Reviews

Le quattro casalinghe di Tokyo by Natsuo Kirino

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milena_mec's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

ghostmomxoxo's review against another edition

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4.0

TW: rape, sexual assault, misogyny, murder, torture, gore

I was NOT expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did, but it was such an impactful read and I know it’s going to sit with me for a long time. The first 30-40% of the book is very slow burn, and it took me a while to really get into it, but once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down.

The book follows a pretty large number of characters - I think part of what I liked so much about reading this was that it felt like Kirino was creating a map of Tokyo both literally and figuratively. Getting to experience this story through such a large number of perspectives really adds to the overall ambience and world building, and it really helped me paint a deeply intricate picture of this story.

The TLDR of the plot involves 4 women who work the night shift at a bento factory. Though they make up a great team at work, things become complicated when one of the women, Yayoi, kills her abusive husband and asks the main character, Masako, for help with getting rid of his body. Masako in turn is forced to ask the other two women, Yoshie and Kuniko, to help her with the gruesome task; what unfolds throughout the rest of the book is how this one decision massively impacts all of their lives. The book also focuses very heavily on Satake, a club owner and “reformed” criminal; he ends up crossing paths with the women and becomes involved in the aftermath of the murder in a terrifying way.

All of the characters in the book are so fundamentally complex and well developed from the get go that they feel intensely real, and even if you don’t necessarily like the characters, you KNOW them. I especially couldn’t believe how incredibly well-written Satake’s character is. The way he justifies and remembers his criminal past is so discomforting and spine-chilling; I found myself have to take a step away from the book after some of his scenes.

I’m giving this book a 4/5 stars because, as mentioned earlier, I found it pretty difficult to get through in the beginning. This is definitely not an easy read in terms of the violence and gore, and I found the misogyny of 99% of the men (and several of the women) in the book very difficult to get through. Also, a tiny side note that several people have mentioned: there are a number of Brazilian men mentioned in the book who work at the same factory at the women, and the author mentions São Paulo around 10-15 times but it is spelled São Paolo. It just seems too frequent to have just been a simple oversight.