Ildi Salgado

Captivating! The book is definitely long but I very much enjoyed the detailed descriptions and repetitions. It provided a robotic feeling which I thought suited the atmosphere of what this strange parallel world in Tokyo might have had. Ordinary people living their lives, even the protagonists were very much ordinary people with whom everything and at the same time nothing was happening. I feel like the author left a lot for the readers to unpack. Some of the webs definitely stayed tangled up and the author left way too many questions unanswered. A lot of emphasis was put on Aomame’s breasts that were exactly like the two moons: one normal shape and one lopsided, slighly smaller one. But what happened to the girl who disappeared from the safe house? And how did the dog explode? Why was Aomame in the air chrysalis in Tengo’s father’s sick bed? What happened to Tengo’s older girlfriend? What exactly was professor’s role? Why was so much emphasis put on Tengo’s father? Did his death signify something? Why was the sanatorium town called cat town? Too many questions were unanswered at the end, and I feel like a lot of these elaborate plots and happenings ended up having no significance. I found the concept of the little people and the maza and the dohta a bit silly. Leader also didn’t turn out to be this almighty character I thought he would be - kind of mediocre. I very much enjoyed the food descriptions and the boring flow of the characters’ everyday lives but the author could have provided closure or at least a hint for solutions regarding some matters throughout the storyline.