Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - 1Q84

This book was good for around the first 2/3 of it but the last half dragged on unnecessarily. I got the feeling the author didn’t know how to end the story. The concept of the novel is intriguing though.

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bites_of_books's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

This one was a let down...

Murakami can write really beautiful passages but this 1000+ book was just way too long and about 40% of it was just boring descriptions of mundane things. I do enjoy it when an author takes care to describe certain details but this was just too much.

We follow Aomame, a young woman who climbs down a staircase off a freeway and finds herself in a seemingly different world from her own. On the other hand we also follow Tengo, a young man who is tasked with ghostwriting a novel for a teenage girl by his editor. Aomame and Tengo live different lives and the first Book in this novel is spent trying to figure out how they fit together.

The themes explored in this book go from loneliness, religion, the power of literature, broken family dynamics, and more. Some of it did feel visceral and real, but others were just explored over repetitive and overdone writing.

Then there are all the descriptions of women and anyone who isn't perfectly attractive in the author's eyes... it was just awful. The mysoginy was rampant throughout as well as deeply uncomfortable descriptions of certain intimate encounters that left me feeling like chucking the book in a corner and going for a walk.

I do not recommend this novel, it's not magical realism in my eyes, it's fantasy/sci-fi. It's entirely way too long for what it is and it's not enjoyable in the least.

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thepirsky's review against another edition

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Never ending sexual situations, especially abuse to children

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boogey131's review against another edition

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I’m writing this in retrospect since I quit it years ago at this point but, I was so disappointed. It was such a commitment so I really tried, getting so far as 62 chapters in. My lasting memory of it is, I found the way Murakami wrote women and described their sexuality and handled sexual assault pretty careless and juvenile.

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ellbur's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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rafagina's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Slow, repetitive and predictable. On top of that, every female character is written either in cringe and belittling ways or downright horrendously misogynistic. Every single chapter there are gratuitous sexual descriptions and abusive episodes happening that add nothing to the story. If this is Murakami I don't know why people recommended it so much.

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was so so good in every way except one, and would have been 5 stars except for the sheer misogyny in describing every female character's breasts and

the horribly disturbing adult/minor relationship and blatant pedophilia

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