Weird and Whimsical – The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada

“The aged could not die; along with the gift of everlasting life, they were burdened with terrible task of watching their great-grandchildren die.”

This beautiful book was bought as part of my plan to read a little out of my comfort zone since it had been working for well for me in the past months – with To Kill a Mockingbird and Exit West being breaths of fresh air into my usual fantasy laden reading list. However, since The Last Children is only 138 pages long I forced myself to pace myself with this book, reading little snippets at a time in between other reads whenever I needed a break from whatever high-paced fantasy I was reading at the time. This worked quite well with this book I think because I could’ve so easily read it in one sitting, it forced me to truly absorb the prose and the story. 

I still feel out of my depth reviewing books like this because I’m out of my genre comfort zone here. I can’t comment on what this book is like in comparison to others of its like, all I know is it captured my attention and kept it throughout. Although it has been translated from Japanese, the word play that Tawada does in her prose is still engaging, fluid and mesmerising; Margaret Mitsutani does an excellent job with the translation. Even though I certainly can’t read Japanese, I had read about Tawada’s unique, whimsical style and I could feel that even in the translation. It was the most stand out point of this book for me, Tawada has a way of describing the world unlike anything else I had ever read. It was as beautiful as it was haunting. 

It’s no secret that I’m used to long epic tales with plot twists on every page, so it was interesting to try and read something that didn’t have this. Tawada jumps all over the place in this novel, the point of view shifting with whoever comes into the scene. Yet, there is still a strong sense of character with everyone you are introduced to. We are given the history of this world in drips throughout the narrative of Yoshiro and Mumei, left to piece what happened to Japan and it’s citizens ourselves as we run along their daily lives. Tawada describes a bleak future where Japan has closed itself off from the rest of the world, the elderly live longer and stronger, but the children are sickly and frail – a dark topic but the one word I have for this novel is soft. The narrative sweeps passed you like a sigh, and you feel the bubble that Yoshiro and Mumei live in cut off from the rest of the world. 

This book isn’t plot heavy, it a comment on the world, what it could become and who will suffer the consequences – not the older generation but the children who aren’t even born yet. The children are the ones who will be left to deal with the repercussions of our actions. It a conversation, a flowing narrative of a dark world that could be ours. And yet it is also about the relationship of Yoshiro and Mumei, and how the dynamics have changed in this new world. 

This is a strange little novel but I enjoyed it. A further example of stepping out of your comfort zone yielding great results. Don’t be put off by the lack of plot, let the prose sweep you away in this unique look at the world.

Intensity on Another Level – The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

“I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible. Was she now a goddess or a monster? Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.”

I didn’t realise it, but I was expecting a lot from The Poppy War. The way it had been pitched to me (through others and even through the synopsis) was a young girl going to famous school and learning there’s more magic in the world than she thought. And that she can channel it. Everyone seems to love a magical school setting, yet these days I’m a little bored with the trope, but this had got some good attention and it was in my local library. Heart wrenching was the word I kept seeing on social media. But I was ready for it to only be okay.

It has exceed my expectations.

This isn’t a novel about a girl going to magic school. This is a novel about war. It’s about revenge and how far people will go to get it. Kuang pushes her characters to the limit and shows how they break, the decisions they make due to their suffering. To simply bubble it down to “ooo magic school!” Is doing a disservice to the amount of military knowledge that has gone into this book. Kuang has researched into Chinese Military history during her years at university and it shows. She manages to pour all her knowledge into this book and it shows. The strategic thinking her characters show and the movements their enemies make is clearly calculated: this novel is one planned down to the finest detail.

This novel is spilt into three distinct parts and I will say that the first part now feels a little slow after the intensity and face-paced nature of the ending. We watch Rin in her preadolescences and she truly is a child, her focus is only on beating her classmates and proving that she deserves to be at Sinegard. The novel does seem to drag until Rin shows signs of power, until the magic even shows it face, it took me a while to get past part one.  Nothing extremely punchy and seemingly important happens, yet personally, this was not entirely necessary looking back. This is to show the reader how Rin became who she is. And it also made me care about her, meaning that when her actions get worse and more questionable during her time in the Militia, we are still rooting for her. We want Rin to win. The Mugen are inhuman, they deserve what they get, we only see through Rin’s eyes and her view is clouded by revenge and anger and pain. To Rin she is in the right, she cannot see from another view point, and when she does she must push that part of herself aside or she will never recover. Her guilt and love redeem her; this is only possible thanks to a masterful writer, if Kuang wasn’t good at making three dimensional characters, my desire to find something good in Rin wouldn’t exist.

In parts two and three you are immediately throw into the action, everything that happens, happens so fast that you can’t help but read on. Because there’s no lull, no stopping, no break in the action. They have a problem they either fall to it or beat it. Then something happens as soon as that conflict is finished. The pacing in the novel is the one reason my Goodreads doesn’t say five stars. The beginning is super slow in comparison to the end, yet the ending doesn’t ever let up, not even for a heart to heart. This could be justified by the fact they’re at war but this wars spans years, Kuang does a good job of cutting out the travel and progress we don’t need to see, but all that’s left is a jumble of conflicts at the end. Maybe too much was attempted in the last 2/3rd’s of the novel but it is still the only critique I can give.

Kuang does not hold back on the graphic imagery of war laced throughout her novel. The massarce and battles are shown in detail and, frankly, I’d warn you not to be eating your lunch at work while reading the scene at Golyn Niis. Inspired by true historical events, Kuang does not hold back at describing what has happened to this city. It’s dark, haunting and truly powerful, I think these are the scenes that will stay with me long after. The fact that Kuang used real-life events to lay the ground work for this act is harrowing, this isn’t just a work of fiction. Things like this have really happened in Chinese history (and probably other places too because the world can be awfully gruesome), Kuang is brave for not bending and making the war more fantastical where the “heroes” always succeed. I applaud her for showing war how it really is.

This quote really stuck with me throughout the novel, and I can’t help but think it highlights the true story of the novel much better than any synopsis and review ever could:

“War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who remains.” 

I can’t wait for the next instalment, to watch Rin and the others grow and change, and most likely, become even darker. Kuang has built an incredibly detailed world and I can’t wait to see what she does with the magical elements she has weaved through the story and what she has in store for Rin now she has slipped down the path of darkness. I can’t recommend this book enough, I read a lot of fantasy and this is unlike anything else I have read.