A review by wylsonated
Coin Locker Babies by Ryū Murakami

4.0

This is the first of Ryu Murakami I've read and it was a challenge to keep going at the start, given the flirtations with horror-rific violence and gore. What in the kept me moving forward was the sheer audacity of the plot and prose, trying to see what outrageous or insane detail the author would put to words next. As characters, the two titular abandoned children, who grow up to consider themselves siblings, continue to bewilder in terms of both their actions and destinies - I can't say they're sympathetic or redeeming, but perhaps what keeps them interesting throughout might be their singular focus on their goal/need, to the exclusion of anything else - even the terrible outcomes on everyone else they engender during these single-minded pursuits. It feels like a revenge fantasy against an entire society that makes everybody stay within their boxes, or else.