A review by seraphiina
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

2.0

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It did have its profound moments examining grief, mental health and growing up without a clear direction in life. For that, I really appreciated the novel. However, it felt hollow. The protagonist was so bland, bordering on unlikable, that it felt like a chore to get through. I did not enjoy most of the other characters either and found them mostly unrealistic, like someone describing a woman despite having never met one. And I won't even get into just how weird the sex scenes were. Yikes.
Luckily, I have read other Murakami books that I found more endearing than this one, so I won't give up on him - but I probably won't re-read this any time soon.