Out – Natsuo Kirino

Short summary of the book: Four women (Masako, Yoshie, Yayoi and Kuniko) are involved in a murder case where Yayoi killed her husband and paid her following friends to dispose of him. A yakuza (A japanese gangster), Satake, is presumed by the police to be the murderer of the husband and seeks revenge.

I'm not doing any sort of review that explains the whole premise and plot etc, I'm just voicing my opinions. For this, I might as well add that there might be spoilers.

I don’t know where to begin with this one. It was a slow read, and by that I mean it took me a year to finish it because it was just not riveting enough for me. As thriller themed as it may be, the real thriller only came close to the climax. It was just not interesting enough to keep me reading, but the plot was overall okay. It seemed like she came up with an idea, and then branched out random storylines to attach it to.

One character that I found pointless was Kazuo, a mixed Brazilian and Japanese man. Apparently he was in love with Masako (The MC in this book) but that was it. It didn’t dwell any deeper than his love for her. I didn’t understand his role, nor his importance. I really think the writer thought “Ah I need something to fill this book out regardless of how pointless this character is”. His only real beneficial purpose was when he kept Masako’s money. That was his only prevailing importance throughout the book. Just keeping money, and Masako retrieving it a few days after from him.

But I digress. The whole story was around these four women, Yoshie, Kuniko, Masako and Yayoi whom were involved in a murder.  Yayoi murdered her husband after a long marriage of physical abuse and needed her friends to help dispose of him. She called Masako first, then the rest followed suit. They cut up the body and entrusted each other to dispose it discreetly, but Kuniko, a materialistic and untrustworthy friend, decided to take a short route.

Long story short, the police found pieces of the husband’s body and assumed it was one of the yakuza men that owned a club the husband frequented and he sought revenge.

I think, just by me describing the book a little bit, it seems that the plot is simple and quite okay. It’s an okay book. It doesn’t draw any excitement and it bores a little but there’s nothing really bad about it.

However, the ending was quite… odd. Satake had this sick twisted way of wanting to have sex with a woman and kill them slowly. It was, again, the basic sick and twisted. Nothing too far-fetched, but not enough to keep me thrilled. He managed to capture Masako, rape her and abuse her with some intention to kill. The loathing was mutual between them, but they shared a bond, and in the end Masako comforted him. This all happened in a matter of a few pages, and it was so confusing that this bond that seems to “tie it all together” had absolutely nothing to do with the book! Where did this sudden romance come from? Nothing was ever built around that. Their lives were quite separate for half of the book, and during the second half they were just threatening each other, scaring each other enough to draw hate. There was no sign of potential romantic interest aside from Kazuo and Masako WHICH IS EVEN MORE CONFUSING SINCE HE DOESN’T EVEN MATTER. I just couldn’t understand this ending. It seemed after all that abuse that she had Stockholm syndrome, and I was convinced that, but then she sliced his face and kissed him afterwards? Saying that she couldn’t go on without him? What is this nonsense.

Overall, 4/10. It’s a book you can read if you want to fall asleep at night.