He ignores so many pieces of his own plot.
1 star
Content warning Some mentions of homophobia and sex.
I really didn't like this book. Some parts were interestingly written, but a few thoughts stuck out:
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We seriously need to put a moratorium on straight men writing sex scenes for at least ten years. At the very least, they should be forced to run their books by people other than straight men because "her torso rotated" is not something I want to see when someone's having sex; it's something I'd think of for a carnival ride or The Exorcist.
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"This girl is crazy and she lied about who raped her, but she was really raped." For the love of sanity. Okay, while I can admit that this has happened in the past and is usually related to people who've been raped by family or friends-like-family, the combination of the two with literally zero exploration into the reasons for this 'phenomenon' infuriates me. It's only going to serve as representation for women being crazy and lying about being raped; it doesn't continue any conversation about why someone might lie about who raped them (or not disclose that information), and it doesn't even discuss why they're considered "crazy."
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Two women seem to lose their auras and who they are, and it's because they had miscarriages. It's not stated that Sara's friend had a miscarriage, but it's easily inferred from the fact that Yuzu/Shiro did and then suddenly lost her spark for life entirely. Very little was discussed around this topic, which is clearly a situation that impacts people who have wombs and desire to have children (but struggle for whatever reason). Again, it's entirely unexplored.
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Mysterious murder that no one seemed to solve or really be willing to solve, if I had to judge by the writing. Yuzu's death was a footnote for Tsukuru's personal progress, so...
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A lot of I'M NOT GAY, I'LL SCREW A WOMAN TO PROVE IT kind of conversation or writing. As a queer person, I'm not keen on this... ever? Yeah, ever.
