Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

1Q84: The Complete Trilogy by Haruki Murakami

10 reviews

delekelll's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

4.0

I think the max I can give this book is 4 stars, because I enjoyed it and it was enthralling, but THE sex scene  and the gratuitous focus on every single female characters boobs threw me off. (hey murakami is that something you can speak to ????) I enjoyed the way that the secrets of the novel were given out very slowly, and I thought the ending was great. I think that now I've read both favorite books of someone who was not the nicest to me I understand more about them. Also, I feel like I should have taken longer to read this book. 1170 pages in 4 days is a lot. But, I felt the need to finish and move out of the cat town while the train still stopped for me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Dementia, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Body shaming, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death, Rape, Animal death, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry

Definitely unsettling, when it is not outright morally reprehensible. However, it was a very fascinating book and some of the triggering materials related to the above content warnings were justified in being included in the novel.

ihoneymustard's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Rape, Torture, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

frosted_croissant's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.5

I really enjoyed Murakami's writing but reading all three of the books in one big collection sometimes became a chore with his very descriptive writing style. I swear there were some facts that I read about 45 times throughout this book. Other than that this was a beautiful and TENSE story.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, and Suicide

kibiiiariii's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Acephobia/Arophobia, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Pedophilia, Biphobia, Cancer, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Infertility, Abortion, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, and Toxic friendship

madleina's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

amazing storytelling but…

• difficult portrayal of women
• very heteronormative
• sexual remarks concerning minors

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Death, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Suicide

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

I have so many things to say (all negative) but I’m gonna try my best to not make this too long lol. But this book was so goddamn long and boring. Starting this book was so hard, it took me about 3 weeks just to read 300~ pages and I’m usually a pretty fast reader. I had to switch to the audiobook because I just couldn’t get through the book otherwise. The audiobook definitely made the book easier to read but it also made it worse because it vocalized and brought to life these characters who were pretty insufferable in my opinion. 

No wonder this book was originally released in three parts because I genuinely don’t think there is any reason this book should’ve been 1500+ pages (ebook) long. It definitely could’ve been reduced a third of its length because there were parts that were so lengthy and repetitive, and just dragged on for seemingly forever. There was a whole ass scene where the narrator went over the complete instructions of how a pregnancy test worked, what the results shown meant, as well as the science behind it. I think if just the sentences that mention breasts were cut out, that alone could reduce the book by at least 1-2 chapters. (After a quick ctrl+f, breasts were mentioned an astounding 77 times)!

I’ve heard plenty of times before that Murakami is terrible at writing women, but he’s genuinely so terrible at it that I can’t even get mad. In my opinion he should just stop including female characters in his books completely. And if he wanted to have a romance arch, he should just consider having those characters be gay, because writing this sentence, “Aomame mourned the deaths of these two friends deeply. It saddened her to think that these women were forever gone from the world. And she mourned their lovely breasts—breasts that had vanished without a trace.” is insane to me. 

The book also contained so many content warnings. Literally any tw you can think of, it’s most likely included. Luckily, I’m not adverse to reading things that contain content warnings, for the most part, but the stuff in this book definitely made me uncomfortable. And if you’re someone who hates sexual assault being used as a plot device, definitely don’t read this. 

And since I’m on the topic of content warnings, the one that I sensed from the beginning was an adult minor relationship. I also just want to point out that an adult talking about a minor’s chest and ‘beautiful curves’ is already disgusting, but it doesn’t cancel out just because he throws in that there is no sexual meaning. However, out of all the foul parts I read (there were many) the one that was the most revolting to me was a scene where these two characters found themselves waking up naked together and there was a descriptive contrast made where one of the things being compared was referred to as ‘adult penis’. I’m sure you can guess what the opposite thing being described was. Having to read that full scene made me want to die. 

There were so many times throughout the book where I wanted to dnf, because I have truly never disliked a book more than this one. But above all, more than disliking this book, I am a hater, and  so I finished it even though I wanted to unalive myself the whole time, so that I could properly write this review. 

TLDR:
Badly written female characters
Too many mentions of breasts
CW: adult minor relationship, sexual assault/rape as a plot device, incesty (mommy issues), suicide, sex scenes
Unnecessary sex scenes
Long and boring

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Torture, Violence, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Infidelity, Sexism, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicide, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Minor: Religious bigotry

troxellis's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

The only good thing about this books is that the writing is very simple so it’s a pretty quick read. The way women are written about, the relationships, everything else: absolute shit. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, and Murder

ajhoppel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Torture

kkmk's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Torture

Minor: Dementia, Incest, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

notsayingrevolutionbut's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

I think... this broke me?

Not in the same way that TSOA broke me, where I turned into a husk, but more like I think I saw the time-knife from The Good Place flash before my eyes

Anyway, this review will be unstarred because I don't know how to place such values on this book and I do not care to try. As for my thoughts: I have no thoughts. I present only a bulleted list of stream-of-consciousness reactions for posterity (includes mentions of canonical self-harm, rape, blood, and murder):

- the reading experience goes from good to GREAT if you listen to Janáček's Sinfonietta at the same time
- the content warnings needed for this book could form a robust companion novella
- if I hear about the size of someone's breasts one more time, I will eat my hat and yours too
- I would probably do anything for Tamaru
- (whispers softly) what the fuck is going on
- I, too, would like to corrupt my blood vessels by way of various literary intrigues
- found family assassin! style is the surest way to my heart
- have I mentioned Tamaru
- even though my brain is burning, I can appreciate how masterfully this is written
- looking at the moon? IN THIS ECONOMY???
- I haven't seen pacing this good since Nirvana in Fire, and that is the highest compliment I can possibly give
- singing a little Broadway ditty to myself in order to cope
- hELP

And now, on to quotes that present Liz thinks future Liz might enjoy:

"The moon had been observing the earth close-up longer than anyone. It must have witnessed all of the phenomena occurring-- and all of the acts carried out-- on this earth. But the moon remained silent; it told no stories. All it did was embrace the heavy past with cool, measured detachment." [p. 244]

"But decent motives don't always produce decent results. And the body is not the only target of rape. Violence does not always take visible form, and not all wounds gush blood." [p. 275]

"Tamaru is a man who keeps his word. He might kill you without hesitation if necessary, but even so, he would care for your rubber plant to the end." [p. 610]

"This is what it means to live on. When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope." [p. 705]

"'I'm like a rock wall,' Tamaru said. 'Plus, when it comes to being gay, I'm in the big leagues.'" [p. 742] [you and me both, Tamaru. You and me both]

"Hi, how are you? Check out the process of elimination." [p. 775]

"They were not very healthy-looking blood vessels-- blood vessels damaged by years of drinking, smoking, an unhealthy lifestyle, and various literary intrigues." [p. 878] [new life goal unlocked]

"To him, this was no longer a fictional world. This was the real world, where red blood spurts out when you slice open your skin with a knife. And in the sky in this world, there are two moons, side by side." [p. 880]

"That's fine. It's my gift to you. If it gets troublesome to have, just toss it into Tokyo Bay. The world will take one small step closer to disarmament." [p. 976] [quoth Tamaru my beloved]

"That familiar, yellow, solitary moon. The same moon that silently floated over fields of pampas grass, the moon that rose-- a gleaming, round saucer-- over the calm surface of lakes, that tranquilly beamed down on the rooftops of fast-asleep houses. The same moon that brought the high tide to shore, that softly shone on the fur of animals and enveloped and protected travelers at night. The moon that, as a crescent, shaved slivers from the soul-- or, as a new moon, silently bathed the earth in its own loneliness. That moon." [p. 1015]


And that's all, folks! I don't know what just happened in this book, I don't know if I will ever be the same again, and you should probably read it if you also wish to experience those feelings. I am going to lie down and not get up for the foreseeable future. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Torture and Self harm