Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Indigno de ser humano by Osamu Dazai

337 reviews

persian_green's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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dianxia_'s review against another edition

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

No Longer Human is a book about a boy, and later a man, named Yozo. Due to his differences with others Yozo struggles throughout the book with the feeling of not being human. The beginning of the book talks about his life as a child, learning that he is different from others, and figuring out how to please them. The latter part of the book is about his life as an adult, and his struggles with relationships and multiple suicide attempts.

I enjoyed the novel. Yozo clicked with me as a character, as I feel he is very Autism coded. Throughout the book, he talks about various different experiences, such as; Not feeling hunger, struggling to empathize, fidgeting, fear of people, lack of happiness, and putting on an act to please others due to fear of rejection. All of which are fairly common experiences for those with Autism. Yozo also went through trauma in his childhood which would strengthen some of these experiences.

Throughout the book, it is very clear that Yozo is lacking in the caring for others department. This is conveyed not just in what is written but also in how everything is written. Most of the time when other people are talked about in the book they’re spoken about in a very emotionless way, if not in a judgmental way. The only time in the book that emotion is really shown is when he feels fear towards others or disgust towards himself. This supports his claims that he cannot feel happiness, which could potentially be a result of Alexithymia. 

His misogyny was a bit annoying to have to read about all the time. But considering the time it was written in and his childhood trauma it is not surprising. Even if I disagree with his viewpoints I find it interesting to hear from a different point of view. I normally read fantasy so it’s kind of a new experience for me. 

Overall, I did enjoy reading this book. It was not what I expected, from what I’ve heard about it I expected it to be about 1000x more depressing. However, I’m fine with the fact that it didn’t make me feel emotional, that wasn’t what I wanted to read it for. I was interested in seeing his point of view, which I had heard was quite antisocial, and I’ve achieved that. It’s not the best book I’ve ever read or anything like that, but I do think it was worth reading.

 
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isabellabolanos's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

He really just needed a better support system.
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quipo's review against another edition

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dark relaxing sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Written incredibly, love the translation. Dark and depressing, found it relaxing to read. Would recommend it to someone without serious mental problems. 
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strahinja's review against another edition

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

2.5

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_ashestoashes_'s review against another edition

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

5.0

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winxclbs's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

the book successfully achieved its purpose in portraying a troubled character. he IS a very strong anti-hero because at many points i found myself disgusted by him while also relating to him.. there was no point to it though! it was so shallow because nothing profoundly meaningful or valuable came out of the “i dont feel like human so i will dehumanise others” schtick. 

i also thought it was too indulgent in his misogyny.
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ramizrafimirza's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bludgeoned_by_hail's review against another edition

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

4.25

A pretty typical mid-XX century auteur self-portrait, with all of its conventions, pretensions, and aimless philosophizing. 
I think your enjoyment of it will largely hinge on how much you connect and identify with its musings on isolation, identity and existential dread, which I personally felt were very raw and insightful.
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sunfishya's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's not for everyone, that's for sure. It's a book that is highly layered and would definitely reveal more with multiple readings. There is content, such as the misogyny and constant detachment from trauma, that surrounds Yozo, but although it is a hard read because of those reasons, I find Dazai's exploration of the ideas of meaning, existence, and connection are very worth the read. There is a bit of sexual abuse that happens to Yozo both as a child and as an adult that seems to be glossed over afyer its mentioned, so if you are sensitive to such topics or treatment of such topics, be warned. I wanted to warn in the content warnings but couldn'  find out how. If you check the content warnings for this novel and want to proceed, it's a slow, meandering read but I find Dazai's exploration in the novel to be nuanced and highly open to connection from an audience.
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