A review by erincny_
Watersong by Clarissa Goenawan

3.0

i’m really torn with this book. i enjoyed the mystery and the characters. the book seems like a clear homage to murakami to me, with the disappearing woman and the reference to classical music as murakami often does. but ending the story on a flashback whose existence and therefore relevance was not made clear for the entire rest of the book was an odd choice to me. it really took the knees out of any impact of the young boy’s death because it had previously not felt particularly impactful to shouji’s life. we don’t really get to see how the course of his life is so impacted by his misunderstanding of this event because everything is attributed to the incident with youko. and, i felt the writing itself was kind of mid in some ways.