Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - All the Lovers in the Night

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

39 reviews

sleepyriv's review against another edition

reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

4.0

nothing hits as close to my heart as japanese literature about loneliness. at only 20 i feel my life heading in the same direction as fuyuko’s. the melancholy quietness of her day to day, and finding comfort in someone n not knowing what to do with it.

Spoiler

when mitsutsuka doesn’t show up on her birthday, i felt how painful that wld be, how hopeless the future wld fee knowing she’d be alone like that forever.

maybe i shld make some more friends, but who’s to say it wld make any difference?

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dee_dee_dee's review against another edition

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slow-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

3.25

Once you get through the exposition the writing has a nice flow and seems very attentive but there are passages that are hard work to get through. Might be worth it though. Overall the plot seems rushed anyways.

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julesjb's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-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

2.0

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mromie's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Similar to her bestseller Breast and Eggs, Kawakami explores the themes of becoming as well as defining womanhood for oneself against a world that speaks so loudly on the ways a woman should be. In the vein of great Japanese novels, Kawasaki delves into these thought-provoking concepts ever so subtly through delicate yet poignantly worded descriptions of the mundane and muddled paragraphs of the main character’s inner thoughts and feelings.

Spoiler

The main character Fuyuko is stuck in an endless loop of isolation and passivity. I understood the feeling of wanting decisions to be made for you and to numbingly move through day to day. Fuyuko could even withstand being completely alone with no one to really talk to for a month or so.

Fuyuko reminded me of a quote from Fleabag where the titular character says, “I want someone to tell me what to wear every morning. I want someone to tell me what to eat. What to like, what to hate, what to rage about. What to listen to, what band to like…who to love and how to tell them.” There can be freedom in passivity, letting go of control and seeing where the waves of life take you. But, as we see with Fuyuko, there is also great damage as she numbs and blurs life through alcohol and struggles to build meaningful relationships.

I appreciated how the book ended without the resolution of a grand love story, rather with Fuyuko recognizing how bright and full of energy life can be, how striking it is to have felt something even if it is pain or hardship. It was wonderful to see the differences in how Hijiri and Fuyuko interacted with each other in the end. Instead of thoughtlessly nodding through Hijiri’s rambling, Fuyuko was now an active participant. Made me proud of the MC

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lesliekate's review

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dark reflective sad tense 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

2.0

I feel like I didn’t get this at all. it started off so strong, then got so depressing and creepy and weird and uncomfortable, then completely irritating and fucked up, then slightly better. I am lost.

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cecinamo's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was such a good book! It was so beautifully written and

Spoiler

I really liked how the ending wasn’t the classic “happy end” but you could still tell that the mc had grown as a person.

. It also had very sad parts ;^;… I think the mc was really likeable and relatable, I enjoyed reading the book from her perspective.

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bahamamama's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4 ⭐
[A book club/buddy read selection.]

Beautiful and interesting descriptions of light throughout the story.

The story is told from the perspective of the main character and depicts the messiness of life when individuals connect and their complex feelings and choices merge. More than once I became lost in the story and was even caught off guard by the abrupt ending. I'll be checking out more works from this author.

Trigger warnings: alcoholism, rape

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