Review : In the miso soup by Ryu Murakami

INCREDIBLY, MAKI WAS STILL ON HER FEET AND STILL ALIVE, HER EYEBALLS SWIVELING WILDLY AND HER LIPS QUIVERING AS SHE WHEEZED FOAM-FLECKED BLOOD FROM THE WOUND IN HER THROAT. SHE SEEMED TO BE TRYING TO SAY SOMETHING... 

It is just before New Year's. Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's sleazy nightlife. But Frank's behavior is so strange that Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion - that his new client is in fact the serial killer currently terrorizing the city. It is not until later, however, that Kenji learns exactly how much he has to fear and how irrevocably his encounter with this great white whale of an American will change his life. 

From postmodern Renaissance man Ryu Murakami, master of the psychothriller and director of Tokyo Decadence, comes this shocking, hair-raising, roller-coaster ride through the nefarious neon-lit world of Tokyo's sex industry.

                                🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜

I think this book messed me up a little bit 🤣

5 ⭐ for this dark psycho thriller by Ryū Murakami with Ralph McCarthy (Translator).

As usual with asian books, a little bit is lost in translation, I think. But I loved it so much 😍. It's psychological, gore and smartly enlightened, dipped in a sweetly unsavoury atmosphere of Tokyo's underground nasty belly.

It's totally twisted, and funny, and introspective and and and ..  it's awesome! You have to read it. Just under 200 pages so a piece of cake (or a bowl of miso soup 🍜).

I like that the story has some real solid grounds and how introspective Kenji is about the  difference between American and Japanese culture. But also how he has to question so much about the weird shit happening to him through Frank's actions and behaviour (Frank is pretty messed up 🤣).

⚠️TW for violence, blood, prostitution, sexual violence and totally unreliable narrator.