Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Tokio blues (Norwegian Wood)

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Tokio blues (Norwegian Wood) by Haruki Murakami

949 reviews

frasro's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.75

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xsamwise's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-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

2.0

Honestly, this book would've been 4 stars if not for the ending.

The ending completely ruined my opinion of Watanabe and the book overall. Loss and grief are a key component of the story, and I found it very relatable. I was really glad I chose to read this book at this point in time in my life because it brought up thoughts and emotions that were challenging for me to work through.

I was already considering reading it again because so many of Watanabe's feelings mirrored my own (especially the "winding my spring" portion), but the ending was honestly.... disgusting. I found it so gross that

Watanabe and Reiko sleep together, multiple times, following Reiko's suicide and Watanabe's realization that he loves Midori. I lost all respect for both characters. It felt like a complete betrayal. Especially how right after, he reaches out to Midori to profess his love? Like, you just slept with someone else the night before.

I get he's young and grief effects people differently, but this is completely inexcusable to me. It's giving "boys will be boys".... ick.

There were so many important sections, especially near the end, that I bookmarked but it's so hard for me to overlook the ending.

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ur_moms_fav_child's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

juliafranzis's review against another edition

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1.5

Everything I usually like about Murakamis books wasn't to be found in this one.
I was disturbed, but not as usual in an interested way, but rather disgusted. The way women are described and how their characters are written just freaks me out. Nonetheless I finished the book but at some point I started to hate-read it.

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