Thumbs down for Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara. Literature.
This book’s main endearing quality is that it’s short. Also that it makes no emotional impact, which is a good thing, because some unpleasant things happen in it (murder, tongue piercings, explicit BDSM). It was not actually so bad that I wanted to put it down, but other than the faint interest of the fact that things do not go as they would in a “Western” novel, it’s completely forgettable in every way. The fact that I struggled to find an exemplifying paragraph that was even remotely interesting says much.
“I didn’t care if Ama was Amadeus. Shiba-san was a son of God, and I was the only unexceptional one among us. All I wanted was to be part of an underground world were the sun doesn’t shine, there are no serenades, and the sound of children’s laughter is never, ever heard.”
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