Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - All the Lovers in the Night

The first half of the book felt REALLY slow paced (and it was!) but the latter half really caught me in (though it was just as, if not more slow) but what was different was the emotional connection I'd built with the characters! While this book can be found boring & uneventful by some (like past me) In hindsight, there's actually SO MUCH you can take from it if you you keep an open mind when reading this one, instead of constantly thinking "ugh, what's going on?" I now completely understand why someone on yt said it's a must read for when you're in your 20s. I COULDN'T AGREE MORE‼️

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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reflective 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'm sure the mundanity and passiveness of the main character is important to the story, but I couldn't stand it. It was very frustrating to read how she interacted with other characters, but specifically her lack of response when communicating with them or the way she constantly repeated what they said. I also found the book to be dull and dry, and often times the monologues (particularly with one character) came off insincere and preachy. All the Lovers in the Night is described as "insightful, entertaining, and engaging; it will make readers laugh, and it will make them cry" but I strongly disagree. The storytelling was so overwhelmingly monotonous that I wasn't emotionally engaged at all.

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mariavdl's review against another edition

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reflective sad

Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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alexandrabelze's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

my favorite kawakami novel by far! this one was so emotional and beautiful. i wanted nothing but the best for fuyuko the entire time

and was absolutely devastated by the ending

. i was not expecting to like this one as much as i did because of how i felt about kawakami’s other novels. i definitely will be recommending this one!

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rinku'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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

All the Lovers in the Night is a quite character driven, melancholic story. I liked it for what it was, but it couldn’t really catch me.

Fuyuko is a single woman in her thirties that is not happy with her life, so it happens one day that she starts to drink alcohol to deal with everything. For me, this decision came a bit too sudden. Then, she meets Mitsutsuka and everything starts to change. It takes some time, but it was so nice to see how Fuyuko starts to dress nicely and just starts to feel better. I’m not sure about the message of this novel though, and I don’t know what I think about the ending. Another thing I appreciate is that the has some feminist undertones but with Hijiri, I sadly have the feeling that her femininity was quite shamed.

Fuyuko is a likable main character, and her feelings are portrayed so well, especially her loneliness is intensively described. She just feels miserable and doesn’t want to be anymore. It’s so terrible when we learn that

she was raped as a teen

which explains some of her feelings. Mitsutsuka is the other important character and kinda the love interest of the story. I have to say that I didn’t like him, and that I couldn’t feel the chemistry between them. He’s just this kind of man that talks <i>to</i> women but not with them, if you know what I mean. This is probably because of the long dialogues. There’s also an age gap of around 25 years between them.

All in all, I would still recommend All the Lovers in the Night for people who are interested in Japanese contemporary literature and stories focussed on female characters like I am.

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sleepyriv's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

4.0

nothing hits as close to my heart as japanese literature about loneliness. at only 20 i feel my life heading in the same direction as fuyuko’s. the melancholy quietness of her day to day, and finding comfort in someone n not knowing what to do with it.

when mitsutsuka doesn’t show up on her birthday, i felt how painful that wld be, how hopeless the future wld feel knowing she’d be alone like that forever.

maybe i shld make some more friends, but who’s to say it wld make any difference?

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