow, but this book was a gentle summer read to remind me that life is short and that spending time with loved ones is a thing we can take for granted. Also, I loved the passages with the letters going back and forth between Naoko and Watanabe, as I felt like the connection between characters was real and tangible. One thing I didn’t like was how many s*x scenes there were; they weren’t graphic but it just irked me because they just felt weird. Overall, this book was a nice break from some of my faster-paced reads. 
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