Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - 1Q84

This was a great first read of Murakami's work. I really liked Tengo and Aomame, they were great characters, Aomame especially. It's crazy that their love lasted so long. I liked that not all the questions were answered at the end. The magical realism aspects were cool and kind of scandalous, kind of made me uncomfy at one point. The plot was good but I wasn't itching to pick it up to see what happened. The parts where Tengo went to see his dad in the nursing home were pretty slow and not as entertaining, kind of just waiting for something to happen that never did. But for the majority of the book I felt like the pacing was slow but not without reason and I didn't feel like it dragged. I hated all the mentions of boobs, so unnecessary and annoying. Would still recommend tho.

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kerrence30's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

The main idea of the story was good, the complexities of the magical realism part were a bit forced, in my opinion, as at times it made sense, but other times it didn’t, and was covered up by characters saying “I can’t explain it, I just know” and you’re expected to roll with that. If you do then fine, it’s a fun story of parallel universes. My only sticking point is the gratuitous sex. There is a fair amount of description of the bodies of minor characters, of which doesn’t add anything to the story. For example, going into detail about how the two underage girls touched eachother doesn’t then lead her to realise she as attracted to women… it’s unnecessary, and I can’t imagine why… I listened to the audiobook and eventually skipped 30 seconds once I realised where it was going.
That’s the only reason why I could rate this so high. It was otherwise a well written and unique story.

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angela_iseli's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

3.0

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3eggomelet's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

1.5

Yes, I read the whole thing. I ordered all three books in Japanese and referred to them throughout my reading.
The premise and concept of this book carried me through. I wanted to know what would happen. I'm not gonna say it wasn't worth it, but I would recommend against reading this if you're not already super interested.

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drymice's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.5

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josiemi's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

2.25

This was my first foray into Murakami’s work and in all honesty, I think I chose the wrong book to start with. “1Q84” still feels like a work in progress draft that could have been consolidated into a much shorter book. The fantasy elements of the book are intriguing, but unexplained; the story-line the religious cult was completely underdeveloped and underutilized. I didn’t feel invested in either of the main characters which was such a shame and the sex scenes felt so gratuitous. I was underwhelmed and disappointed.

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srjennings's review against another edition

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The mystery was intriguing, but it was slow and there was a lot of excessiv sexual stuff.

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theshonz0705's review against another edition

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I read this book several years ago and remembered liking it. I knew there was a lot of inappropriate sexual content, but in the years since I read it, I am no longer able to stomach it.

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