This book is dealing with the serious subject of bullying at a Japanese middle school. The execution was a total fail for me. It contains unecessarily lengthy graphic sexual scenes, graphic violence that normally I don't see as negative when it adds value to the story and theme, and flat, unrealistic, and out of place philosophical dialogues. The scenes of physical violence are necessary to show the extend of the bullying and the intensity of the trauma and suffering of the two main characters. However, because of the manner by which the story as a whole is told, the violent scenes do not make the story any more impactful despite the initial emotional shock.


This book had isolated parts were I thought it had a lot of potential, but as a whole, the more I'm thinking about it the lower my rating sinks, and it cannot go lower than one star.

I know many people adore this book, and I can partially understand why, but I didn't. For now, I want to forget about this book, and it's unforgetable but not in a good way. I'm starting to think that Japanese writing style and execution of themes might not be for me. I don't regret reading it; it just left me with many unsettled and mixed feelings, which is not always a bad thing in books, but in this case those feelings weighed heavily on the negative side.

To end on a positive note: I loved the concept of the development of the friendship between Kojima and the main character "Eyes" through their letters. It is also important to the story that we never get to know the boy's real name, but we only know him as "Eyes," the name his bullies have given him.