A review by bookedbymadeline
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

relaxing sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

Read this as part of my book club’s March pick. It wasn’t on my TBR before and I didn’t know much about it going in. 

What I liked:
•Short and quick read
•Interesting looks at loss and grief
•I enjoyed the second story much more which is why I gave it 3 ⭐️s
•Even though “Moonlight Shadow” was shorter I somehow felt more emotion and connection with those characters than with the characters of the “Kitchen” novella
•I finished it 😂

What I didn’t like:
•Characters felt one dimensional and writing was just okay; I felt bored at times and found myself speed reading the last 30 pages of Kitchen
•Transphobic af-lots of misgendering and deadnaming-
Eriko is a trans woman and her son described her life story by saying that after her wife died she asked herself “what do I do now?I want to be cheerfully uplifted so I’ll become a woman” as if that’s something you just decide on a whim?!
•Also her son outed her to the MC upon the first time they meet. Throughout the book they make jokes at Eriko’s expense where they continue to misgender her. I’m not sure if this was intentional by the author or if it’s a translation issue but the trans rep is poorly portrayed.
•Won’t be a memorable read


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