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

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

36 reviews

jinglebellyee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Still thinking between 2 or 3 stars… I really want to love it because of the friendship struggles that the book explores (which personally hits very close to home) but oh man.. I absolutely can’t unds the part where Tsukuru was “accused” of “r@ping” his friend Shiro like what do you mean – you either did it or you didn’t!! It’s so violent and horrifying but yet the book didn’t conclude the part well (or so I thought) and it merely just ended with Shiro being mentally ill.. and brutally murdered?! And the murderer is on the loose!

It’s also very strange (and honestly disturbing) that Tsukuru has sexual dreams about his platonic female friends, and continues to talk about Kuro’s breasts and feminine touch when he met up with her WHILE he had Sara as his girlfriend. I wished they focused just on the friendship and the coming-of-age, adulting and self-identity struggles they each had, without going into unnecessary details about Tsukuru’s inner sexual desires that really didn’t add much to the story. Like isolation and loneliness, and having all your friends walk away and ignore you out of the sudden.. HURTS and they are so real! Which the author could have focused on, and explored more when they finally reunited. And the abstract meanings and life lessons that people like Sara, Haida bring to Tsukuru’s life.. so many more meaningful things to talk about.

I’m going to walk away from this story just remembering that Tsukuru is a h@rny guy that wants to screw all his female friends. Okay yknw what, 2 stars it shall be then

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miorlen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-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

I love the dream like state this book put me in where I questioned what events in it were real and fake. The writing and the way the characters were so fleshed our really gripped me and I haven't read a book so quickly in forever. However, as a with a lot of Murakami's writing, I did have an issue with how he portrays women and sex, and his strong emphasis on the male gaze.

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bea2001's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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vincentblackshadow's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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seraphimgt's review

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reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I liked it better than Kafka at least. My major issue with this book was how it handled violence against women.

Spoiler

My professor pointed out that many people believe that Murakami is commentating on how many violent and sexual crimes against women go unsolved in Japan, and the rate of these crimes are rising, but that didn't make what happened to Shiro/Yuzu any less uncomfortable to read. Plus, false accusations are incredibly rare so every time I see one portrayed, it kind of pisses me off because it perpetuates and inflates a dangerously inaccurate idea that many misogynists have. I'm not saying Murakami buys into the idea that many women lie about being raped, and the reveal that Shiro HAD in fact been raped by someone, just not Tsukuru I think gives him a little leeway, but it's just uncomfortable.

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distractible's review against another edition

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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

3.0

Spoiler

There is an off-screen murder, an off-screen rape and miscarriage, and the main character is falsely accused of rape.

Spoiler

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rebekahelis's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

Spoiler

I despise false rape/ SA claims as a plot line</spolier> I also hated how women were written in this book.

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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 (?)

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jolienvandera's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

3.75

I liked it and found it eyeopening towards my own life. I understand some people not liking it, because it's not very Murakami-esk, in the use of magical realism, however the sexual aspect of a Murakami book is very present. I like this about his books but I can understand some people don't like it. The dreams were weird in the beginning, but they gave us a sense of foreshadowing. However we, the readers, were left to fi ish the puzzle ourself without ever knowing the correct solution - very typical Murakami. Not my favorite, but a good one

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