uranaishi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Medical content, and Terminal illness
Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Bullying, Murder, War, and Xenophobia
liltastypuff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.0
Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Child death
Moderate: Death of parent
rhogregoire's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Read this for a comparative literature class on apocalyptic fiction. The imagery is very pretty: it feels a bit like a collection of visual scenes that flow into each other.
It's a pretty classic bad climate future - Japan has no future - it's totally isolated, losing language, with the elderly caring for dying children who seem to become less and less human as time goes on. Assuming it's not just a quirk of translation, the descriptive language adds a lot to the book. It's really heavy on similes and metaphors: everything is a little like something else. The author avoids describing anything in it's own right, often using descriptions which are visually interesting but don't make a lot of literal sense (for example, describing the sun moving like a "hunted animal") which adds to the hazy imagery. The language also echos the narrative of a closed system - the dying children mean the country cannot regenerate, as well as Japan's isolation - and self-censorship to avoid doing or saying anything that might be deemed foreign.
It's a pretty classic bad climate future - Japan has no future - it's totally isolated, losing language, with the elderly caring for dying children who seem to become less and less human as time goes on. Assuming it's not just a quirk of translation, the descriptive language adds a lot to the book. It's really heavy on similes and metaphors: everything is a little like something else. The author avoids describing anything in it's own right, often using descriptions which are visually interesting but don't make a lot of literal sense (for example, describing the sun moving like a "hunted animal") which adds to the hazy imagery. The language also echos the narrative of a closed system - the dying children mean the country cannot regenerate, as well as Japan's isolation - and self-censorship to avoid doing or saying anything that might be deemed foreign.
Moderate: Child death and Terminal illness
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