Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Gagal Menjadi Manusia by Osamu Dazai

611 reviews

manjuuu's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • 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

5.0

This book means a lot to me, such a harrowing exploration of alienation, despair and the struggle for identity. Dazai's raw and visceral description of depression, suicide and the search for meaning perfectly encapsulates what it means to be no longer human.
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ammireads's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.0

“from then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: what is society but an individual?”

i would say the book was terribly sad but oddly funny, at times, in its absurdity. the main character seemed to run so much from the idea of “society” of what he believed a human being is like that he somehow got stuck in it. i think, at the end, through it all, his biggest enemy was himself

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klonopin's review against another edition

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

4.0

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fishreads's review against another edition

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dark slow-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

2.0

I seriously didn't get what this guy's problem was, except being an entitled spineless brat with zero redeeming qualities. But apparently this book is second most sold book in Japan, what am I not getting here?
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lukes_ramblingwritings66's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-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

5.0

 I sit here, after finished reading No Longer Human, or rather "Disqualified to be Human" with a weird sensation. On one end, this was a miserable tale. Understandably so, with it being a semi-autobiographical affair, as Dazai himself may have suffered from CPTSD at a young age and attempted to take his life five times, with the fifth being the final attempt. On the other end, I found brief moments of air, as if after one had their head submerged in water for too long, only to come to the surface at the last minute.

I'm just going to leave it at that. The level of emptiness(?) I feel now will probably stick with me for a while. A very similar feeling after watching Park Chan-Wook's film Oldboy for the first time, albeit, a slightly different context. 
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loumi93's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • 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

5.0

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mangonana's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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shadowdra126's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-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

3.0

This book was very dark and well written. I just think the emotions poured onto the page were lost to someone with Asperger’s like me 
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mazzoccatoadele's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.5

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whaliensong's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-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

5.0

It's when you see someone else sharing your exact thoughts of self-hatred and self-blame that makes you consider how wrong it all is. And it's when they mirror your fears and echo your rock bottom that the isolation you feel trapped in suddenly gives way a little.

That's how it felt reading this, as someone struggling to navigate lost and alone in the dark. As someone who's felt the need to hide the part of themselves too "subhuman" for society. The experience of reading this book felt like a release, and it pulled up a stool for me at the bar in Ginza to sit with my fears of abandonment and isolation.

I just wish there was someone there to echo Osamu Dazai's thoughts back to him so he could hear how he sounded.
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