Booktok read... Hunter needs therapy and so do I after this.

Book #155 of 2022

From the start, I identified with Fuyuko a lot - a homebody, with few physical friends, and predictable existence. And so the realism Kawakami evokes hit hard, it was a very emotional read, you feel right there with Fuyuko; in and through her loneliness, alcoholism and depression. The melancholic tone continues till the end of the work, so it really is not a 'happy' storyline nor is it plot-driven.

Hijiri is a work friend of Fuyuko, and the friendship is one-sided in a way where Hijiri makes most of the effort to connect. Hijiri is interesting and so are most of the conversations between her and Fuyuko, Kawakami uses the characters to tackle the perception of 'middle-age' women in Japanese society, specifically the issues surrounding marriage, careers and motherhood. Kawakami does this brilliantly. However, often Hijiri does monologue where either a page or half a page is dedicated to her speech, to the point where I thought that part about celery was added just to cut through the dialogue. Hijiri is also for all her talk of 'career women' and how women do not need anything in their lives to be complete other than themselves, rather misogynistic.  Hijiri judges a female colleague for luring in men and sleeping with different men, in a way I found her to be a more interesting character than Fuyuko but perhaps that's because she spoke more and we heard her opinions.

All the Lovers in the Night is beautiful work showing the fragmentation of Fuyuko Irie's life and the hope that comes with living for yourself.

Book #153 of 2022

Boring.

Blah, boring.

This was a very mentally taxing read, which wasn't helped by the fact that it is over 500 pages long. The writing was clunky at times and characters were introduced that I don't feel added to the story. The 3rd person perspective changed frequently which wasn't a bad thing but I think it could have been better fleshed out in parts. Why do I need to care about the dementia patient, I don't feel she added anything, neither the psychologist. This book could have been trimmed do quite a bit and I think it would have been much better.

The book was well written ish but the story that was being told was like a 'dumpster fire' or a 'hot mess' where you only keep watching or in this case reading because you're curious as to how worse the characters' lives can get.

No character was particularly likeable which was nice, because in almost every book (I've read so far) the author tries to make at least one character likeable, I wasn't particularly rooting for anyone. Most of them were at times - at minimum racist or abusive or childish or hypocritical which made it hard for me to keep reading because I often just wanted to dnf because the characters were rubbish people. I also had issues connecting with the family dynamic, because it was so different from mine - not sure why.

Personally, I wasn't interested in the Joe/Harriet storyline; my initial impression was that Love Marriage was going to be a deep dive into the immediate family dynamics - as both Yasmin and her parents have a 'love marriage' but that was not the case. I don't think the ending was particularly fitting, everyone should've been sent to therapy - the underlying issues remained unsolved.

Particularly, the mother going back to the husband because he diagnosed the baby? There was also a touch of LGBT+ but only for a chapter and a bit at the end... like if your mother has a 'special friend' I feel like maybe that's a concept that needs to be unpacked.

Also, how did we end this book knowing absolutely nothing about Flame - when she's so important to a later story line.

I don't think my mental health can take a re-read but it was memorable, not sure in what way.

thoughts as I was reading:

Book #149 of 2022

How can something be so bad and how is everything character annoying.

Yes Yes and Yes.

Book Lovers gives you warm, giddy feelings! It was perfect. The love Nora has for her sister, and the love Libby has for Nora was so realistic as an older sister, I definitely felt parts of myself reflected in Nora. Nora is fiercely protective, passionate and driven I couldn't have asked for a better main character. 

Charlie and Nora's relationship was funny, witty, and cute. The chemistry was great they were both mirrors of each other, the driven-working type that would do anything for their family. I was definitely internally screening at some of their scenes. It is everyone's favourite trope: slow burn enemies to lovers. Charlie is beyond supportive of Nora and incredibly endearing, he came off cold at the beginning but is misunderstood. 

He wasn't one dimensional either, neither was Nora, we really get into their background and motivations, which is really nice in a trope like this one. Like Nora being tall came up often but in the context of a joke or someone asking how tall she was, it wasn't overused where the only way the author could describe the character was tall, large, massive, gigantic (although the 'large' descriptors are mainly used for the men). We get a brief description and then that's it which I loved.

I will be re-reading this! and getting my hands on beach read and you and me on vacation.

PERF!

I'm not too sure about this. It was okay, didn't like it but I didn't hate it to the point of DNFing. I found the plot bland and predictable. Every character sucked, I really couldn't find one likeable character, which probably would've got me to read book 2. When I thought series I thought like 3 max 4 but 8... It's also giving Morganville Vampire vibes cause where the author/s really drags on the story not for the sake of the plot but just for more content. 

Slow going, lost interest.