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#TemptingTitles #April2023 Day 7: #OneWord

#photochallenges #horror #Japan #JapaneseLiterature #misogyny
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs

Weird book. That‘s all I have to say about this one.

"He was immersed in pain, as if he'd fallen into a vat of the stuff."

"Aoyama was naked, his shrunken penis hanging limp and matted with strands of semen-caked pubic hair."

"Any man over forty who's still bad in bed might as well stop breathing."

Is this photo in poor taste?

Aoyama, 7 years a widow, decides he wants to marry again. Through a scheme with a friend, he meets Yamasaki Asami who is painfully beautiful and seems perfect. He becomes enamored with her, despite warnings from everyone that meets her.

TWs in comments, but this was as expected. Quite a lot of build-up to a somewhat shocking but predictable end. Watching movie soon.

I saw the movie several years ago and I still haven‘t recovered. So it makes perfect sense for me to revisit that trauma and read the book. While not as unsettling as the film, Murakami does an excellent job of creating a sense of impending dread that will have you quickly turning the pages until the very end. A quick, fun and suspenseful read.
Trigger warning: Animal abuse

This is a quick, strange, graphic read (not graphic like graphic novel... it's prose, just graphic in its depictions). The first 5/6 of this book went pretty slowly, but the last 1/6 raced by gruesomely. It's possible that Ryu Murakami doesn't like---or just doesn't trust---women very much. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how it comes across to me.

Theme read, 3 hrs, 2 readathons = 75 pts for #TeamSlaughter #scarathlon #screamathon #bookspinbingo

I already pretty much knew what was going to happen in this book, so my expectations were high. Unfortunately they were not met. It took too long to get to the "good" stuff, and even then it was all a bit disappointing. #Screamathon ? @4thhouseontheleft

So I read this and watched it this morning. Book 2.5 ⭐️ - the translation wasn‘t great so the grammar and sentence structure was distracting. The build of the story had potential and again I think the English version did the book no favors. Also one of my things I hate happened in the end-will share w/spoiler in comments. Movie was better and very weird. #screamathon #scarepairs #scareathlon #teamhendrix

First #Scarathlon photo prompt - Black

This will be my first spooky read for October! Also this will be my Week 1: Scare Pair for #Screamathon as I plan on watching the movie this weekend too!

I really liked this book like 20 years ago. The audition Aoyama has set up is horribly sexist and juxtaposes in an interesting way with Asami‘s way of trying to cope with her tragic childhood. Rereading it, I think it burned too slowly; but I found its ‘Everything is sexist and you can‘t win, women‘ subtext more dire, urgent and horrific than before.

If you're a fan of horror you've probably seen Audition pop up as having some of the most horrifying scenes in horror. The book is no exception, but in true Murakami form it doesn't unleash the insanity until about midway or 3/4 of the way through. This edition was very well translated and is a great addition to any horror buff's shelf.

i like it. , simple history what we carry inside all the time

Argh. Argh argh argh. Proper good and disturbing horror, this. The description is absolutely vile. I loved it.

The best horrors are the ones that make you feel cold.

I found an English bookshop in Barcelona with a great selection of books. I was happy to see a horror section and a few Ryu Murakami books. I haven‘t been able to find any of his books in Georgia.

I still have some time left in my trip, and I promised myself I wouldn‘t buy any more books. Let‘s see if that holds up. 🤣

I am so excited to (finally) start my #PassportLitsy adventure in #Japan...I‘ll probably end up here at least one more time, we‘ll see. It‘s probably the easiest country on my list to find a book about...I probably should‘ve started with #Transnitria.

I can‘t wait until this book picks up. It‘s barely started, and I‘m really excited about it.

This was quite the interesting read. It‘s a bit disturbing but that‘s the point I guess. The writing is solid and the story has a great twist. Sugar Bear gives it two paws down though 🙈🐶. She objects strongly to the ending.

Super curious about my February buddy Read with my real life friend Amanda. So tempted to dive into it early.

I enjoyed this book immensely! It's a very slow burn suspense that can be read in a day or two. Looking forward to checking out more work by Ryu Murakami in the future!

“Nice person, bad person—that‘s not the level this girl is at. I can see you‘re crazy about her and probably won‘t be able to hear this, Ao-chan, but I think you‘d be better off staying away from someone like her. I can‘t read her exactly, but I can tell you she‘s either a saint or a monster. Maybe both extremes at once, but not somewhere in between.”

"She knows what‘s most important to her and she knows how to get it, but she doesn‘t let on what it is. I‘m pretty sure it‘s not money, or success, or a normal happy life, or a strong man, or some weird religion, but that‘s about all I can tell you. She‘s like smoke: you think you‘re seeing her clearly enough, but when you reach for her there‘s nothing there."

"Sometimes things happen that no one hopes for.[...]No one is to blame, but you‘re left with a wound you can‘t heal on your own and can‘t believe you‘ll ever learn to accept, so you struggle to escape the pain. Only time can heal wounds as deep as that—a lot of time—and all you can really do is place yourself in its hands and try to consider the passing of each day a victory."

The death of someone close to you, he realized at that moment, was something you came to accept one concrete fact at a time.

A person without self-confidence is incapable of being independent, and people who are dependent on their partners always create unhappiness. Always.