Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino

10 reviews

everie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

A gripping brick of a thriller! I love the narrator's awful, awful vibes

(and four narrators of varying reliability to boot!)

, what fun! Very dark though. I think puzzling out the main narrator carried me through the more yikes moments. All the TWs essentially

Kirino's deliberate, incisive prose made this dense book a quick read! Her villains and endings often leave a bit to be desired but the twist was a little fun here

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia

readersbutterfly's review against another edition

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.

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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

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

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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

artfullysinful's review against another edition

I read up until the halfway point and when i saw that format I'd had enough. Maybe another day I'll finish it

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pedophilia

phantomfighter724's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

mirrorofneptune's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.25

One of the official reviews of this book describes it as less of a crime novel and more of a character study, and I agree with that. The cast of characters are all morally ambiguous and unreliable narrators, and it was interesting to see their multiple takes on the same events. The book leaves a lot up for interpretation but that’s definitely intentional on the author’s part. There’s a recurring motif of what makes someone monstrous/“grotesque” that I found fascinating, especially in the context of Kirino’s other works. 

Overall: a book that navigates intense and dark subject matters without sugar-coating or glamorizing, while asking some deep questions about how people (but particularly women) interact with society. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

Minor: Eating disorder, Incest, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Murder

amandahaydock's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Murder, and Sexual harassment

sspaghettiboness's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

First of all, this book is beautifully written. I don’t read female authors as often as I’d like, but I felt such a deep kinship with this book as it explored things like female rivalry, ageing, and a culture which commodifies sex and youth. 

The diary sections are, by far, the most fun and interesting to read. Kirino does such a fantastic job of maintaining her high level writing while also giving each character a distinctiveness it’s impossible to doubt who is who. 

Overall it was a great read, there are some slow patches which I found less than engaging, but this is a book worth sticking with! Very thought provoking about some heavy subject matter while unfolding at a true crime pace. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fatphobia, Incest, Excrement, and Murder

emudds's review against another edition

dark

3.0

some poignant observations on the constrictive nature of femininity and feeling defined by your relationships to men ("for a girl, appearance can be a powerful form of oppression." or "that was the first time i noticed that the men who embrace me, every single one of them, end up with an expression of emptiness when they are done, as if they have lost something.") but feels unfair to take that out on and possibly misrepresent the sex work industry (with the recognition that i have limited knowledge of the cultural context around it in japan specifically). also very invested in the constant refrain to "be good to me" throughout the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Murder

ceciliabereadin's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

This book needed to be 100 pages shorter but other than that, I found it so interesting 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism