Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Brewed coffee & false allegations. Thinking all you are is grey. Tokyo skies & bullet trains. Chlorine & matching suits. The cold that comes after people abandon you. An unplanned strong first step into Murakami’s work, with sadly more relatable subject matter than I care to admit. A dark mirror into my mind for the past little while.

I was hoping for a little more of the magical realism he is known for, and found the pace slower than necessary in parts. But at it’s core is beautiful prose, clear human observations & an infectious sense of place. Looking forward to rest of his collection. 🤍

Content Warnings

ccs's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No

3.75

Content Warnings

crows_in_a_trenchcoat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

elijahcole's review against another edition

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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

1.0

nothing happened in this book and it still managed to piss me off to no end.

first 100ish pages i thought the main character was just a guy with textbook definition autism that led to him feeling like an outcast then, of course in classic murakami fashion, he was just a straight up shitty dude and he absolutely deserved it. he turned out to

Spoiler

be a possible rapist?? and no one in this book took the rape accusations seriously? or cared that their friend was murdered because they were burdened by her being mentally unstable??

literally no resolution was reached and so many things were just thrown at the wall and never discussed again

Spoiler

like tsukuru having a sex dream about/raping/being raped by haida (?)

Content Warnings

the_mymble_daughter's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

Quite sombre. Not sure how it left me feeling. Really enjoyed reading it though. Would have liked a few more things explored but I think Murakami probably didn’t on purpose? Kind of has an ambiguous ending though so watch out for that!

‘We survived. You and I. And those who survive have a duty. Our duty is to do our best to keep on living. Even if our lives are not perfect.’

Content Warnings

bunitsu's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

no spoilers!!!
Colourless set my standards for books so much higher! i only recently got into reading and before reading it, i had read 2-3 books trying to get into reading but nothing really drew me in. i just thought was one of those people that couldn’t get into reading. But this changed everything. This book kept me on my toes. Every time i turned a page i didn’t want to stop because of how engaging it was. I’m a pretty slow reader so the fact i got through this book in 2 weeks says something.

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