Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Kafka på stranden by Haruki Murakami

29 reviews

corpsepose's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective

• 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

Ambiwalentna w odbiorze. Lekka, ale nie prosta. Po przeczytaniu mam do niej stosunek "środkowy", ale w żadnym razie nie neutralny, może nawet nieco bardziej na minus. Na pewno do ponownego odwiedzenia, być może więcej niż raz.

Mitologizacja nie zatrzymuje się na przepowiedni, być może stąd trudna w ocenie przez pryzmat zwykłego, "dzisiejszego" zestawu norm i wartości. 

Historia, zdaje mi się, o pudełkach, drzwiach i ramkach, a także o połowach rzeczy, co zgrabnie podsumowują cytat przytoczony na okładce i wspomnienie o "Uczcie" Platona.

Z prostszych obserwacji: Murakami nie umie pisać kobiet, za to ciekawa transreprezentacja. Różnice kulturowe mogą dawać się we znaki czytelnikowi.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: 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, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

madamenovelist'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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

To elaborate on content warnings: Two different instances of incest, both involving an adult & a minor. One was consensual in the real world and another was rape in a shared dream. The animal cruelty is extremely gruesome and involves cats, so cat lovers should brace or skip this book altogether.

lambclown's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Chronic illness

toffishay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

What a book! I had this copy of Kafka on the Shore for almost two years before I tackled it this month and once I started, I couldn't put it down. This is such a creative and intriguing exploration of memory and destiny, the connections that we might and how we come to be the people that we are. How we craft ourselves and are made new every day, while still being informed by all that comes before us. The way that time is used it so trippy and interesting. Time moves past us and through us. We can't get time back and we can waste our whole lives chasing it. And even with these really big ideas, at its core this is a story about a young boy trying to understand himself. The simplicity of that is what keeps the story so tight and I can see why people continue to come back to it. Some parts are tricky...definitely check content warnings and I think that some parts could have been scaled back for sure which stops me from going like up to a 5 star rating for this book. But sometimes the stars are a general guide and I would still recommend this book for sure. Hoshino is my favorite character!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Police brutality, and Medical content

hannah_cogo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.25

Murakami keeps his unique and brilliant writing style in this book, with a totally unique plot that keeps you guessing. but his portrayal of women has not changed, and it is clear that he really only sees women as nothing more than sexual objects. a part of me feels like most of this book was just Murakami exploring his own messed-up fantasies, as there is not a single woman in this book who is not objectified, talked about or described sexually, or has nothing to do with sex at all. overall it is overly sexual and proves that Murakami still cannot write women. at all. the only reason it's not zero stars is for Mr Nakata and his talking cats.

there are scenes where the main character rapes his sister in their dream, and he also has sex with his mother more than once. also, the main character's genitals are talked about a lot considering he is 15</spoler> it's a lot to take in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Child abuse and Chronic illness

lara_anne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

spicycheesecake's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Beautifully written, but that one chapter with the (TW: ANIMAL ABUSE) cat murders disgusted me and threw me so far off that I stopped reading for weeks. 

If I ever pick this up again, I'm skipping that chapter.

Update: 
1 year later, I've finally picked back up this book and finished. I am so glad I did

What the fuck did I just read though?

Weird shit. Weird shit. Weird shit. Weird shit but it all worked out so well in the end. What the sigma fr 

My first Murakami book!! I'm not going to lie, when I got to that chapter about all the cats and the Things happening to them, I thought it was over. I thought I had picked up my first Murakami, saw the terrible things he wrote about, and thought that it was the end of me and Murakami. I will not forgive him for that disgusting, god-forsaken chapter. I'm glad that I re-picked up the book though. The storyline and all the characters were so epic. I love Nakata. I love Hoshino. I love Mr. KFC guy. 

There are a lot of things that I just don't understand. But I feel that there is beauty in not understanding some of the story. Though I think that some of my knowledge was lost in my 1-year gap of putting this book down.

What is the role of the boy named Crow? He seemed to be a minor character. As much as I love Nakata, why was it *him* of all people to be the one to go on this journey to find the entrance stone? What was the relation of the beginning storyline of the teacher and all her unconscious students? Why did Nakata think that Kafka's dad was named Johnnie Walker? Why was there sex in the story?? Why was there so much cat gore in that one chapter??

Some of it seems unecessary. 

Anyway yeah. I kinda don't want to think about this book anymore. But it was so weirdly good. I want to read more Murakami though, if anyone has any recommendations!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, and Murder

jo_lzr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

zonboi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Transphobia, Outing, and Dysphoria

aisclaradm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

This book is surreal, confusing, and beautiful. I absolutely adore the writing style, and much preferred it to Norwegian Wood, the other Murakami book I have read. The strangeness of the story is done so well, and the different characters and their perspectives all add such a different flavour to the overall narrative. 

Overall, an amazing book that would have deserved a full 5 stars, except that the way that women are written is absolutely vile — I have never seen a clearer example of rabid sexual objectification in such an unnecessary, uncomfortable, and graphic way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Abandonment

Minor: Chronic illness