Out

It is extremely difficult to convey the range of emotions evoked in words, once you've finished this masterpiece - Kirino is simply astounding, beyond words.
It looks like a simple enough plot at first glance - in a fit of rage, a staid Japanese housewife working the night-shift at a lunchbox factory murders her husband in a fit of rage at his emotional and physical abuse. She approaches her dependable co-worker for help, who ropes in two of their mutual acquaintances for disposing the body. They are determined, but inexperienced - and the detectives and yakuza (the Japanese mob) is baying for blood.
But what blew my mind away is the sheer twists this story takes, with the narrative taking you along for a roller-coaster ride that you never want to end. As far as characters go, they are so developed, that they almost seem to protrude through the pages. Masako, the aforementioned dependable co-worker who is approached for help, is so brilliantly written that you sometimes feel that she is based on a real woman, somewhere out there in the Japanese suburbs.
The pacing, characters, narrative - all of it is perfectly blended. And the plot elements, uncommon in Japanese fiction (assault, murder, prostitution) enhance the narrative rather than detracting from it. It is exhilarating from start to finish, and should not be missed - every word written in praise for it will be a disservice. Natsuo Kirino's tour de force will haunt me for a long, long time to come.

2.5/5 stars

Trigger warning: Rape, violence, gore

I have conflicting feelings on this one.

On one hand, the first 75% was super twisted, and dark, and interesting in a way that was kind of morbidly fascinating. There were definitely sections that the pacing lagged a little, especially in moments of backstory, and in the beginning which I found particularly sluggish, but I was curious enough about what would happen next to keep reading.

Near the end, the pacing sped up...but then it took a really disturbing turn at the very end that I don't really understand. Without spoiling anything, all I'll say is there was some drastic change in two character relationships that made no sense to me, and kind of glorified a rather brutal rape scene at the end. The spoilery explanation is that Masako (one of the MCs) basically fell in love with her rapist while he was raping her? I don't know. I bought her biding her time to try to escape, but to see her want to save him after he beat, raped and nearly killed her went way beyond my suspension of disbelief and gave the whole scene an undertone of a creepy rape fantasy.

It's a shame, because I was mostly enjoying this book up until the end, but unfortunately the last fifteen pages or so totally killed it for me. I just can't get behind a book that glorifies rape in any way.