Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - Sopa de miso

This is Murakami at his most dark and twisted. This is about an American Frank who comes to Japan to tour the red light district through the services of Kenji, the tour guide. But as the night darkens and the 2 walk through the streets of Japan the mood and tone get darker, deadlier and murderous.
I think Murakami excels most in these shorter books. Compared to his longer book Coin locker babies which at times felt like it meandered into tangents a bit, this felt more whittled down and straight to the point.
In the miso soup is well written in my opinion, the descriptions of Frank, of Japanese night life are so vivid you can clearly picture it, and also feel the creeps from Frank. There was wonderful commentary on America vs the other, of Japanese condition, loneliness and poverty that made the book a spectacular read.
I think while the ending was vague and extremely open ended I quite enjoyed it, the lack of concrete, blatant resolution keeps one thinking about the book long after it, about what happened to each character afterward.

Content Warnings

booksthoughtsandtea's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

Oddly terrifying and fascinating. I am unsure if I think the mental illness representation further harms the mental health community (I'm in that community) or not. In some ways it shows the harm of forces institution, and how it does not help if the patient doesn't want to change. This book was very fatphobic. The only fat person in this whole story is an American... and it doesn't sit right with me. I think this book is a meditation on the fasination people have with foreigners, how classism is so prevalent in wealthy and less wealthy countries, lonliness, and how we are all fascinated by death. Either way, this book had me empathize for the bad guy... That's a hard feat when murder is involved.

Content Warnings

scumbear's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

Content Warnings

okkqtsu's review against another edition

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dark medium-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

4.0

Content Warnings

jocelyndolence's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

honestly i felt sick reading this. it’s very, very graphic. i might do a more in depth review for anyone thinking about reading this just because of how many content warnings this book has. the writing is immaculate and wonderfully done, but so wonderfully done that everything described and done just leaves a sour taste in your mouth and a turning stomach in its wake. all though i cannot say i enjoyed this book because of this, i do think it was a very well written and disturbing book.

Content Warnings

abookishgoth's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

1.0

Content Warnings

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