Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Life for Sale

This book was hilarious and absurd. Such a wild premise. It definitely treats suicide in the most casual way possible, which I can see being a turn off for some readers. It was definitely entertaining, but I do have to rate it lower because of its portrayal of women. Literally every female character is only there to be constantly sexualized or dismissed as silly and crazy. There really isn’t a female character that isn’t throwing themselves at the main character. This really bugged me, and if this wasn’t present, I would have rated it a lot higher.
Listened to on Libby.

Content Warnings

michshelf's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

this book had me confused the whole time. like i could not tell u the plot but i had a good time anyways.

Content Warnings

_tabby_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"Life for sale" is an incredibly reflective dive into attitudes and feelings towards the complicated topic of death. The main character makes his values and interpretations of death very clear from the beginning but its interesting to follow him and see how he responds to other people with similar or different views. He appears almost judgemental to those who value life or are scared of death which makes him a bit difficult to love (since he's so 2 dimensional and factual so far as his personality is concerned) but the focus isn't meant to be on his loveability so that isn't a bad factor at all.
This book came to me at a time in my life where death and existentialism was very present so it was very interesting to see how this book represented a life surrounded (almost obssesed) by those topics
Can't wait to read more of Mishima's work as I have quite a few of his books lined up next

Content Warnings

burnoutbooks's review

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dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

exquisite, horrifying, funny

Content Warnings

ever_unread's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The start of this book is a bit like a collection of short stories which made it feel fast to get through. Later on the plot develops and we see how these stories are linked.

How women were written grated me, they were basically just there to gratify our main character and were weak, subservient and generally pathetic. So, if this is something that grates on you too either skip this book all together or try to keep in mind the time and culture within which this was written - hard as it may be.

Overall, a bizarre, often unsettling, yet often surprisingly funny book which will have you questioning things about life you may never have considered before.

Content Warnings

toon4mi's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

hadlihawkins's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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