Helpful Score: 7
Great book! Gritty, dark, urbane. Four co-workers are bound together by murder and money. Twists abound in this crime novel. Some social commentary regarding the lives of middle-class women in modern day Japan. Warning: very descriptive, and not only for the initial murder and clean up.
Helpful Score: 6
This is one of those books that keeps you so engaged that it is possible to lose track of time while reading it, definately a page turner and one of my best reads of the year. Four women who work the graveyard shift at the lunch box factory try to protect one of their group after the death of her husband, leading them on an adventure outside their realm. Grief and greed play a hand in the out come of this unlikely story. Well worth it's weight.
Helpful Score: 5
Out presents a distinct twist on the usual crime novel. First of all, its descriptions of urban blight in the neighborhoods of Tokyo and the bleak lives led by the women who live there are haunting and portrayed in a way that allowed me to identify with the characters even though I have never visited Japan and don't know much about its culture. I came to genuinely care about the characters, even though they are not particularly lovable and, in fact, do some clearly evil things.
Helpful Score: 4
One of the creepiest, most gruesome books I've read all year, and also one of the best.
Helpful Score: 4
This was a good book about 4 Japanese coworkers that were bound together because of a crime that was committed by one of the women within the group. The author managed to give the readers a sense of the type of life one can live in Japan. She touched on some of the despair, and poverty, and also the trials and tribulations women can go through. I enjoyed this book, it had enough tangled webs that I kept turning the page, waiting patiently for them to be unwoven. I was not happy with the ending, but it still wouldn't stop me from recommending it.
