A review by bluemings
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

It was really hard to give this book a rating. On one hand, the monotonous 925 pages felt like forever, new questions popping up all the time with hardly any answers, demanding most of my time and my brainpower. Yet, after turning the last page, I felt like I had achieved great triumph, everything slightly coming together. But overall, this book was great. Sure, there were probably 300 pages of excess description, but that's part of the reason why this book felt so great: Murakami's intimate descriptions of the small moments of Tengo and Aomame's lives made the story jump off the pages, and really displayed reality: small, simple actions, like making dinner or listening to music. I will say, the ending felt a bit lackluster, and there were a million different plot threads which were left unresolved, but perhaps the ambiguity of the end gave light to the novel as a whole, to portray the beautiful sea of unknown which we all happen to be sailing in.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings