Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Kafka på stranden by Haruki Murakami

32 reviews

valjeanval's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I picked this one up at the library to celebrate Banned Books Month. I've read a bit of Murakami in the past, so I expected some weirdness, and I was right to expect it. This book is an Oedipal myth, and it gets very mythy with talking cats, personality displacement, and portals to pocket dimensions. I couldn't see the exact reason why it was banned, but probably statutory sex scenes with people who may be mother/son but it could also be the fact that it features a trans man who is particularly nuanced and treated like a human being by basically every character. You just never know with book banners.

My husband often asks me if I'm liking whatever I'm reading, and I often found that questions hard to answer with this one. This book is profoundly uncomfortable and occasionally horrific. It's also Murakami, so there's a great deal I probably need four or five re-reads to interpret. Did I like it? Kind of? When I wasn't horrified? It's hard to explain. I had similar feelings after 1Q84. I like reading Murakami, though, because it really makes my literary interpreter brain kick into gear. Even when I don't understand points of the story, I enjoy thinking about them and why they are there. This book made me think about Japanese civilians in WWII, Greek Mythology, classical music, poetry, libraries as memories, memories as libraries, why people help others, capitalism, philosophy, and lots more, so it felt worth my time. That said, definitely check out some trigger warnings before reading this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Incest

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

das_'s review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

0.5

A quite interesting mystery full of self-discovery at its core, with quite an unusual narrative that tells this story from multiple angles at once, this book seemed quite promising from the start. However, the overly casual dialogues that oscillate between intentionally inarticulate and pseudo-intellectual quickly got on my nerves, and the subsequent attempts to make light of pedophilia as well as incest were only the last straw. I'm fairly confident that this is the worst book that I've read in the past decade or so.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Murder

wmelissa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

geerbeer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Wtf gewoon. Kon ook wel zonder alle rare seksuele fantasieën en onnodig dierenleed 😭 ben hier ook gewoon te dom voor ofzo. Wel interessante concepten over de ziel en soms mooi omschreven stukken.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

clusterf_cked's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

peita_hansen's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

amymarchlawrence's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Blood, and Medical content

britanicadramatica's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

In this book, we have two converging perspectives. Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old runaway; and Mr. Nakata, a man in his mid-sixties who is unable to read or write. Magical realism is a great way to describe this tale of two souls. I laughed and I gasped throughout this book. I strongly suggest looking at content warnings prior to picking this up, as some of the content took me extremely off guard. This book left me speechless and confused about my own feelings, but that's art, right? It's supposed to give you visceral reactions. It's sad, whimsical, gruesome, and harrowing at the same time. 

I gave this book four stars because of the graphic content, it was unsettling at times. 

This book reminds me of a much more sophisticated version of John Dies at the End. I say this because of the appearances of Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders, which seemed very silly. There were parts of this book that were so whimsical and spiritual, while other parts were so graphic and disturbing. Nakata's perspective is easily my favorite. I do wish it dove further into Nakata and Miss Saeki's timeline with the entrance stone and their experiences in the other world. I very strongly disliked the violent and predatory aspects of Kafka's perspective; as well as the animal cruelty in Nakata's timeline. Kafka's journey is essentially Oedipus Rex. Nakata and Hoshino go through huge character development.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Rape

Moderate: Abandonment

avidreadr's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Like most of Murakami’s novels, this is a story about diving into one’s subconscious. Fighting  the darkness inside.  About fate, and responsibility, and time. 

Obviously the incest sections are beyond disturbing. I vacillate between understanding the “point” of these weird encounters and just really hating it and thinking it’s extraneous. Miss Saeki I can kind of understand but Sakura’s dream scene is beyond my comprehension

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Incest, and War

maizerbeam_16's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, and Misogyny