livimack's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
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? It's complicated
4.0
It was strange listening to this book, because, for all its themes, it seems to be the closest depiction I’ve read of how my brain thinks (though more exaggerated). Note, not necessarily what my brain thinks, but how, at least in some part.
It’s almost funny because, within that, you get to see some of my “flaws” not as flaws but as issues inflicted by an unaccommodating world. One quote stood out on this.
It’s almost funny because, within that, you get to see some of my “flaws” not as flaws but as issues inflicted by an unaccommodating world. One quote stood out on this.
“There was nothing to guide me over whether an action was rational or not.”
To me, the book just leaves a lot for thought, generally, about the brain, and my brain, and whether that brain is good enough to be considered not good enough by others. Convoluted, but I valued reading this book for that.
Aside from that, though, a really fresh take on self-discovery, society and personal values, that also chucks in some incel-representation. Worth reading!
Aside from that, though, a really fresh take on self-discovery, society and personal values, that also chucks in some incel-representation. Worth reading!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Mental illness
xeno_reads's review against another edition
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Sexism
aniruok's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Ableism
francescasoph's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
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
0.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Rape, and Sexual harassment
nrogers_1030's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
Convenience Store Woman gives me Eleanor Oliphant vibes. Funny, awkward and a good quick read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Pregnancy, Animal death, Sexual harassment, and Stalking
erebus53's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
I was recommended this book by Abigail Melton Munday on the Autistics Worldwide Facebook Group. This is not a person I know, but as the group is public I feel OK naming them.
Seemed like a good idea to read a few titles in aid of Autism month.
The first thing that struck me about this book was how the sales pitch on the cover was completely wrong. As an Autistic reader, perhaps I have a different take on it, but I don't think it's witty or hilarious. I'd go with interesting and perhaps thought provoking. It's definitely much more funny (oh.), rather than funny (ha ha!).
My Japanese is quite sketchy, but as someone who ran the anime club for about a decade I was fairly culturally literate. This is a story set in Japan, and some of its "oddness" is Japanese, and some is neurological. It wasn't until the end of the book that I heard the original title was コンビニ人間 (Kombini Ningen - or convenience-store person). Looking up the Kanji for the protagonist's name, I was amused to find that it could indeed be considered a pun as, I have been told, is common in Japanese literature. Alternate readings of the name "Furukura" do have different meanings and though it could be commonly read as Old "River", it could also be read as "Hideaway", "hiding place" or "storehouse". This is an apt name for a girl who learns early in life that if she acts intuitively, her ways of doing things will get her into in big trouble. She instead becomes someone who masks herself behind walls of affectations and habits learned by copying the "normal" people around her.
This characterisation was interesting to me in a couple of ways. The first is that this girl is depicted as feeling justified for violence. In my experience, denying regret for childhood violence used when you are in the middle of a panic or urgent situation, is less about being remorseless and more about protecting yourself from being criticised. Engaging with negative self-critique can be really difficult when you don't even understand your own motivations. She clearly has some failure to understand the emotions of others, but her disdain for others at times borders on not just Autistic, but callous. Some writeups online suggest that the character might be sociopathic, but her rigid attention to rules and guidelines and her disinterest in lying or manipulation has me convinced that she's Autistic. I do find it a little problematic that this Autistic child is depicted as creepy and dangerous.. but at the same time, it's realistic to demonstrate the fact that when people don't understand you they may want to keep away from you.
The thematics of this book seem quite tongue in cheek. It's a commentary of the cultural ideas that we take for granted. You are an inhuman weirdo if you dedicate yourself to something you are an expert at, passionate about, but that also confers low social status. You are expected to selflessly find a man to dedicate yourself to the service of, maintaining your looks, cooking and cleaning, and bringing comfort with a calm and positive demeanour for the benefit of your household.
But, that's basically the same thing.. only with one of them you are required to also be a bedslave, and if, like this character, you are asexual, then you also come up against the influences of those who tell you that you are not good enough, and that you need to have a baby to be a valid contributing woman within a society.
Keiko feels pressured into finding a human male to affect a relationship with so as to keep the people around her happy with her. As she becomes more and more aware of the masks she feels she has to wear just to have human contact, she realises how false her friendships with others are, and how unwilling they are to accept her. The talk of Curing her difference hit me like an emotional fist. It's been so many years since I faced a person in my sphere who thought I was unworthy because I was strange, and it brought some of that memory back.
Some of the most moving parts in this story for me were Keiko's sense impressions of the Kombini. I know exactly what it is like to sense your environment through its sounds, and the clues and patterns that hint what your next interaction will be. I feel with my house. I am in tune with its rhythms and sounds in much the same way. I know when pets need feeding, and when the traffic will be loud, or quiet. The act of getting off public transport a block before your stop I immediately understood as a chance to figure out what the mood of the day was; is it likely to rain?, is a special event on?, are there roadworks?, will people feel energetic, or low?.. all these would affect the systems in the shop, and the hypervigilance that she channels into managing those systems felt SO familiar to me. Recognising patterns like how a person's body language or sounds can tell you what method of payment they might use, cash or card. Yep, this is how I interact with my world.
I think this book packs quite a bit in for a short read.
Seemed like a good idea to read a few titles in aid of Autism month.
The first thing that struck me about this book was how the sales pitch on the cover was completely wrong. As an Autistic reader, perhaps I have a different take on it, but I don't think it's witty or hilarious. I'd go with interesting and perhaps thought provoking. It's definitely much more funny (oh.), rather than funny (ha ha!).
My Japanese is quite sketchy, but as someone who ran the anime club for about a decade I was fairly culturally literate. This is a story set in Japan, and some of its "oddness" is Japanese, and some is neurological. It wasn't until the end of the book that I heard the original title was コンビニ人間 (Kombini Ningen - or convenience-store person). Looking up the Kanji for the protagonist's name, I was amused to find that it could indeed be considered a pun as, I have been told, is common in Japanese literature. Alternate readings of the name "Furukura" do have different meanings and though it could be commonly read as Old "River", it could also be read as "Hideaway", "hiding place" or "storehouse". This is an apt name for a girl who learns early in life that if she acts intuitively, her ways of doing things will get her into in big trouble. She instead becomes someone who masks herself behind walls of affectations and habits learned by copying the "normal" people around her.
This characterisation was interesting to me in a couple of ways. The first is that this girl is depicted as feeling justified for violence. In my experience, denying regret for childhood violence used when you are in the middle of a panic or urgent situation, is less about being remorseless and more about protecting yourself from being criticised. Engaging with negative self-critique can be really difficult when you don't even understand your own motivations. She clearly has some failure to understand the emotions of others, but her disdain for others at times borders on not just Autistic, but callous. Some writeups online suggest that the character might be sociopathic, but her rigid attention to rules and guidelines and her disinterest in lying or manipulation has me convinced that she's Autistic. I do find it a little problematic that this Autistic child is depicted as creepy and dangerous.. but at the same time, it's realistic to demonstrate the fact that when people don't understand you they may want to keep away from you.
The thematics of this book seem quite tongue in cheek. It's a commentary of the cultural ideas that we take for granted. You are an inhuman weirdo if you dedicate yourself to something you are an expert at, passionate about, but that also confers low social status. You are expected to selflessly find a man to dedicate yourself to the service of, maintaining your looks, cooking and cleaning, and bringing comfort with a calm and positive demeanour for the benefit of your household.
But, that's basically the same thing.. only with one of them you are required to also be a bedslave, and if, like this character, you are asexual, then you also come up against the influences of those who tell you that you are not good enough, and that you need to have a baby to be a valid contributing woman within a society.
Keiko feels pressured into finding a human male to affect a relationship with so as to keep the people around her happy with her. As she becomes more and more aware of the masks she feels she has to wear just to have human contact, she realises how false her friendships with others are, and how unwilling they are to accept her. The talk of Curing her difference hit me like an emotional fist. It's been so many years since I faced a person in my sphere who thought I was unworthy because I was strange, and it brought some of that memory back.
Some of the most moving parts in this story for me were Keiko's sense impressions of the Kombini. I know exactly what it is like to sense your environment through its sounds, and the clues and patterns that hint what your next interaction will be. I feel with my house. I am in tune with its rhythms and sounds in much the same way. I know when pets need feeding, and when the traffic will be loud, or quiet. The act of getting off public transport a block before your stop I immediately understood as a chance to figure out what the mood of the day was; is it likely to rain?, is a special event on?, are there roadworks?, will people feel energetic, or low?.. all these would affect the systems in the shop, and the hypervigilance that she channels into managing those systems felt SO familiar to me. Recognising patterns like how a person's body language or sounds can tell you what method of payment they might use, cash or card. Yep, this is how I interact with my world.
I think this book packs quite a bit in for a short read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Ableism, Grief, Misogyny, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Bullying, Mental illness, Stalking, and Xenophobia
Minor: Chronic illness
moilady's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Gak tau mau jelasin tentang buku ini kayak gimana. Tapi, yang jelas buku ini tuh tipis tapi bisa banget nyenggol segala arah. Sedihnya ada, anehnya ada, kasihannya ada, creepynya ada banget, marah dan keselnya apalagi, numpuk maksimal.
Selama baca buku ini, aku teringat sama salah satu video yang pernah aku tonton. Sebuah video yang menggambarkan isi pikir seseorang dengan skizofrenia, dan buku ini ngasih sensasi yang sama ketika aku nonton video itu. Buku ini serasa membawa kita masuk ke dalam isi kepalanya, bagaimana dia melihat dunia sekitar dia dan bagaimana pola pikirnya berbeda dengan orang-orang kebanyakan.
Tapi, di sisi lain, persoalan yang menekan dia rasanya terlalu nyata, terlalu real, seperti kenapa usia kepala tiga pekerjaannya belum tetap, atau kenapa belum menikah, atau kenapa ini dan kenapa itu. Rasanya, I can relate to the situation, yang mana tekanan-tekanan ini memang ada, sejak dulu sampai sekarang di kehidupan sosial.
Sebetulnya, Furukura gak ganggu sama sekali walaupun pola pikirnya jelas berbeda, justru lingkungan sosialnya yang terkesan terlalu ikut campur dengan urusannya dia.
Tapi, ada satu yang bikin aku benar-benar kesal. Marah banget. Sosok Shiraha benar-benar parasit, bikin emosi. Pokoknya kesel banget. Harusnya dia udah jadi fossil. POKONYA SHIRAHA ANEEEEEEEH.
Buku ini sendiri pacenya cepet, mengingatkan aku waktu baca Cursed Bunny yang sukses bikin aku penasaran terus-terusan.
Selama baca buku ini, aku teringat sama salah satu video yang pernah aku tonton. Sebuah video yang menggambarkan isi pikir seseorang dengan skizofrenia, dan buku ini ngasih sensasi yang sama ketika aku nonton video itu. Buku ini serasa membawa kita masuk ke dalam isi kepalanya, bagaimana dia melihat dunia sekitar dia dan bagaimana pola pikirnya berbeda dengan orang-orang kebanyakan.
Tapi, di sisi lain, persoalan yang menekan dia rasanya terlalu nyata, terlalu real, seperti kenapa usia kepala tiga pekerjaannya belum tetap, atau kenapa belum menikah, atau kenapa ini dan kenapa itu. Rasanya, I can relate to the situation, yang mana tekanan-tekanan ini memang ada, sejak dulu sampai sekarang di kehidupan sosial.
Sebetulnya, Furukura gak ganggu sama sekali walaupun pola pikirnya jelas berbeda, justru lingkungan sosialnya yang terkesan terlalu ikut campur dengan urusannya dia.
Tapi, ada satu yang bikin aku benar-benar kesal. Marah banget. Sosok Shiraha benar-benar parasit, bikin emosi. Pokoknya kesel banget. Harusnya dia udah jadi fossil. POKONYA SHIRAHA ANEEEEEEEH.
Buku ini sendiri pacenya cepet, mengingatkan aku waktu baca Cursed Bunny yang sukses bikin aku penasaran terus-terusan.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Gaslighting
trisreadssometimes's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Ableism
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
emimli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
Would've liked this much better if Keiko had curb stomped Shiraha outside of the convenience store.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexism, Classism, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Stalking
christinewonder's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexism, and Misogyny
Minor: Mental illness