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kibiiiariii's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
quixie's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Dementia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
lisa00's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Confinement, Incest, and Death of parent
sylvestra's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
lulsycc's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
jackmerlot's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Murder
maia313's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.25
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ENDING
The final book spoke about Chekhov's gun being unfired, which is true both metaphorically and literally- Aomame never shoots the Heckler & Kock, and there is no 'final showdown' between the characters and Sakigake, or any shocking revelation. Although some of this would have been good, I find that the strange nature of his books excuses this, and it works very well.
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Torture, and Death of parent
Moderate: Rape
chrisljm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
No wonder this book was originally released in three parts because I genuinely don’t think there is any reason this book should’ve been 1500+ pages (ebook) long. It definitely could’ve been reduced a third of its length because there were parts that were so lengthy and repetitive, and just dragged on for seemingly forever. There was a whole ass scene where the narrator went over the complete instructions of how a pregnancy test worked, what the results shown meant, as well as the science behind it. I think if just the sentences that mention breasts were cut out, that alone could reduce the book by at least 1-2 chapters. (After a quick ctrl+f, breasts were mentioned an astounding 77 times)!
I’ve heard plenty of times before that Murakami is terrible at writing women, but he’s genuinely so terrible at it that I can’t even get mad. In my opinion he should just stop including female characters in his books completely. And if he wanted to have a romance arch, he should just consider having those characters be gay, because writing this sentence, “Aomame mourned the deaths of these two friends deeply. It saddened her to think that these women were forever gone from the world. And she mourned their lovely breasts—breasts that had vanished without a trace.” is insane to me.
The book also contained so many content warnings. Literally any tw you can think of, it’s most likely included. Luckily, I’m not adverse to reading things that contain content warnings, for the most part, but the stuff in this book definitely made me uncomfortable. And if you’re someone who hates sexual assault being used as a plot device, definitely don’t read this.
And since I’m on the topic of content warnings, the one that I sensed from the beginning was an adult minor relationship. I also just want to point out that an adult talking about a minor’s chest and ‘beautiful curves’ is already disgusting, but it doesn’t cancel out just because he throws in that there is no sexual meaning. However, out of all the foul parts I read (there were many) the one that was the most revolting to me was a scene where these two characters found themselves waking up naked together and there was a descriptive contrast made where one of the things being compared was referred to as ‘adult penis’. I’m sure you can guess what the opposite thing being described was. Having to read that full scene made me want to die.
There were so many times throughout the book where I wanted to dnf, because I have truly never disliked a book more than this one. But above all, more than disliking this book, I am a hater, and so I finished it even though I wanted to unalive myself the whole time, so that I could properly write this review.
TLDR:
Badly written female characters
Too many mentions of breasts
CW: adult minor relationship, sexual assault/rape as a plot device, incesty (mommy issues), suicide, sex scenes
Unnecessary sex scenes
Long and boring
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Religious bigotry
shelbytheduck's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
maac's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
GODD THIS WAS SO EW i would rather put my finger in a mouse trap before i interact with this ok basically EVERY SINGLE WOMAN (which totaled to about 6) had a sexual relationship with the men. INCLUDING a 17 year old girl. which murakami attempts to justify?!??!??? the only reason i finished this was because i was so far in. all the women are over sexualized, the plot drags on but is still somewhat interesting to keep you reading (or bc u got like 500 pages in and figured u might as well finish it), all of it just makes you feel sick and while there’s some interesting parts none of the sickening parts needed to be added