A review by catherine_reads_too_much
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

2.0

This was unsettling from the first few pages — honestly I’m still not totally sure what happened, but that’s kind of the point. You feel just as lost and unmoored as the narrator does.

There’s a surreal quality to the writing that I really enjoyed, but there are some brutal scenes in here. The skinning chapter? Absolutely horrifying.

It’s one of those books that feels more like an experience than a story. You don’t read it to get answers; you read it to sit in the discomfort and let the weirdness sink in. And it does sink in. It stays with you.

Not always an easy read and not something I would be inclined to read again or recommend too freely, it is definitely not for everyone, but I’m glad I read it. Unsettling in the best and worst ways.