Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - No Longer Human

Felt more like a conversation than a book. Beautiful, beautiful prose, yet simplicity is maintained with pivotal moments presented as poignantly brief. While there is danger in romanticising this novel, the tortured artist-esque theme was well done, with sentiments on art running reminiscent of Wilde. I appreciated how the characterisation in the novel underlined the duality of a complex narrator, especially considering the parallels that he projects. I feel as if a lot of the negative reviews do not properly address that we are meant to dislike the narrator. It is okay to avoid this book due to its sensitive content (which I admittedly struggled with), but if we are to assess literature fairly, then it is our duty as readers to acknowledge that we are dealing with an extreme. Literature is a means of perspective and ethical distinctions are contingent on the deplorable insights that it can enable—without these conversations, how else will we induce change? I believe that this novel’s unreliability of narrative works well to recognise and challenge ongoing societal issues.

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madkatrob's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

2.75

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aichaa's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

damn, he's dramatic, huh. R rated jughead fr

also he's all like "women are a different species from men, they make no sense, they're inherently uninteresting and difficult, blah blah blah" and then "i never pay attention to what a woman's saying" ????? THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM

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serenspace's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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radiobreadd's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

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strawberrygrapejelly's review against another edition

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Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

I picked up this book after reading a few chapters of Junji Ito's depiction of it, which in, in my opinion, illustrated the damage Dazai suffered at the hands of his abusers in a very profound way.
I finished this in one go. Hard not to. There is a darkness that is unique to this book, and it is compelling.
But can I be real with you?
I definitely think my life is not better for reading this.
And I would not recommend anyone read it.
I didn't learn or gain a damn thing. Let me explain.
People often act like if you don't read this you're missing out/are deliberately sheltering yourself, but I think that shows their own immaturity and lack of life experience and perhaps even their inexperience with literature? I'm ranting but people also think it somehow makes them so enlightened lmao to "be able to" look past the horrific levels of misogyny that stemmed from his horrific and fucked up life experience no one should ever go through (

SAed as a child at the hands of women

). It is not "missing out" to not want to read about an abused person becoming an abuser if you already understand the mechanisms in place. The MC also inflicted profound levels of violence and damage on his victims.
And guess what? All of this? Extremely, unfortunately, common and even mundane. All of it.
Sure, you could possibly gain perspective from this if you're like 15 and untouched by the world. But if you've lived any amount of real adult life, the perspective offered here is not extremely unique and not much more than a BEYOND extremely depressing and disturbing reminder of what victims go through, including Dazai, and including his victims, and how ugly humanity can be.
His depiction of the brain fog and extreme darkness that happens when you're

suicidal/ near suicidal

is also very accurate and no I will not elaborate. But is it worth reading the book?
I'll also say no to this.
I'm repeating myself, but this story is not unique. A story does not have to be unique, but again, people getting up in arms about people not enjoying this book probably don't realize either of those things.
It's not a bad book. It's also not worth the read. Again, I genuinely
I wish the NLH/Dazai glazers understood the following.
A book can incite a lot of feeling and not be good. A book can accurately describe the depths of human darkness, which this book absolutely does, and not be good. A book being damaging to the soul does not make it good. It just makes it damaging to the soul.
Now if you read all this and value this book for those things, you're entitled to your opinion.
But plenty of people do not love this book but also fully understand it. End of rant that definitely did not get written because of the braindead, unnuanced take I see everywhere that you're missing out because you want to avoid the, AGAIN, very awful and unfortunately realistic content of the book. Imagine telling a woman who has suffered violence at the hands of man that she could learn something from this book. Or even a woman who has had to to witness it happen to others. Chances are she already has.

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cuucmber's review against another edition

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dark informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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hildayay's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

Han bara verkligen hatar kvinnor, och det är liksom hela handlingen. Såklart fint skrivet på sina ställen och beskrivningen av den bottenlösa olyckan men framförallt kvinnohat.

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