Super raunchy, but kind of beautiful. ( )

2.2

Written from the perspective of a 17yo who navigates her sexual awakening at the hands of a much older man, it feels explicit, but even the violent nature of their relationship doesn't feel gratuitous. I was expecting much more graphic scenes after reading the summary, but the author takes her time threading the unusual with Mari's everyday life. It's beautifully written and Ogawa can certainly paint a picture and makes it very easy for the reader to visualise her words.

On the downside, I would have like to see more of Mari's thoughts on the whole thing. Though the translator's behaviour can be quite disturbing, its hard to expect a teenager to have already come to terms with what she has on her hands. I missed that bit of self reflection especially when she meets the nephew, who is the polar opposite of his uncle, surely she wondered about the difference in treatment?

Either way, I'll be reading this again sometime in the future. ( )

Definitely odder and darker than the other two Ogawa books I've read.

I really fluctuated on my rating for this one. It has the same great writing from Ogawa and translation from Stephen Snyder that [b:The Housekeeper and the Professor|3181564|The Housekeeper and the Professor|Yōko Ogawa|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344313042l/3181564._SX50_.jpg|3214322] and [b:Revenge|16032127|Revenge|Yōko Ogawa|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349818757l/16032127._SY75_.jpg|6316882] had and I still loved it. The story, however, was crazy. Revenge may have been eleven dark tales but this book was actually super dark. With the other books I read by Ogawa, I felt like I kind of understood the message of the book. With this one, it felt a little more opaque. There were interesting things happening but I just didn't get as much impact of the stories as I did from the two other books. I was horrified by certain things but a lot of things just rolled off me rather than emotionally hitting me in any way. I liked the second half more than the first which almost made me up my rating but ultimately, I only liked this, I didn't love it. ( )

The subject matter is uncomfortable. The tale is short, to the point, and very haunting. ( )