Natsuo Kirino

Two prostitutes are murdered in Tokyo. Twenty years previously both women were educated at the same elite school for young ladies, and had seemingly promising futures ahead of them. But in a world of dark desire and vicious ambition, for both women, prostitution meant power. Grotesque is a masterful and haunting thriller, a chilling exploration of women's secret lives in modern day Japan.

Grotesque

In the wake of the brutal murders of two Tokyo prostitutes, Yuriko and Kazue, Yuriko's older sister describes the three women's education at a prestigious girls' high school, where a strict societal conventions determine the courses of their lives.

Definitely a little slow for me, but overall a very sad story. Out had some excitement to it, while this time around its really just a brutal look at Japanese society through the eyes of the characters. Definitely a read that'll sit with me for a bit.

Max Riley

really interesting novel if you ignore the homophobia

✮⋆˙

Ziggy

a thesis on women and society and the human condition i have a lot of thoughts on this book wow.. not so much a crime thriller as it is a character study

ok i know initially complained about the length but hey

also trying to not think about the issues with translation and censorship or i’ll explode

jess larry

** spoiler alert **
           basically a conversation on : self hate, self gaslighting, insecurity, jealousy & inferority complex (that turns into a false sense of superiority)

didn't love the characters, but i certainly felt bad for them, and for the way society transformed their very soul

a lot of heavy themes, a lot of psychological issues portrayed, and an interesting dive into the fragility of the human psyche

× yuriko was basically objectified from the way she was born, and thus accepted her deeply unfortunate situation as her essence, the reason of her existence 

x her sister was so, so insecure god, qu'elle a dirigé cette haine envers sa soeur. i hated her behavior but its like i get you

× same for kazue, miss gurl turned her inferiority complex to some extreme haughtiness, never seen someone gaslight themselves this hard

its like, sure these characters are deeeeply flawed, all of em, but i really can't bring myself to hate them. si elles avaient vécu dans des conditions familiales & sociales différentes, im sure they wouldn't be the same

and don't even get me started w the men in this book god, rotten disgusting vile THROW EM IN THE NEAREST TRASH CAN RIGHT FUCKING NOW, ALL OF EM


^ btw who killed kazue, or did they go back to the apt & he killed her ??? 

^ & i hateeeed zhang's monologue, like sir nobody cares your grandpa had 5 goats shut up

In the wake of the murders of two Tokyo prostitutes, Yuriko and Kazue, Yuriko's sister describes the three women's education at a prestigious girls' school, where strict societal conventions determine the courses of their lives.

🤍

4.5 

 “A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people's evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.”

I had to put the book down in the third part and stop reading because I couldn't handle how grotesque the scenes were.

Nevertheless, Natsuo Kirino explores the effects of how Japanese society has placed a lot of pressure on women like the importance of beauty, success in studies and at work. 

Full of classism and competitiveness which leads to the emptiness of the soul. 

 It was very good and incredibly dark.

Jose Vera

El hallazgo de los cadáveres de dos prostitutas nos lleva por el pasado de ambas, mostrándonos descarnadamente la realidad de las escuelas elitistas japonesas y las cicatrices psicológicas que dejaron en las protagonistas.

Hice una reseña de este libro en mi blog:

http://lectorcompulsivo.com/2015/05/g...

Tania Cheong

What I think is the whole moral of the book; You can't gild the lily but watch it wither away.

Grotesque

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