Real World

May 5, 2008
Between the groans of a smog alert siren at the outset of this gripping noir from Kirino (Out
), Tokyo high school student Toshi Yamanaka hears what sounds like glass shattering next door. Might a burglar be at work? Later, after learning that a female neighbor has been bludgeoned to death, Toshi suspects that she was an earwitness to the woman’s murder and that the killer was the victim’s son, a mysterious boy Toshi’s age, nicknamed Worm by Toshi and her friends. When Worm vanishes, Toshi, who also suspects he stole her cellphone, finds herself hoping that he’ll reach out to her, for reasons she doesn’t fully understand. Winner of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, Kirino uses her considerable narrative gifts to evoke the tedium, pressure and angst her teenage characters suffer. Some readers, though, may find the proceedings just too grim for their taste.

May 1, 2008
Toshi, a high school girl at home during summer vacation, is surprised late one morning by the sound of crashing glass coming from her neighbors' house. From that point on, her life and that of her three friends will change completely as they become entangled with the neighbors' son, nicknamed "Worm." Focusing on the lives of these five characters, Kirino unflinchingly describes the contemporary social conditions of teenagers from their point of view; unlike "Battle Royale", that now infamous look at violent school children, this work more honestly depicts the blatant as well as subtle acts of violence done by and to teenagers in modern Japan. Kirino's work has been awarded numerous prestigious awards, including the Edogawa Rampo Prize for best mystery in 1993 and the Naoki Prize for "Soft Cheeks" in 1999; this is his third book to appear in English, after "Grotesque" and "Out". Gabriel, who recently translated Murakami Haruki's "Kafka on the Shore" to critical acclaim, has a difficult job translating the slang of high school students but mostly hits the right notes. Highly recommended.Andrew Weiss, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2008
Adult/High School-A dark tale of teen angst and despair in suburban Tokyo. Through alternating first-person narratives, four girls and one boy tell a story of murder and deception. Descriptions of the hot, humid summer enhance the oppressive feeling of the novel. Characters are well drawn and real, though not always sympatheticthey make life-altering mistakes, dont trust or confide in adults, and are absorbed in their individual worlds. Kirino offers insight into the teens through chapters that read like diary entries as they divulge the deepest secrets, fears, and longings of Toshi, Terauchi, Yuzan, Kirarin, and the boy they call Worm. Readers glimpse at the cliques, social pressures, and academic expectations endured by adolescents in contemporary Japan. Alternating narration sets a fast pace but can be jarring. With five different voices, readers sometimes have to backtrack to figure out who is telling the story. Nevertheless, the technique is effective for evoking an unsettled atmosphere and reinforcing the chaos of life in the "Real World". Prominent themes in this psychological thriller include alienation from parents, secret identities, matricide, and complicated relationships even among friendswhich is your real self? Two dark surprises at the end of the novel are shocking but not unrealistic. This book will appeal to readers who enjoy teenage problem novels, as well as manga fans interested in Japanese culture."Sondra VanderPloeg, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2008
FollowingOut (2005) andGrotesque (2007), Kirino again looks beneath the surface of conventional Japanese society to reveal a world of roiling emotion and pent-up passion. This time the protagonists are four teenage girls, enduring summertime cram school classes aimed at ensuring acceptance into a top college. As the four methodically plod their way through the classes amid the sweltering summer heat in a Tokyo suburb, they yearn for something (anything) to happen. Then it does. The next-door neighbor of one of the girls, Toshi, kills his mother and runs away, aided on a whim by Toshi. Soon the boy, a classmate of all the girls but definitely not in the cool group (the girls call him Worm), is in contact with all of them, calling on a cellphone to chat idly, almost existentially, about what it feels like to be a murderer. Inevitably, the girls begin to compete for Worms affections, and the tension, subtle but omnipresent, grows as the steadily building storm draws nearer. Kirino has written a kind of anti-coming-of-age-novel here. The girls begin helping Worm because they didnt want him to come back to stupid, boring reality, yet the alternate reality they hope to create through Worm proves to be, not stupid and boring, but treacherous and duplicitous. Noir and coming-of-age are traditionally polar opposites, but Kirino brings them together brilliantly, showing that learning about yourself is not always a meaningful experience. Readers of Haruki Murakamis After Dark (2007) will feel right at home here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)