A review by machen27
Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It's curious to me that this is described in it's "blurb" as a magnum opus, a book about cults and those who fall into them. Perhaps I'm missing cultural context or I didn't read it thoroughly enough, yet I can't shake the feeling that if this is the pinnacle of Nakamura's work, I am not interested in reading his other works. It very much is a story that happens to the protagonists, filled with disjointed flashbacks and dumps of pseudoscientific philosophical nonsense, I found it hard to care about the characters or what happens to them. I think that this is somewhat intentional on Nakamura's part, the plot of the story reflecting the experience of falling into a cult, and I credit the author that. I also struggled with the choice to include gratuitous amounts of sexual content, of which there is much, both consensual and non-consensual. It felt unnecessarily and frankly unrealistic, though I'll admit I have no factual basis for that sense. As for how the book ends,
I found the escalation to an international crisis including conspiracies to engineer this crisis juxtaposed with the idea of it all being done for no reason completely unearned, especially with the protagonist having a seemingly peaceful ending
. Ultimately I think the book failed to grab me because I have no interest in the main subjects of cults, and found that there was little real mystery here, just confusion.
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