Grotesque

De: Natsuo Kirino, Rebecca Copeland - translator

Narrado por: Allison Hiroto

Life at the prestigious Q High School for Girls in Tokyo exists on a precise social axis: a world of insiders and outsiders, of haves and have-nots. Beautiful Yuriko and her unpopular, unnamed sister exist in different spheres; the hopelessly awkward Kazue Satō floats around among them, trying to fit in. Years later, Yuriko and Kazue are dead—both have become prostitutes and both have been brutally murdered. Natsuo Kirino, celebrated author of Out, seamlessly weaves together the stories of these women’s struggles within the conventions and restrictions of Japanese society. At once a psychological investigation of the pressures facing Japanese women and a classic work of noir fiction, Grotesque is a brilliantly twisted novel of ambition, desire, beauty, cruelty, and identity by one of our most electrifying writers.

“Vengefully mesmerizing. … Kirino turns an unerring eye toward the vicious razors of the adolescent female mind.”—San Francisco Chronicle

©2007 Translation by Natsuo Kirino (P)2025 Recorded Books

A Disturbing Yet Mundane Multi-Character Study

I don't know if I have read a book that has characters that feel so genuinely pathetic and terrible. Books tend to be a bit hyper-realistic, dramatic, this though thrives in mundanity in most aspects of its story. As such the depiction of the characters, which is the main star, is unnervingly real feeling. You feel like you are not only in the head of these people but also under their skin. If you have narcissistic family members or other important people in your life this is honestly shocking how bluntly real it feels. I found myself getting genuinely upset over petty meanness in this book that when compared to the extravagantly evil actions in a fantasy book or typical thriller would be nothing. But it is because it was so real feeling and so mean and self-centered and getting to feel it from an intimate first person perspective disturbed me.

The book first and foremost is a fairly mundane character study. The events in the book are often trivial scenes of domestic home-life or high school. But the star is seeing how warped these things become. Unreliable narrator is the name of the game. There is a murder-mystery going on but it really isn't the focus, and I found myself less interested in the whodunit, and more in how and why these characters are the way they are. Like Natsuo Kirino's other works this deals a lot with the experience of being a woman, specifically in Japan, but also just generally. And how women cope with the terrible expectations women are put into in a patriarchal world, in the case of this book, in very unhealthy ways, really focused on the way others perceive them.

I do feel the story was sometimes too repetitive, admittedly it added to the horror in mundanity, but it felt the same scene happened over and over and over. Again I think this is the point. Showing the pettiness of the POV and what things stuck with them. And also as a major problem... The original Japanese ending section of this book was cut out since it was deemed too controversial for American audiences. That annoys me so much because reading the summary of it, it fits the story perfectly. Though I wouldn't consider this a fun read at all, I was invested, and found myself thinking about the story when I wasn't reading it. It was a very compelling character study. I also tend to not be an audiobook person but I have been going on longer walks lately and wanted some books to listen to and this was my first pick. Allison Hiroto does a great job, and changes her inflection for every character in a way that gave them an even more distinct identity and picture in my head.

The concept seemed intriguing but the story took forever

I’ve read other books by the author and loved “Out” and I had high expectations about this story. It was a marathon to get to the meat of the story.