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uyen_ii 's review for:

The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami
3.25
lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tldr: 3/5, short stories, cool concept, boring execution

The Ten Loves Of Nishino is a book in which each chapter is narrated by a different woman from a man named Nishino’s past. The chapters do not follow a linear structure, so Nishino's life is given to us in an almost fragmented way. Each chapter reveals a little bit more about Nishino -- his past, his relationship with other people, and his family.

Even though each story is told from the perspective of a different woman, they blur together, as each one follows similar narrative structures. Most of them realize that Nishino is bad news as he cheats and is emotionally unavailable. Yet, after they claim to dislike him, they will confess that they are on the verge of falling in love with him. Alas, because of 'reasons', they break up.

Nishino is a class-A piece of trash. He doesn't care for consensual sex, or monogamy (when asked for by his current partner), and is also a creep lol. Tbh I didn't feel fazed by this because the story felt like it was for the women because Nishino got 0 character development until the end.

Alas, there were ten loves of Nishino, but I was not one of them :)