Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Insel der verlorenen Erinnerung by Yōko Ogawa

16 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Admittedly, it’s a little too neatly written, but I loved every word of this book. The parallel stories, the ending, the reflection of our actual lives today, and the ever present Japanese them of ephemera. I’ll be thinking about this one a long time, which is a little ironic given its subject matter 😂 Would love to see this made into a movie. Since it seems a lot of these dystopian settings are on isolated islands, Hollywood cops probably reuse a set from a previous dystopian movie set on an island 🤣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

apthompson's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

“My memories don’t feel as though they’ve been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.”

“His soul is too dense. If he comes out, he’ll dissolve into pieces, like a deep-sea fish pulled to the surface too quickly. I suppose my job is to go on holding him here at the bottom of the sea.”

“People—and I’m no exception—seem capable of forgetting almost anything, much as if our island were unable to float in anything but an expanse of totally empty sea.”

This novel, in its Orwellian decent, presents a surveillance-state dystopian island, where collective loss is enforced, and those who remember are systematically destroyed by The Memory Police. This a highly personal and profound type of apocalypse. The plot is reminiscent of The Diary of Anne Frank, and other real life histories of safe houses in the face or persecution; it concerns a woman’s efforts to hide one of the people who remembers, someone she cares for, in a purpose-built annex under her floorboards.

While it is, in many ways, set up like a typical dystopian novel that deftly illustrates the insidious, dehumanizing claw of totalitarianism, the true power of this novel is how it moves past the political implications of a dystopia to the very real horrors of forgetting and the destruction to society and the self this causes. There’s a quiet tension that stalks the pages of the novel. The fear, claustrophobia and struggle feel real. 

If you want to read a sci-fi book that explores the effects on the individual, then definitely pick this up.

rating: ★★★★

🗺️ Reading Around the World 2024: Japan 🇯🇵

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, and Abandonment

Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Grief

scumlow's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Death, Rape, and Violence

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

hannah_and_her_stories's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Body horror, Infidelity, Rape, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Dysphoria

pigeonpersona's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Violence, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Violence

jamie_reads_stuff's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book is so sad but so heartwarming. It’s such a beautiful take on trauma, memory, and existence with a larger context of mass manipulation and dystopian police brutality. Something about the book to me was really heart warming about just people living their day to day lives in unfathomable consequences. That being said there’s like super minimal plot, but if you want to read it for the vibes, definitely do so!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

I

junheechuu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence