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halsteady's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Death
Moderate: Homophobia
lynnofseptember's review against another edition
2.0
listen, beautiful writing, at times, but god damn the pedophilic commentary is one of the many things you have to look past, and it’s not worth it.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Drug use, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, and Pedophilia
bexdot's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Death
Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Minor: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
mollyp's review against another edition
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Grief, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Homophobia
ireallyneedtofinishmywork's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Despite its many greatens, some part is indeed archaic. In short love the book, but hate the sexualization of women, and (lowkey) homophobic plotline. btw not rlly related,but if it matters to u, you can definitely tell it it is written by a man lol
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Homophobia
ford_defect's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Rape and Homophobia
mahtab's review against another edition
- 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
1.5
The interactions and sex scenes felt a lot like unrealistic boyish fantasies of a teenager bragging about sexual encounters he never had "look at him he sleeps with a lot of pretty girls and he is so good at it the women decide to never have sex again with anybody else!" I was grossed out by the sheer amount of misogyny and objectification.
The main character prides himself on being exceptional, different from everybody around him, and honest and nice. I actually found him to be mediocre, an incredibly self-centered liar. I know not every main character should be likable though, as long as you don't make them as bland as Toru is.
About the writing, I found it to be very mediocre and underwhelming. The text is not lyrical or poetical for what it is usually praised for. On the contrast the writing is very dry and bland but maybe the translation from Japanese doesn't do the original text justice.
It was my first Murakami book and I don't think I will be able to pick up another for a long time. Maybe I should take Nagasawa's advice on not reading books from an author who has not been dead for at least 30 years.
Graphic: Suicide, Misogyny, and Mental illness
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
gw7's review against another edition
- 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
1.0
I think the main thing dragging it down for me was this cishet view, or exploration, of sexuality which simply doesn't interest me anymore. Unfortunately, that meme where the first picture is of a primary school teacher and pupil and the second is of ancient philosophers (talking with cis people about sexuality vs talking with queer people about sexuality) rings true. The first possibility being that these are indeed important, earth shattering, interesting and new ideas for cis het people still, today, or the second being that this is simply an older book and, while the ideas may have been fresh and intriguing at the time, are now pretty obvious to a lot more people.
Now, I'm sure that there was plenty of stuff in here that went over my head, but that's not the reason I'm rating it lowly either. If I look at authors like James Baldwin and Ocean Vuong, reading their astounding works my brain is almost constantly in the kind of writhing torment of a 12 year old in an advanced calculus class (or whatever kind of maths is hard, I'm gay, I don't know), and yet I still understand it. Why? Because they're writing about humans, and the human experience, and if they can't explain that in a way that the average reader can understand, well, good for them and it has its audience- but essentially, that's on them, not me. But, to double back, that wasn't the case here, either- the characters were all perfectly understandable, with the only confusion around them arising from me not being entirely sure what Murakami was trying to write them as
I did not dnf this, though. I did read 209 pages in a day... just so I didn't have to be reading it tomorrow still... but, that means there is something to be said about the easy flow of the writing (which is always hard to talk about with a translation but... eh...)... but like... still not enough to be a... highly regarded modern classic??? Like, it's not a bad book... but I genuinely don't get it. I can't even be bothered to think about why I didn't like it. I don't even think there was enough information in this book for me to be morally opposed to it. I'm not a woman, so I can't comment on that but, as far as the rest of it goes, I feel like I would have to read more Murakami and watch/read interviews etc. to understand if they are just flawed characters or whether he actually believes that, y'know? Neither of those things will I be doing thought. Probably. I don't know. I kinda indifferent, I guess. And I'll probably forget it shortly. It was fine.
Also, it wasn't that sad? Like...??? I don't even know anymore. I'm just done. (don't get me wrong though, dark, full on topics, I just mean, as far as works of fiction go... I don't know what to say- I acknowledge that these particular characters went through some kinda rough stuff. It's these kind of things that make me go, okay, sure, if these things happened to actual people, of course I would be devastated for them and yes they would have every right to be entirely destroyed and grieve and grieve and grieve but like... when they happen to fictional characters...??? I don' know, man, just kinda makes me realise how terrible my life is, y'know? Genuinely a reason I tend to stay away from books that people say are sad and devastating- cause they usually turn out not to be... which makes me feel... great...)
Weird review, okay bye.
Graphic: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Lesbophobia and Homophobia
anotherbookwithtee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
sunny_not's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Mental illness, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny