Natsuo Kirino

In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the draining graveyard shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Burdened with chores and heavy debts and isolated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives. A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering, gambling husband then confesses her crime to Masako, the closest of her colleagues. For reasons of her own, Masako agrees to assist her friend and seeks the help of the other co-workers to dismember and dispose of the body. The body parts are discovered, the police start asking questions, but the women have far more dangerous enemies -a yakuza connected loan shark who discovers their secret and has a business proposition, and a ruthless nightclub owner the police are convinced is guilty of the murder. He has lost everything as a result of their crime and he is out for revenge. OUT is a psychologically taut and unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable.

A Novel

rhianna 

Gertrud Sofie

Pleasantly surprised by how gripping this novel was. Even though it went through multiple POV's, it never lost focus from its leading female quartet.

"Out" is a novel full of violence, often graphic, but it is also an exploration of misogyny and the particular brand of shitty life women, especially women past a certain age, face. And at the end of the day, all you want is for these women to be safe and to live better.

On the entertainment factor, this reminded me of the TV show "Good Girls" which I loved but a much more extreme version.

Pleasantly surprised by how gripping this novel was. Even though it went through multiple POV's, it never lost focus from its leading female quartet.

"Out" is a novel full of violence, often graphic, but it is also an exploration of misogyny and the particular brand of shitty life women, especially women past a certain age, face. And at the end of the day, all you want is for these women to be safe and to live better.

On the entertainment factor, this reminded me of the TV show "Good Girls" which I loved but a much more extreme version.

I was so drawn and fascinated by the story until the last 3 pages. i really hated that ending. masako should have killed him with rocks and then pooed on his face

✮⋆˙

I was so drawn and fascinated by the story until the last 3 pages. i really hated that ending. masako should have killed him with rocks and then pooed on his face



amari

NATSUO. KIRINO

VINTAGE JAPANESE CLASSICS - five masterpieces of Japanese fiction in gorgeous new gift editions. In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the graveyard shift at a factory. Burdened with heavy debts, alienated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives. A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering, gambling husband. She confesses her crime to her colleagues and unexpectedly, they agree to help. But then the dismembered body parts are discovered, the police start asking questions and more dangerous enemies begin to close in. OUT is a psychologically taut and unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable.

Vintage Classics Japanese Series

“Strange that she'd never known she had such cruelty inside.”
---------------------------------

A surprisingly dark,cold, sinister, calculating and gory read that is so much more than a horror story, Out is a thrilling rollercoaster full of unredeemable characters, strange twists, high stakes, and unflinching gore that will hook you in at the start and will not let go until the very end. The whole thing was so human and monstrous at the same time, it was quite something to see such remorselessness and spite be somehow justified in the despair and loneliness of these characters.
So messed up and full of tension. This was a great addition to my Japanese literature collection.

----------------------------------
4.5/5

Deepika Ramesh

I have raved and ranted here: https://worncorners.com/2017/08/07/ou...

esperanza 

I feel like I wasted my time reading this….it had so much potential and then the ending just fumbled so bad

Amy Thibodeau

I loved the first part of this book - it's a weird, tense, Japanese thriller that centers around the lives of women. The ending was horrible though and completely shattered any investment I had in the main character of the book.

Ofelia

** spoiler alert **
           
Con calma tornò all'ascensore e premette decisa il pulsante per scendere. Avrebbe comprato un biglietto aereo. Da qualche parte doveva esserci la sua libertà, diversa da quella di Satake e naturalmente anche da quella di Yoshie e di Yayoi. Adesso che si era chiusa tutte le porte alle spalle, non le rimaneva che trovare una nuova porta da aprire. Sentì il sibilo dell'ascensore che saliva e il rumore le ricordò il gemito del vento.

Kelsey Lynn

I was impressed with this book, my first time reading a crime thriller, let along a Japanese one. It was dark, and only dark, and had an existential angst about it. I expected at least some slight humor in the attempt of some friends covering up a murder. But this book was about broken people, and what happens when there is a chance for them to manifest this brokeness, how fragile or strong we are individually. It was a sad, heavy read. But she wrote it well, and the story was volatile, I read over half of it in one day, constantly wanting to know how it could possibly get worse, trying to figure out if it could get better. Unfortunately I was a little disappointed in the end of the book, but you can't please everyone It just seemed to lose a bit of the pacing and while through out the whole book scenes were told from multiple characters points of views, they started over lapping too much. I felt like I was rereading the same passages. I took a lot of will power no to skim.

This book summed up for me, is dark and sad. The people are lost and broken, even if they seem strong. What is truly frightening about this book is how real it feels. They don't feel like silly movie caricatures, they are real, believeable people, who live lives that may mirror ones you have seen or even your own, and it made me wonder who out there is broken like this, and if I could possibly think the way they do or do these things, and how scary it is that I couldn't possibly know. They didn't even know.

It makes you think. 
The author is a powerful writer who has a frightening ability to make it feel real.

I read this for the PopSugar 2015 reading challenge 'a book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit' I chose Japan and wanted to read something a little more real than Murakami. I challenged myself to a new genre and got to see a side of Japan I never expected to see. Even though I've seen movies that are Japanese crime thrillrrs, none have felt so real.

Maryam Amer

such detailed developments were present in all the characters; placing just enough emphasis on their contrasting lives, it ultimately accentuates the journey in which they come to realise that their burdens share a likeness to each other 

i loved how kirino’s use of a third person/omniscient narrator didn’t detract from the sense of intimacy (?) i shared with each character during the unfolding of their respective events in the plot

a couple of reasons why i couldn’t give the novel a five star rating was probably due to the fact that there was some repetition in the writing — which i found to be quite redundant — and how, to me, the conclusion didn’t entirely resolve the plot’s conflict

all in all, such an interesting dive into tokyo’s underground life — raising questions relating to the limits of friendship and love, as well as the issue of gender expectations

this book was very gruesome and in-your-face with the violence and murdering going on, yet weirdly inspiring and an encouragement to take action and change your current life if it isn't good for you. We definitely support women's wrong in the case of this book 💅

Out (East Promo)

Sarah Escorsa

A good read but I had heard so many goods things about this book that I expected it to be much better.

Jeff Brown 

This was a bizarre book. And it was great (and a greatly disturbing) read.

I was glad that the description of the book said that it was "at once a literary masterpiece and a pitch-black comedy of gender warfare". Especially the comedy part -- there are some laugh-out loud moments between the women of this book (surprisingly) while they are dismembering a body.

The trek through the book was transfixing, but the brutal final chapters, and the odd ending left me a little bothered. But the writing is daring and gruesome, dark, daring and depressing, but the camaraderie between the women lifts this book up for me -- plus it is spare and unsentimental, bringing forth a brutally realistic picture of society.

Because of the queasiness for the final chapters, in its brutal and intentional nature (and there was plenty of the same queasiness throughout the book -- but that came from something that they just had to do), I give the book a weak 4. A good read, however, if you want to go down a deep hole of another society.

Qi Shuang

expect more than a crime thriller- explores feminist issues (gender inequality, objectification of women, domestic violence etc), materialism and the obsession with reputation and money. dark, gruesome and shocking read- defo needs a trigger warning for gore. 

Out

Reviews

Highlights