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andlovetoowillruinus's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Incest, Rape, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Infidelity, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Excrement
purple_pleh's review
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
3.5
readersbutterfly's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
So much of this was hard to read, which may be in part due to the translation. I think this book actually dragged on quite a bit, but it has made me think a lot about how women in Japanese society actually grow up. There is so much idolization of Japan’s culture, so much skimming over weird subtext in anime, blatant misogyny. While this is fiction, fiction holds a grain of truth. I think that’s what is unnerving about kirino’s writing. However wild she may dive, it never seems too wild. Graphic book, trigger warning for everything! I will also add that I did enjoy the emboldening of sex workers, even if they came from wildly different perspectives. Too often this world has been trained to think of them as as revolting whores or lustful accompaniments to men’s revulsion. But this paints women’s sexuality as their own, as sex work being a basis of freedom and accompaniment and success for others, truly, and points out how misogyny is known to the sex worker too, and the only difference between disgust with a sex worker’s johns and a sex worker’s own disgust, is that the johns can get away with killing them for it easier.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Excrement, Trafficking, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
mina's review
I’m disappointed because after reading some reviews, I realized that the English translation butchered the original pretty badly and it even changed the ending?
Other than that, this novel is HEAVY – incest, pedophilia, underage prostitution, murder, suicide, eating disorders, etc… so fair warning to anyone interested in picking it up. I usually don’t gravitate to this kind of content, but the first half was captivating enough that I wanted to keep reading. The second half dragged on for so long and became so convoluted with a new cast of (irrelevant) characters and unnecessary plot points that the impact of the book’s message lost its punch by the end.
Grotesque does do a good job in pointing out misogyny in Japanese society and how the beauty ideal plagues women – regardless of whether the woman is “ugly” or “beautiful.” But overall, I couldn’t get passed the gratuitous trauma-porn, the unlikeable characters, or the translation flaws.
Not a bad book, but definitely not the kind of novel I like to spend hours processing.
Other than that, this novel is HEAVY – incest, pedophilia, underage prostitution, murder, suicide, eating disorders, etc… so fair warning to anyone interested in picking it up. I usually don’t gravitate to this kind of content, but the first half was captivating enough that I wanted to keep reading. The second half dragged on for so long and became so convoluted with a new cast of (irrelevant) characters and unnecessary plot points that the impact of the book’s message lost its punch by the end.
Grotesque does do a good job in pointing out misogyny in Japanese society and how the beauty ideal plagues women – regardless of whether the woman is “ugly” or “beautiful.” But overall, I couldn’t get passed the gratuitous trauma-porn, the unlikeable characters, or the translation flaws.
Not a bad book, but definitely not the kind of novel I like to spend hours processing.
directorpurry's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Eating disorder, Incest, Suicide, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Excrement and Dementia
liinukka's review against another edition
2.0
What a hopelessly depressing book. This book is filled with sad, pathetic, selfish, heartless people that you can feel no sympathy for, or any kind of human connection. I got to the end of it and wondered what the point of it all was, and felt annoyed at the time I wasted reading it.
kinosthesia's review against another edition
5.0
Just finished reading this today and am still reeling from the story that centers on the lives of four women who once went to school together and two of whom are related. The main narrated voice is unnamed except by her relationship to Yuriko, her younger sister and murdered prostitute whose unnatural beauty has defined her life. Yuriko has a voice via her diaries, as does Kazue a classmate who met the same fate in the same profession.
I was really impressed by Kirino's first translated novel 'Out' and had read 'Real World' and with this novel am once again impressed by the strong character portrayals and the social commentary she expresses by using the relationship dynamics of the four women involved.
The basic principle of the novel (for me) is that as women we are sold an ideal that we cannot achieve, trapped by the rigidity of society and expectations of others; forced to turn against each other in the struggle to achieve what we cannot and define ourselves by how others look, behave and gain success and in doing so become trapped.
I've filed this book on my 'feminist' shelf as one of the darker and more disturbing portrayals of women in modern society and, as with all Kirino's novels, it doesn't really feel much like fiction at all.
I was really impressed by Kirino's first translated novel 'Out' and had read 'Real World' and with this novel am once again impressed by the strong character portrayals and the social commentary she expresses by using the relationship dynamics of the four women involved.
The basic principle of the novel (for me) is that as women we are sold an ideal that we cannot achieve, trapped by the rigidity of society and expectations of others; forced to turn against each other in the struggle to achieve what we cannot and define ourselves by how others look, behave and gain success and in doing so become trapped.
I've filed this book on my 'feminist' shelf as one of the darker and more disturbing portrayals of women in modern society and, as with all Kirino's novels, it doesn't really feel much like fiction at all.