A review by elusorius
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
1.0
I haven't hated a book this much since The Scarlet Letter, and that says something. Did I read a different book than everyone else? With 0% 1 star reviews, hating this book so much almost feels like an achievement. I wanted to stop reading so badly, but somehow forced myself through the entire thing.
The writing was bad. Just really bad, from weird and boring scenery descriptions to unnatural dialogue, especially for so called fourteen-year-olds. The graphic and emotionally intense scenes were written in an extremely detached, observing manner. As if listing items on a to-do list instead of describing traumatic events. Because of this, none of the events held any weight. The characters, especially the main character, had zero personality. None of the dialogues and monologues and internal thoughts were properly thought out. And they were repeated, over and over, especially at the end of the book. The bullies had the most personality in the entire book, and their only trait was being mean. The bullies monologue felt like it was being said by someone who read a single psychology book and now considered himself to be the next Nietzsche, and it was very odd coming from a middle school child. Perhaps Kawakami's true wish was to write a philosophy book. The story never really went anywhere, we sort of saw a friendship develop but it was shallow and barely a friendship at all. If this book has a plot, I can't find it. It got slightly better nearing the end, but not enough to deserve a second star.
Overall, I was excited for this book but it has been nothing except a let down.
The writing was bad. Just really bad, from weird and boring scenery descriptions to unnatural dialogue, especially for so called fourteen-year-olds. The graphic and emotionally intense scenes were written in an extremely detached, observing manner. As if listing items on a to-do list instead of describing traumatic events. Because of this, none of the events held any weight. The characters, especially the main character, had zero personality. None of the dialogues and monologues and internal thoughts were properly thought out. And they were repeated, over and over, especially at the end of the book. The bullies had the most personality in the entire book, and their only trait was being mean. The bullies monologue felt like it was being said by someone who read a single psychology book and now considered himself to be the next Nietzsche, and it was very odd coming from a middle school child. Perhaps Kawakami's true wish was to write a philosophy book. The story never really went anywhere, we sort of saw a friendship develop but it was shallow and barely a friendship at all. If this book has a plot, I can't find it. It got slightly better nearing the end, but not enough to deserve a second star.
Overall, I was excited for this book but it has been nothing except a let down.