Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Butter

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

28 reviews

heather_harrison's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Our protagonist Rika, a female journalist in her 30s, finds her life and her identity tipped upside in the task of interviewing accused murder Kajii.

Butter delves into the concepts of misogyny, expectations of women, loneliness & isolation in society, and pleasure.

The novel is long, and I found myself struggling in middle as the plot begins to thicken. The ending was delicious.

This book touts itself as being inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer” - and it seems accurate and as well as stranger than fiction.

With thanks to NetGalley and 4th Estate for my e-ARC of Butter.

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

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inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

This felt like a made-for-me story, I loved it so much. I miss this world and these characters, especially Rika.

Energy: Cautious. Insightful. Suffusive.

Scene: 🇯🇵 Various Tokyo districts and Niigata, Japan

Perspective: We follow a journalist in their day-to-day life. Work success is their sole ambition until a rare interview with an accused serial killer catalyzes a re-examination of their life and how society's expectations have prevented them from embracing their Best Life. We also get a snippet of their bestie, who has a different Best Life, and how they navigate those expectations.

🐩 Tail Wags: All of it... Food as a metaphor. The characters, both likeable and unlikeable. The slow burn with meaning. How both men and women suffer under societal expectations. And those foodie descriptions 🤤

🤔 Random Thoughts:

I went in expecting a food horror, but it wasn’t that. It’s literary fiction with tastes, textures, smells, and visuals. I’d describe this as a subtle, profound, symbolic exploration of domesticity, service to others, and true happiness and success.

Slow burn character and societal study, using food to explore different themes. It’s meandering, kind of random, just existing. It could read as dull if you don’t like that style.

There’s room for reader interpretation and alliance with different characters and their values, this could be a good book club discussion book.

----

🎬 Tale-Telling: Poetic, meticulous (in a good way), reflective, with a touch of surrealism.

🤓 Reader Role: Thrown into the story. Exploring the themes, messages, and existential questions with Rika and her friend Reiko.

🗺️ World-Building: Rich, sensory, abundantly detailed but not overexplainy. Tranquil yet gritty, even disgusting sometimes. Immersive and cinematic. Tiny bit of info-dumping with stations, but glad they were included so I could explore via YouTube & Google Earth.

🔥 Fuel: Emotional investment in character transformations– whether you like ‘em or not, how will this year play out for them? Will Rika and Reiko grow apart or closer? Will Rika choose to stay in her relationship or move on? Will she be able to publish her interviews with an accused serial killer? Is the accused a killer or something worse?

📖 Cred: Semi-realistic with hyper-realistic moments and a sprinkling of absurdist pointlessness

🚙 Journey: Slow burn gradually unfolding in complex layers. Snuggled in a thunderstorm, working on a favourite hobby, contemplating how things could have been.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Wintery nights. Soft snores. Ambient office sounds. Cigarette smoke and coffee. Fresh butter. Train announcements. Paper grocery bags. Wet soil. Smokiness. Cumin. Fried meat. Cake baking. Ramen slurps. Roast turkey. Sounds of home and comfort.
Bizarro melting into slice-of-life literary fiction.
Found family and friendships
Social commentary around gender roles and failures of traditional indicators of success and happiness

Content Heads-Up: Body shaming (fat). Fertility struggles. Murder. Fatphobia. Double standards. Misogyny. Toxic gender roles. Adult/minor relationship. Escort/sex work. Pedophilia (stalking, molestation; recall). Loss of parent. Stroke. Hit and run. Emotional incest. Narcissism.

Rep: Fat. Thin. Voluntarily childfree. Involuntarily childless. Japanese. Queer. Cisgender. Heterosexual.

📚 Format: Library Digital

🤩 Potential Fav of 2024

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

Content Warnings

kayleighoneillonwheels's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

linde_ahobbit's review

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. It's wonderfully written and gives an interesting insight into Japanese culture surrounding women. I found the characters intriguing and loved the character development and relationships between the characters in this book. The food descriptions were wonderful. Trigger warning: if the discussions of weight, weight gain, food and fatphobia are triggering for you, I would skip this book.

Content Warnings

onewoman_bookclub's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.5

I pre-ordered this one months ago and definitely thought it was going to be a 5 star read for me. First, the good: I loved the detailed descriptions of food, the commentary of diet culture and fatphobia in Japan, and the general atmosphere of the book. However, it was unreasonably long. The same ideas could've been accomplished in 100-200 pages less, and that's what kept me from loving this book. I was begging for this one to end, even though I liked a lot about it and thought it had a lot of interesting things to say.

Content Warnings

amalas_bookstop's review against another edition

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informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was a really cozy mystery, a slow burn.

The is novel opens with Rika she is a journalist who has the opportunity to interview Kaji who is waiting for a retrial for three murders she was convicted of. The author also includes a side plot of Rikas friend Reiko and their journey as well.

I came into this story expecting a little bit more of the murder plot and figuring out if Kaji actually murdered three men. However, this book very much focuses on Rika and her discovery to know more of herself as she goes through these series of interviews with Kaji that focuses on great cuisine and its nuances.

The author uses this story to really ask the question, what is indulgence, especially when it comes to Japanese women, food, and relationships. In fact this book probably could have been 100-200 pages shorter without the extreme focus on every meal Rika either ate or made. Her coming of age story as an adult woman was definitely the highlight of the story. Kaji was used to help her break out of the traditional norms society places on women and to help her come to terms with childhood grief.

The writing was very descriptive and beautiful and the translation was well done. I would often want to get up and eat something extremely buttery as I read this story. However if you are looking to read this for more thrill or horror this is not the book.

I definitely recommend that you read this book with a nice steaming bowl of buttery rice and soy sauce. It will not disappoint!

Content Warnings

siriface's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

woodsybookworm's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

🧈 Butter 🧈

Rating: 🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈

5 Sticks of yellowy emulsified goodness 😋

I have not read a book about food that's made me quite literally drool while reading since Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. This book was a love letter to the culinary arts. I had to pause at one point to make a batch of cookies just to stop from salivating 🤤

The story follows Rika, a young journalist looking to become the first woman in her office to gain an official writer's seat with her paper. Rika decides her best bet for a career making story would be to gain an exclusive interview with serial killer Manako Kajii, a gourmand mistress accused of killing three of her patron lovers and defrauding many more.

Rika writes to the convicted serial killer, on the advice of her closest friend Reiko, asking for advice on recipes - Kajii's excellent cooking skills being a major factor in the downfall of her supposed victims. That simple letter snowballs into an unlikely friendship and perhaps a mutual obsession. But who is really in control - the interviewer or the interviewee?

This novel blends food with questions of class and gender politics that are relatable not only to those in Japan but to women around the world. Unique yet relatable characters fill the story and Asako Yuzuki's prose was utterly (udder-ly? Lol 🐄) investing.

This book made me homesick for Japan - the country, my friends, the food. Any book that brings out that kind of reaction in me, that nostalgia, is going to be a five star read.

Content Warnings

litchyn's review

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dark reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

mela_gella's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

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