 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about Piercing by Ryu Mirakami. No relation to Heruki Mirakami, not that I know of. Supposed to have been not last week but the week before. Top 5 Fridays theme. I don't want to give it away but I talk about Ryu Mirakami and some other folks. But you'll see, you guys will see that on Friday. I was hoping to get that up before I talked about this one but me being the OCD person I am, I don't want to post a top 5 Friday not on Friday. If you guys understand, give me some support down there in the doobly-doo. Anywho, so Piercing is the second book I've read from this author. It is, I don't know that I enjoyed it more than In the Miso Soup, which is the first book I read by him. I can't even say that I enjoyed In the Miso Soup, which is saying quite a bit. Because it has one of the most disturbing scenes in the Miso Soup does. Has one of the most disturbing scenes I've ever read. This doesn't have too much disturbing imagery. It does have some disturbing themes. There is not as much piercing theme going on as you would imagine. I thought there was going to be much more. It does open rather disturbingly, but I think the opening section is more disturbing than the entire rest of the book. I would love to hear from people who have actually read this book. So beware of spoilers down there in the doobly-doo. I did like that there was an undertone of dark comedy here. There was kind of the same thing in In the Miso Soup. I think it's much more prevalent here. One of the problems I had with this book is also the best part of this book. I know that sounds weird, but hang out with me. I had no idea where this was going. Every single time I was locked into place and I was like, okay, I am here for this path. I am here for this subject matter. He completely changed things up, and it did not go where I expected it to, but for the first time I think that was a really detrimental to the story. I think that I am a big fan of left turn storytelling, which is every time somebody expects you to do something, you make a turn, and then you circle back around to the narrative. But he just never did that. It just kept on. It felt like a bunch of false starts. So I am going to give this book, again, this is going to sound really, really odd, but it is my own brain working. I am going to give this a higher rating than In the Miso Soup, because I think I enjoyed it more, but I didn't enjoy it at all. I didn't enjoy In the Miso Soup at all either, but I still appreciate what the author did. The reason I am giving it such a high rating is for the originality, the unpredictability. The writing is great. Of course, I mean, this is a translated novel, so who do I think? Who do I think? Do I think Ryu or do I think Ralph McCarthy? I probably think Ralph McCarthy, so thank you, Ralph McCarthy, for making it so easy to read. Here's the biggest problem with rating this book so high. I don't recommend it. I know that sounds weird, but it's the truth. This whole video is contradictory. I know it is. It's fine. Raging me down there in the doobly-doo. One of the things I like to do with these reviews is kind of talk out my feelings about a book, unless I've already reviewed it on Goodreads. Kind of talk out my feelings. I'm feeling very conflicted here. I like what he did, but I didn't enjoy reading it. I talked about this a little bit in a Stephen King video, where you can like parts of a book, but not like the whole. That's kind of where I'm at with this. I like bits and pieces of this book a lot, but the majority of it just wasn't an enjoyable experience. This is a kicker. This might be a spoiler, but this is how the book is built. The spoiler has nothing to do with the actual writing or the story or anything like that. It has to do with the chapter layout. If that bothers you, click away now. Just know I give the book four stars and I don't recommend it. Weird, huh? Anyways, so you have chapters, you know, one, two, three, four, whatever. The first half of the book is all these pretty short chapters, very quick to get through. And then you get to chapter 10. I got to chapter 10 in the book and I'm one of those weirdos who looks backward to see how many chapters are in a book. I knew there was 11 chapters, so I got to chapter 10 and I was only halfway done with the book. So you had all these short chapters and then this huge chapter there at the end. The last chapter is probably 90 pages, I would think, because chapter 11 is only, I don't know, probably about three or four pages long. And of course it's got a real Miracami ending. I'm going to go ahead and call it that because In the Me So Soup pretty much ended the same way also. I don't want to give anything away, but if you read In the Me So Soup, you probably know how this one's going to end, too. I think it's just a Japanese literature thing. Man, I really do. It's a foreign American kind of parallel. I would say probably like a Paul Tremblay, someone who doesn't totally commit to an ending. Just kind of, everything's open for everybody. Hey, that can be fun. That can be good. It's just not my preferred ending. So have you read Piercing by Ryu Miracami? Have you read In the Me So Soup? Be forewarned, there might be spoilers down in the doobly-doo. But let me know if you've read it. Did you like it? Did you not like it? Anthony, I would like to hear from you especially. So let me know if you'd prefer to talk to me, not in private, but on Goodreads or whatever on my review over there. Do so, whichever venue you feel more comfortable with. But yeah, that's everything. I will be looking up Audition by the same author. I have no idea until someone on Twitter told me that I've seen the movie version of Audition. And I'm interested to see how that plays out in novel form because that movie is boring as mess until like the last, I'd say 10 minutes of the film, I think it is. Anyways, we've gone on long enough. So until next time, I have been E, you have been U, this has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye.