Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Kafka en la orilla by Haruki Murakami

56 reviews

minisaucisse's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Murakami is a wierd dude who only write women to give sex partners to his male characters. The story is sometimes tedious but in general interesting, minus the moments when something ludicrously illegal and amoral happens and everyone is okay with it. This makes the message of the book very muddy

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soyboysimon's review against another edition

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

3.5

Would have been a lot more enjoyable without the sexism. The way that Murakami thinks about women genuinely troubles me. He talks so lightly about serious topics like rape that shows you what he really thinks about them. The writing was enjoyable, the story was exciting and fast paced. I feel a little conflicted about the characters, some I love and some I absolutely despise. Would have been a better read without all of the sex scenes. We really don't need that much detail, its almost an obsessive amount of talk about d*ck. And ugh why is his first description of every woman how big her breasts are?!? There are also a couple of chapters that get very graphic. If you don't like gore maybe skip it, i sobbed over the amout of animal torture. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. Do i regret it? No. Will I be reading more Murakami? Also no

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lea333's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5


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mandycollaud's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75


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marialilypotter's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0


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caseyreadslol's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

every mention of kafka listening to prince is meant to piss me off personally I think 

a decent magical realism road trip romp sandwiched between some of the most unbearable fake deep horrifying garbage I've ever encountered in fiction
*does absolutely nothing to escape fate past running away and barely has any sense of anguish and won't shut the fuck up about "are you my sister are you my mommy can we fuck oh shit five pages since talking about my schlong* wow oh my god I guess fate is inescapable that's wild


it is bugging me to give this such a low score when I've given higher ratings to works I find much worse in terms of prose/etc but seeing skill squandered is blindingly painful

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ewhisler9's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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toffishay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a book! I had this copy of Kafka on the Shore for almost two years before I tackled it this month and once I started, I couldn't put it down. This is such a creative and intriguing exploration of memory and destiny, the connections that we might and how we come to be the people that we are. How we craft ourselves and are made new every day, while still being informed by all that comes before us. The way that time is used it so trippy and interesting. Time moves past us and through us. We can't get time back and we can waste our whole lives chasing it. And even with these really big ideas, at its core this is a story about a young boy trying to understand himself. The simplicity of that is what keeps the story so tight and I can see why people continue to come back to it. Some parts are tricky...definitely check content warnings and I think that some parts could have been scaled back for sure which stops me from going like up to a 5 star rating for this book. But sometimes the stars are a general guide and I would still recommend this book for sure. Hoshino is my favorite character!

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pers1mm0n's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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hannah_cogo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.25

Murakami keeps his unique and brilliant writing style in this book, with a totally unique plot that keeps you guessing. but his portrayal of women has not changed, and it is clear that he really only sees women as nothing more than sexual objects. a part of me feels like most of this book was just Murakami exploring his own messed-up fantasies, as there is not a single woman in this book who is not objectified, talked about or described sexually, or has nothing to do with sex at all. overall it is overly sexual and proves that Murakami still cannot write women. at all. the only reason it's not zero stars is for Mr Nakata and his talking cats.
there are scenes where the main character rapes his sister in their dream, and he also has sex with his mother more than once. also, the main character's genitals are talked about a lot considering he is 15</spoler> it's a lot to take in.

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