Product Description

In a suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls drift through a hot smoggy August and tedious summer school classes. There's dependable Toshi; brainy Terauchi; Yuzan, grief-stricken and confused; and Kirarin, whose late nights and reckless behaviour remain a secret from those around her. Then Toshi's next-door neighbour is found brutally murdered and the girls suspect Worm, the neighbour's son and a high school misfit. But when he disappears (taking Toshi's bike and cell phone with him), the four girls become irresistibly drawn into a treacherous vortex of brutality and seduction which rises from within themselves as well as the world around them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13275 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'... intimately drawn: Tokyo's seediest districts, disturbed inhabitants and grisly goings-on are brought to life with enlivening force'
-- Metro

Review
`Kirino creates a fictional universe in which the normal rules of engagement no longer apply'

About the Author
Natsuo Kirino, born in 1951, is the author of sixteen novels, four short-story collections, and an essay collection. She is the recipient of six of Japan's premier literary awards, including the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Out, and the Izumi Kyoka Prize for Literature for Grotesque. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages, and several of her books have been turned into movies. Out was the first of her novels to appear in English and was nominated for an Edgar Award. She lives in Tokyo.

Customer Reviews

Death by worm
Like many others, I admired Grotesque and Out. In particular I loved the way in which Kirino was able to combine both the day to day realities of her characters' lives with the violent world with which they became entangled. In Real World a group of female protagonists are again caught up in a violent murder. The difference is that these women are 16 year old high school students and the murderer is a neighbour who has killed his own mother. Kirino again explains the action from the perspective of her five main characters, but the effect is not as satisfying as it is in Grotesque.
I feel that the characters are not sufficiently differentiated; in spite of superficial differences, they all seem to share a common view of the world and the change of narrators seems to slow down the action.
Having said that the ending is intriguing, the shift in focus really works to show how different people view the same event and some of the atmospheric writing is detailed and absorbing.

A measurement of progress...
I was a huge fan of Kirino's previous release Grotesque - the best book of 2007 by some distance. So I eagerly awaited the next novel. While Real World is the new release, it was actually written before Grotesque. This, and a change in translator since Grotesque, might lie at the heart of this book's problems.

Kirino has melded two of her favourite subjects from other novels - a brutal murder, and the strange world of Japanese teenager-dom. However, in this novel the plot is fairly linear, and lacks the weaving of other sub-plots with the skill shown in Grotesque. In addition, as other reviewers have noted, the language and dialogue is stilted, and simply comes across as false. Given the skill Kirino showed in her other novels, it is hard to think the fault lies with the author.

While the book has some good moments, it lacks the depth or subtlety of other works. I think that maybe this was an early novel; and therefore you only see glimpses of what was to come from Kirino. If so, it is interesting to see the huge progress she made in just four years of writing - from this middling effort, to utter brilliance. That alone makes it worth a look if you are a Kirino fan, but on its' own merits, it is hard to recommend unconditionally.

Very Real and very dark
Have loved all N.Kirino's novels so far, and this one is no exception.
It could be described as dark and desturbing, however I think it really gets into the mind of the main characters. The main characters being 1 guy who is believed to have killed his mother and 4 young woman who each have a different view on the guy and what he has done.
It makes for very good reading and as I read through it I could not guess how it would end. So be warned there are some surprises.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes dark stories, it will get you thinking.