It is an interesting mix of Japan's history with incest plus the extreme (sexual) repression in daily life which gets translated in a different relationship with taboo topics. Society believes basically anything goes in fiction as long as people irl fall in line. They think these outlets are necessary. It's a completely different way of looking at taboos. It is far removed from Western ideas, so I can completely understand people feel turned off by coming across this topic in a book when they don't expect it.
@@amara560 I was going to say this is almost a promise in any thriller book from Japan. If it's Murakami, it's almost certain it'll be about a mother or sister and there will be a lot of teenage girls. I tried to look up if his mom passed or something because I feel like every work screams mommy issues. In a incest way lol.
@@amara560 I also am unfortunately desensitized to incest from my reading choices at this point. I love Murakami and I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez and it's just inevitable.
So the 'accidentally getting in a relationship with someone related to you' was a big fear of mine growing up, because my ancestors were Mormon Pioneers. And like good mormons of the time period, Grandpa Jacob had 4 wives. Definitely not a sibling situation, but it gave me nightmares as a kid
I was talking with a friend earlier and she mentioned that “worrying you might be dating someone you’re related to” is a big fear of one of her friends who was donor conceived
What is actually weird, is that there are several cases of biological siblings or parents and children, who were unaware of their relationship, meeting years later as adults and falling in love. Half siblings or fully blood related. It’s one of my biggest anxieties since my mom is adopted. About the video, this book seems like it might be a good stage play.
I met a guy who was unrelated to me but a doppelganger for my dad at 22. The MOST attracted I've ever felt towards any human. When I figured out who he resembled, I was weirded out.
There are two things normally in opposition to each other. 1. Ppl whose genes smell close to ours, so that we might be related, smell somewhat attractive to us, except… 2. The Westermarck effect: we are strongly inhibited from thinking of our close family members as attractive. The Westermarck effect is presumably to stop humans and other animals from mating with close relatives, because otherwise family members would be the obvious targets for our attractions as they'd be the nearest ppl to hand. So in order to impel us to go out and find different ppl to have sex with, something like the Westermarck effect happened. Nature implemented this on an "upbringing" level rather than a genetic level, but with family members that are separated at birth, the Westernarck effect doesn’t come into play and ppl can end up falling victim to genetic sexual attraction. It’s scary but super interesting I think.
God, I once got into a huge argument with a friend over this. Because he argued it should be legalized so that in the case of people falling in love and not knowing, they're consenting adults and should be allowed. I was like...that seems like it would give away to more abuse than those exceptions and it would be better for those people to legally fight for it than potentially have people abuse the system. I've unfortunately have known people who were abused by family members, brothers and fathers, and can see how those people would groom their kids to be perpetually abused and controlled. But then I was called homophobic because apparently I don't agree with legalizing adult consenting marriage, which I felt was a particularly nasty remark to compare LGBTQIA rights to incest at all.
Rachel, you’re falling off your game. The second you said “who’s your daddy?” I knew where this was going. Also.. thank you for being my daddy two years in a row.
Small note! In the book, they end up theorizing that the "burying the child" thing was actually metaphorical (because it was a recurring dream that Aki kept having), not literal. The "burying" was actually the mental burying that Aki did of her original "Miyuki" Identity in order to adopt the "Chiaki" identity. I think it might have been clearer if we found out more about how her mother, or Hiro's mother, might have drilled the new identity into her, since she was so young that it was probably traumatizing.
Maybe it wasn't the childhood repression (since she was so young vey little mayhave been necessary) but what she was doing in the present, by telling both Hiro and herself that she was remembering the same things.
Rachel telling me to try and read more translated books: My Brazilian ass this month actively making an effort to read more national authors because translated anglophone books are the overwhelming market: (ﾟ〇ﾟ)
This book is just so Japanese. It's legal in Japan to marry your first cousin. It's an island nation that's fairly homogenous. Restrictions about cousins may have actually bottlenecked their genetics. While Western attitudes are more prevalent, culturally, it's not the same deal. For a Japanese person reading this book, the horror of incest fell off as soon as they were cousins. My guess is some of the confusing stuff is steeped in symbolism in Japanese culture.👯
the only parts I was really super confused about were what happened with Hiros dad and why Aki remembered burying the girl if the girl died in an accident. Other than that I feel like I got it! I’ve read books where I feel like a lot was lost in translation but with this, barely so. I do know that one author I’ve talked to has mentioned that there’s a difference between high context and low context cultures. That was helpful in understanding that dynamic.
@@ReadswithRachel Even understanding it, you can't squash your native reaction to a concept like romantic love with a cousin. That's not wrong. For your own culture, it's correct. It's just in reading a psychological thriller, that distance is going to muddle the clarity of the message within group. To me, just listening to your review and skimming the plot, it seems like the theme of this book is secrets lead to suffering that causes death. They don't die at the end of the book because they discover their secret. Also, neither Shintoism or Buddhism are philosophies that seek/promote eye for an eye punishment. It makes sense to me that once Aki is honest with herself, the suffering caused by the dishonesty ends for her. What feels like punishment to Westerners is suffering. (We look for why someone dies, whereas both practices sees death as something that happens for no reason and accepts it.) Therefore, either murdering the other would be unjust. BUT 100% this is speculation based on my own religious reading and cultural exposure. I'm no expert and may misinterpret. This explanation is just what satisfied my own need to understand why this story exists.
@@ReadswithRachel If you want to look into High Context versus Low it's from Erin Meyer The Culture Map and is generally helpful. But I agree with Kimberly. Also lot of Japanese books are about coming to peace with things, even horrible, and being able to move past them or accept them as is. And tons of symbolism and "whoa that got wild really fast". I generally think of Kafka on the Shore by Murakami which is one of the craziest books I've read. Murakami in general is great but it gets very off the walls and there's a lot of incest. For more chill introductions I definitely recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, What You Need is in the Library, and Lonely Castle in the Mirror. These are really just fun sentimental stories.
"You know when they teach you how to run from an alligator-" Lost it. Living in Northern Europe I admit I was never taught this skill but good to know - zigzagging
This sounds like it'd be great for a play, given that it takes place in one location and only has two characters present (not counting any flashbacks that might be shown if they decided to). As for the incest twist, given how much anime and manga I consume, to me it was more of an expectation than a surprise. (Insert twin emoji here, I can't find one. ._. )
I think the implication is that the two of them killed his original sister. She was found in concrete and they remember burying her. Maybe they pushed her under. Maybe they buried her in loose dirt from construction and she got up and wandered into the concrete but. After all children, don’t know what a construction site is or how dangerous it can be. So I think the two of them they may have or may not have killed two people.
This thing makes me wanna go full bore into my own transgressive fiction, as a person with a disability, exploring said disability through fiction. Y’all. The things I’m asked/told. THE ASSUMPTIONS.
I enjoy stories where you come across characters' lives and have to work out what's going on via context. I was worried at first this was going to be the bad sort of bonkers but this books sounds solid. The translator did a great job. I'm on a super old laptop so the only twin emoji coming up for me is 👯♂
Falling in love with a relative, or step-sibling is a common story beat in Japan because circumstances where such that this wasn't unheard of in recent history. Besides the death of parents with underage children left behind, it use to be a tradition in Japan that relatives who had many children would give away some of their children to relatives that were unable to conceive. This could often mean that two children raised together would discover later that they were 1st or 2nd cousins. First-cousin marriage was also not uncommon until fairly recently in Japan, so in some circumstances a pair of "siblings" would get arranged to marry each other (arranged marriages were very common up until a few generations ago; today they can still sometimes happen). Because of all of this, modern Japanese media makes heavy references to these outdated practices because the writers/creators know family who went through this and having a living memory of it being not unusual. In a similar fashion, anime and manga of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s make heavy references to WWII and post-WWII Japan, but in more recent media (2010s, 2020s) there has been a steep drop-off in the frequency of those types of references.
I'd like to specifically point out From Up on Poppy Hill SPOILERS Basically it both follows and subverts this trope with the main couple finding out that they are siblings and then finding out after that Shun was actually just legally by Umi's parents so he wouldn't go into the system after his parents and family died to the atomic bomb. It follows quite closely with the WWII sibling mix up trope but ends up having them not be blood related perhaps to suit modern sensibilities, or maybe because it's a kids movie and playing it straight would be weird.
@@getmotivated1707 This sort of "referencing what my parents/grandparents went through" happens all over in media, but depending on your relation to that particular culture it can be easier / harder to notice. One reason why westerns were popular in the early days of American cinema, and through the mid-20th century, is that you still had people alive (elderly people) who were from that era and it was their children/grandchildren idealizing a past they had heard about, but not experienced themselves. Famously there was a gameshow in the 1950s that brought on an old gentleman and the game was to guess what important thing this guy had seen in his lifetime; the answer was he had gone to the playhouse the night Lincoln was assassinated and as a child found the whole situation very confusing. We don't often consider how long a lifetime can be, but 1868 for some Japanese people might not be that many generations back.
@@theflyingspaget That's an interesting example. I don't know for children what would be considered appropriate over there in terms of this trope, though I do notice this trope exists in media meant for teenagers or older generally. Something that I've come to realize, that's interesting to look into, is which Japanese tropes go all the way back to Kabuki. It's not everything, of course, but it's surprising how much can originate from there and has made it all the way to modern times; especially in anime.
Fun fact, there are several posts on reddit of couples finding out they're actually siblings. I remember one where they had kids. Separated by adoption as well. It's insane
OKAY LOOK! I DISTINCTLY remember the alligator zigzag tip coming from my Floridian public school first grade health class and NONE of my found family up here in Chicago believe it was a thing. Thank you for vindicating my years of "maybe I have a very weird implanted memory about alligators?" conversations!
Oh this has the energy of The Poseidon Adventure a la Gaspar Noé’s 2018 psychologically catastrophic genre masterpiece *Climax (2018, French)* “On the outskirts of Paris a dancing troupe is spending a weekend at an abandoned school practicing. On their last night, as a snowstorm renders the outside inhospitable, they begin to make a horrific realization: their sangria had been splked with Lysergic(LSD)Acid. As the immediate, unprepared for, state of mind shifts occur, the worst acts become the easiest to inflict. And the carefully constructed beautifully crafted troupe of dancers unravels. A party- a storm- a baby- a child- a dance- *sangria* - a school- a knife- *sangria* - a group - a fight- a knife- *sangria* “ I’m sorry that’s my own summary and I just love the film! There’s a 45 minute single take shot!
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard about a story where a boy and a girl who thought they were twins were in love later realized they were remembering their childhood incorrectly and were actually cousins, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but weird it happened twice. (spoilers I guess) That's literally the plot of Please Twins.
Surprisingly have read quite a few translated books this year, but also realized if I’m trying to learn Herman, it probably be a good idea to read books in German rather than a translation, so now that’s the challenge lol
If you are a person who enjoys rereading favorite books, it might be a good idea to start by reading a book you already know in German. That's how I got into English reading as a middle school kid: having read the Harry Potter books several times in my native language, I switched to English... (thankfully our local library had both).
Nah I loved this book. The uncertainty and the mess of memories was petfect and so real, it is one of my fave things in media as i have amnesia issues from cptsd. Its good to explore outside of myself you know? Same with disfunctional family dynamics. And the writing is soooo good. Its a brilliant novel in my opinion.
I think the unexpectedness is definitely something I look forward to when reading translated works, sometimes I think because of my usual cultural expectations around stories I find translated works can really throw me for a loop sometimes in the topics or subjects they decide to tackle and the way they go about doing it, there's definitely sometimes a flavor there and it can be really interesting to start to notice quirks of certain translators or wonder about word choices at times. I think it takes more mental energy in a way, but sometimes you get something really unexpected or learn something new. I think challenging yourself to read more translated works sounds like a really fun idea, I might follow you and go look for something next time I hit up the library!
first, your ridge hat looks AMAZING on you ❤️ you went through it reading this book and i don’t think i’ve recovered so have my best wishes for your own recovery 🤣👭
Just finished. Such a wild ride of a read. I really enjoyed it. Some translated works I have enjoyed that are not as intense but still a good time (in my opinion) are What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa.
The plot made a lot of sense to me as someone who's read a lot of fiction from East Asia. Writing traditions in Eastern Asia enjoy non-linearity and play on POVs.
Had incest jumped on me in a book I'd been enjoying up til that point. Completely soured me on the rest of it! IIRC, it was supposed to be the start of a series, but I never even went and checked if there were sequels.
doesn't that means they were responsible for the shiaki falling and dying? they burried her to hide it and that's why she never came home or am i missing something?
Ooh, on the topic of translated books, one of my favorite books of all time is a translated Japanese psychological thriller as well!! Confessions by Kanae Minato. It is about child death, cw, but that much is said in the synopsis. I read it all in one day because I was hooked - tho it's been a few years and I don't remember it suuuper well.
I think I read and watched too many weird Japanese media, as they do love to mindfuck you, so after hearing the triggers hearing the conclusion was like “yep, that makes sense.” 👫
thank you for content warning on adoption. it can be a highly triggering subject for adoptees, and i really appreciate the warning, so i can watch it when i'm in the headspace where i'm actually able to handle it.
I am low-key interested in reading this one, maybe because of the bonkers lol. I see why they did the ending the way they did with the theme of "I dunno sometimes life is just weird like that" but I also see why it could be unsatisfying.
So I don't know about other guys but when I was like 19 my friend and I ended up smoking near playgrounds cause the park had a lot of benches. I bet a therapist would say something like "we're trying to go back to when we were young and not dealing with whatever drove us to smoke" but I dunno about all that.
I read this book because of this video (decided to before watching your impressions) Aki states that the burying was metaphorical, and it wasn't a memory. It was a dream made up of a lot of little memories from childhood that she interpreted. Unless they literally buried her in the construction site, which is still a possibility because those two are wild. Edit: Also interesting thing I noticed while reading is we never actually find out how they found out about their relation. There's just this big blank in their life that they refuse to talk or think about.
If I had a nickel every time ""Oops. Incest" was said by a reviewer, I'd have 2 nickels. It's not a lot but strange it happened here and on weirdo book club 😂😂
“Who’s your daddy?” **Me, having massive crushes on fictional women who could step on me, call me pathetic and a loser, tell me if I’m allowed to breathe today, and I would still be their housewife:** Are fantasy characters a viable answer to this question, ma’am? [I am a woman.] Okay, sorry I talked, back to the video ________________ I got further into the video now, a whole few seconds. Thank you for being my daddy, Rachel 😭🤧! My bio sperm donor is dead to me, so now my daddy issues are now resolved with you as my father 🥰 **Can I have some allowance now?** Just need 500 USD a month k thanks Dad 😘 ________________ WHAT DO YOU MEAN INCEST?! MA'AM????
if youre looking for another absolutely bookers book-the aosawa murders (also by riku onda!) is really good. it reminded me of the short story 7 in a grove (commonly confused with rashomon by the same author because they also named the 7 in a grove film adaptation rashomon despite them being different stories??)
👫Twin emoji I think, at least the closest one I could find. I gotta say this, my parents are distant cousins and I didn't know about it until 2014-2017 at the Christmas season and some of my other cousins (whom are first cousins) had babies with each other and I still agree with that TikTok video you put in.
i have a question, can we suggest you Publisher of books you could try to look into? one is my favorites is Valancourt Books, they republish books that have been forgotten, like Horror , Sci-fi and LGBT titles, like as an example for the theme of bastard main characters "Foreign Affairs" by Hugh Fleetwood, "The Happy Man" by Eric C. Higgs and "The Servant" by Robin Maugham . some of the books they republish have inspired movies like the Servant as an example.
The most bonkers book I ever read was also Japanese (Earthlings by Sayaka Murata). It's a pretty short read and I couldn't put it down but I was also happy that it was over, it got more and more messed up as it went on. It was very hard to understand some of the characters' motivations - I think I would have needed a lot more cultural context which gets lost in translation. I'm all for reading translated works from different cultures but it can be hard to fully understand or appreciate them.
Having seen some Japanese and well East Asian movies, the zing-zaging of the plot and the twists aren't that shocking to me. Nor is the indirect story-telling.
I’m gonna need to take a break after this. I don’t care if it’s a culture thing, I don’t care if it’s an island; why are y’all maintaining bloodlines like the English nobility from the Regency Era? Please god, please. I can’t get past the incest. Like girl WHO. I can’t. I can’t. That means culturally that Vampire Knight WASN’T incest, and I for real still categorize it as incest. It’s 6 AM. It is 6 AM and I’m having a crisis. Thank you for being braver than me, Father Rachel. 🫡🫶🏻
as a fellow floridian, i can confirm that "if an alligator is chasing you, run zigzag" is taught to kids. but it's very wrong lmao. a gator can turn its head and whip around easily and faster than you can zigzag. just run normally! (also fences won't save you anything but time, as gators can and will climb those too.)
Translated titles? Omg read Strangers by Taichi Yamada (trans. by Wayne Lammers)! It's very good. Also watch the film adaptation, All of Us Strangers. Andrew Haigh queered it for screen. Warning: It's a little sad. Also read Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (trans. Michael Hofmann), White Nights by Urszula Honek (trans. Kate Webster) and The Details by Ia Grenberg (trans. Kira Josefsson). All three were longlisted for International Booker this year and these three are the best of the longlist IMO😊
I don't really understand why people think this book is weird. I thought it was really thoughtful and introspective. But I've been reading weird stuff for a long time so maybe that one's on me lol I didn't finish the video because I went to read the book almost immediately and had a great time. Just wanted to say thank you because I may not have heard of this book if not for you and I really enjoyed it. 😊
I’m lying down with a back spasm. Put this on. My meds kicked in when the book started getting crazier, I believe around the ‘incest, oops’! part. And I was talking back to you like we were gossiping over morning coffee “What? Oh, no Rachel, you MUST have read that wrong?” “Oohhhhh, I think twin/cousin is gonna kill brother/cousin!” Now my abs are tired, but my back feels better 😂
I skipped the trigger warnings, and stopped at 10:13 to write a comment how I am already convinced I want to read this book and after that I'll return to this video It was then when I saw the "oops incest" comments :'D Dear lord. ...I'm still going to read this
Huge thanks to Ridge for sponsoring today's video! Here’s the site if you want to check them out! > ridge.com/readswithrachel
I skipped the trigger warnings and I can not explain the sheer amount of dread I got when the “oops, incest!” twist dropped
"OOPS! ALL INCEST!"
"It's ok they're actually cousins" UM NO IT ISNT lmao great twist though
SAME CRYING
"Oops! Incest" is not where I was expecting this to go, but here we are.
With any book by a Japanese author there is always a chance 😅 it's much more mundane fare there. Signed, an avid anime and manga fan.
It is an interesting mix of Japan's history with incest plus the extreme (sexual) repression in daily life which gets translated in a different relationship with taboo topics. Society believes basically anything goes in fiction as long as people irl fall in line. They think these outlets are necessary.
It's a completely different way of looking at taboos. It is far removed from Western ideas, so I can completely understand people feel turned off by coming across this topic in a book when they don't expect it.
Did you expect 'character feeling disappointed at the incest turning out to be less incesty'?
@@amara560 I was going to say this is almost a promise in any thriller book from Japan. If it's Murakami, it's almost certain it'll be about a mother or sister and there will be a lot of teenage girls. I tried to look up if his mom passed or something because I feel like every work screams mommy issues. In a incest way lol.
@@amara560 I also am unfortunately desensitized to incest from my reading choices at this point. I love Murakami and I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez and it's just inevitable.
So the 'accidentally getting in a relationship with someone related to you' was a big fear of mine growing up, because my ancestors were Mormon Pioneers. And like good mormons of the time period, Grandpa Jacob had 4 wives. Definitely not a sibling situation, but it gave me nightmares as a kid
I was talking with a friend earlier and she mentioned that “worrying you might be dating someone you’re related to” is a big fear of one of her friends who was donor conceived
The art ima make is gonna be crazy with this in the background
REAL
LMAOOO
I feel so seen LMAO
WHAT DID YOU DRAW FRIEND ?? 😂😂
@@smolexfundie6458 So turns out I drew angst instead of horror :D
What is actually weird, is that there are several cases of biological siblings or parents and children, who were unaware of their relationship, meeting years later as adults and falling in love.
Half siblings or fully blood related. It’s one of my biggest anxieties since my mom is adopted.
About the video, this book seems like it might be a good stage play.
I met a guy who was unrelated to me but a doppelganger for my dad at 22. The MOST attracted I've ever felt towards any human. When I figured out who he resembled, I was weirded out.
There are two things normally in opposition to each other.
1. Ppl whose genes smell close to ours, so that we might be related, smell somewhat attractive to us, except…
2. The Westermarck effect: we are strongly inhibited from thinking of our close family members as attractive.
The Westermarck effect is presumably to stop humans and other animals from mating with close relatives, because otherwise family members would be the obvious targets for our attractions as they'd be the nearest ppl to hand. So in order to impel us to go out and find different ppl to have sex with, something like the Westermarck effect happened.
Nature implemented this on an "upbringing" level rather than a genetic level, but with family members that are separated at birth, the Westernarck effect doesn’t come into play and ppl can end up falling victim to genetic sexual attraction. It’s scary but super interesting I think.
God, I once got into a huge argument with a friend over this. Because he argued it should be legalized so that in the case of people falling in love and not knowing, they're consenting adults and should be allowed. I was like...that seems like it would give away to more abuse than those exceptions and it would be better for those people to legally fight for it than potentially have people abuse the system. I've unfortunately have known people who were abused by family members, brothers and fathers, and can see how those people would groom their kids to be perpetually abused and controlled. But then I was called homophobic because apparently I don't agree with legalizing adult consenting marriage, which I felt was a particularly nasty remark to compare LGBTQIA rights to incest at all.
Rachel, you’re falling off your game. The second you said “who’s your daddy?” I knew where this was going.
Also.. thank you for being my daddy two years in a row.
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I’m a mom, my jokes are going to be recycled!! It’s the nature of mom jokes!
Small note! In the book, they end up theorizing that the "burying the child" thing was actually metaphorical (because it was a recurring dream that Aki kept having), not literal. The "burying" was actually the mental burying that Aki did of her original "Miyuki" Identity in order to adopt the "Chiaki" identity. I think it might have been clearer if we found out more about how her mother, or Hiro's mother, might have drilled the new identity into her, since she was so young that it was probably traumatizing.
Maybe it wasn't the childhood repression (since she was so young vey little mayhave been necessary) but what she was doing in the present, by telling both Hiro and herself that she was remembering the same things.
“You know when you’re running away from an alligator-“ didn’t know that was a regular concern in Florida lol
Oh yeah they come right up to our doors here. Not even joking. They climb fences.
@@ReadswithRachel wild, almost as wild as this book synopsis lol
Rachel telling me to try and read more translated books:
My Brazilian ass this month actively making an effort to read more national authors because translated anglophone books are the overwhelming market: (ﾟ〇ﾟ)
Completely different continent and language, but, same.
Eu na vida.
Pelo menos a última HQ que eu li era BR 🙃
This book is just so Japanese. It's legal in Japan to marry your first cousin. It's an island nation that's fairly homogenous. Restrictions about cousins may have actually bottlenecked their genetics. While Western attitudes are more prevalent, culturally, it's not the same deal. For a Japanese person reading this book, the horror of incest fell off as soon as they were cousins.
My guess is some of the confusing stuff is steeped in symbolism in Japanese culture.👯
the only parts I was really super confused about were what happened with Hiros dad and why Aki remembered burying the girl if the girl died in an accident. Other than that I feel like I got it! I’ve read books where I feel like a lot was lost in translation but with this, barely so. I do know that one author I’ve talked to has mentioned that there’s a difference between high context and low context cultures. That was helpful in understanding that dynamic.
@@ReadswithRachel Even understanding it, you can't squash your native reaction to a concept like romantic love with a cousin. That's not wrong. For your own culture, it's correct. It's just in reading a psychological thriller, that distance is going to muddle the clarity of the message within group.
To me, just listening to your review and skimming the plot, it seems like the theme of this book is secrets lead to suffering that causes death. They don't die at the end of the book because they discover their secret. Also, neither Shintoism or Buddhism are philosophies that seek/promote eye for an eye punishment. It makes sense to me that once Aki is honest with herself, the suffering caused by the dishonesty ends for her. What feels like punishment to Westerners is suffering. (We look for why someone dies, whereas both practices sees death as something that happens for no reason and accepts it.) Therefore, either murdering the other would be unjust.
BUT 100% this is speculation based on my own religious reading and cultural exposure. I'm no expert and may misinterpret. This explanation is just what satisfied my own need to understand why this story exists.
@@ReadswithRachel If you want to look into High Context versus Low it's from Erin Meyer The Culture Map and is generally helpful. But I agree with Kimberly. Also lot of Japanese books are about coming to peace with things, even horrible, and being able to move past them or accept them as is. And tons of symbolism and "whoa that got wild really fast". I generally think of Kafka on the Shore by Murakami which is one of the craziest books I've read. Murakami in general is great but it gets very off the walls and there's a lot of incest.
For more chill introductions I definitely recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, What You Need is in the Library, and Lonely Castle in the Mirror. These are really just fun sentimental stories.
Oh I’ve read Before The Coffee Gets Cold! It’s great!
@@ReadswithRachel I own both of the recommended books and love them. Also, there's a sequel to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and I also enjoyed that.
"You know when they teach you how to run from an alligator-"
Lost it. Living in Northern Europe I admit I was never taught this skill but good to know - zigzagging
Like no, I did not know, but I do now😅
This sounds like it'd be great for a play, given that it takes place in one location and only has two characters present (not counting any flashbacks that might be shown if they decided to).
As for the incest twist, given how much anime and manga I consume, to me it was more of an expectation than a surprise. (Insert twin emoji here, I can't find one. ._. )
Honestly at this point who's shocked by surprise siblings anymore. It's completely lost it's shock value to me. But maybe I'm just jaded.
I think the implication is that the two of them killed his original sister. She was found in concrete and they remember burying her. Maybe they pushed her under. Maybe they buried her in loose dirt from construction and she got up and wandered into the concrete but. After all children, don’t know what a construction site is or how dangerous it can be. So I think the two of them they may have or may not have killed two people.
the amount of whiplash i got while listening to this video 👭
I've seen this kind of twist a LOT in non-mainstream anime and manga, and it never feels good no matter the media format 😭
I’m always scared of psychological thrillers because I’ve never read a good one, so this is gonna be a fun listen.
You know, there is a specific strand of bonkers that actually pulls me in because of how wild it is, and I actually think I'd be into this book 😂
This thing makes me wanna go full bore into my own transgressive fiction, as a person with a disability, exploring said disability through fiction.
Y’all.
The things I’m asked/told. THE ASSUMPTIONS.
PLEASE do. As another disabled person I think it would be fascinating.
I enjoy stories where you come across characters' lives and have to work out what's going on via context. I was worried at first this was going to be the bad sort of bonkers but this books sounds solid. The translator did a great job.
I'm on a super old laptop so the only twin emoji coming up for me is 👯♂
Going into this video blind, excited but filled with trepidation!!!
Falling in love with a relative, or step-sibling is a common story beat in Japan because circumstances where such that this wasn't unheard of in recent history. Besides the death of parents with underage children left behind, it use to be a tradition in Japan that relatives who had many children would give away some of their children to relatives that were unable to conceive. This could often mean that two children raised together would discover later that they were 1st or 2nd cousins. First-cousin marriage was also not uncommon until fairly recently in Japan, so in some circumstances a pair of "siblings" would get arranged to marry each other (arranged marriages were very common up until a few generations ago; today they can still sometimes happen). Because of all of this, modern Japanese media makes heavy references to these outdated practices because the writers/creators know family who went through this and having a living memory of it being not unusual.
In a similar fashion, anime and manga of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s make heavy references to WWII and post-WWII Japan, but in more recent media (2010s, 2020s) there has been a steep drop-off in the frequency of those types of references.
This is really interesting, I hadn't thought of this being part of the reason for all the familial romantic relationship stories in manga.
I'd like to specifically point out From Up on Poppy Hill
SPOILERS
Basically it both follows and subverts this trope with the main couple finding out that they are siblings and then finding out after that Shun was actually just legally by Umi's parents so he wouldn't go into the system after his parents and family died to the atomic bomb. It follows quite closely with the WWII sibling mix up trope but ends up having them not be blood related perhaps to suit modern sensibilities, or maybe because it's a kids movie and playing it straight would be weird.
@@getmotivated1707 This sort of "referencing what my parents/grandparents went through" happens all over in media, but depending on your relation to that particular culture it can be easier / harder to notice. One reason why westerns were popular in the early days of American cinema, and through the mid-20th century, is that you still had people alive (elderly people) who were from that era and it was their children/grandchildren idealizing a past they had heard about, but not experienced themselves. Famously there was a gameshow in the 1950s that brought on an old gentleman and the game was to guess what important thing this guy had seen in his lifetime; the answer was he had gone to the playhouse the night Lincoln was assassinated and as a child found the whole situation very confusing.
We don't often consider how long a lifetime can be, but 1868 for some Japanese people might not be that many generations back.
@@theflyingspaget That's an interesting example. I don't know for children what would be considered appropriate over there in terms of this trope, though I do notice this trope exists in media meant for teenagers or older generally. Something that I've come to realize, that's interesting to look into, is which Japanese tropes go all the way back to Kabuki. It's not everything, of course, but it's surprising how much can originate from there and has made it all the way to modern times; especially in anime.
Ma’am you DID NOT catch me off guard with that seamless ad transfer.
Fun fact, there are several posts on reddit of couples finding out they're actually siblings. I remember one where they had kids. Separated by adoption as well. It's insane
OKAY LOOK! I DISTINCTLY remember the alligator zigzag tip coming from my Floridian public school first grade health class and NONE of my found family up here in Chicago believe it was a thing. Thank you for vindicating my years of "maybe I have a very weird implanted memory about alligators?" conversations!
Oh this has the energy of The Poseidon Adventure a la Gaspar Noé’s 2018 psychologically catastrophic genre masterpiece *Climax (2018, French)*
“On the outskirts of Paris a dancing troupe is spending a weekend at an abandoned school practicing. On their last night, as a snowstorm renders the outside inhospitable, they begin to make a horrific realization: their sangria had been splked with Lysergic(LSD)Acid. As the immediate, unprepared for, state of mind shifts occur, the worst acts become the easiest to inflict. And the carefully constructed beautifully crafted troupe of dancers unravels.
A party- a storm- a baby- a child- a dance- *sangria* - a school- a knife- *sangria* - a group - a fight- a knife- *sangria* “
I’m sorry that’s my own summary and I just love the film! There’s a 45 minute single take shot!
You were not lying when you said this was incredibly bonkers, I could not have foreseen any of that XD
*Sweet Home Alabama starts playing.*
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard about a story where a boy and a girl who thought they were twins were in love later realized they were remembering their childhood incorrectly and were actually cousins, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but weird it happened twice.
(spoilers I guess) That's literally the plot of Please Twins.
Yay for reading more translated books and books in non-English languages!
Surprisingly have read quite a few translated books this year, but also realized if I’m trying to learn Herman, it probably be a good idea to read books in German rather than a translation, so now that’s the challenge lol
If you are a person who enjoys rereading favorite books, it might be a good idea to start by reading a book you already know in German.
That's how I got into English reading as a middle school kid: having read the Harry Potter books several times in my native language, I switched to English... (thankfully our local library had both).
Nah I loved this book. The uncertainty and the mess of memories was petfect and so real, it is one of my fave things in media as i have amnesia issues from cptsd. Its good to explore outside of myself you know? Same with disfunctional family dynamics. And the writing is soooo good. Its a brilliant novel in my opinion.
I think the unexpectedness is definitely something I look forward to when reading translated works, sometimes I think because of my usual cultural expectations around stories I find translated works can really throw me for a loop sometimes in the topics or subjects they decide to tackle and the way they go about doing it, there's definitely sometimes a flavor there and it can be really interesting to start to notice quirks of certain translators or wonder about word choices at times. I think it takes more mental energy in a way, but sometimes you get something really unexpected or learn something new.
I think challenging yourself to read more translated works sounds like a really fun idea, I might follow you and go look for something next time I hit up the library!
We are all that Punisher nightmare scene the further this video got. Holy hell on a pogostick, Rachel
first, your ridge hat looks AMAZING on you ❤️
you went through it reading this book and i don’t think i’ve recovered so have my best wishes for your own recovery 🤣👭
Unrelated, I love your Bluey shirt 🩷
Every time I thought I knew what was happening in this book, BOOM! Surprise! I have no idea!
I'd also recommend 'Confessions' by Kanae Minato and 'Naoko' by Higashino Keigo if you want to try some more compelling Japanese translated thrillers!
Just finished. Such a wild ride of a read. I really enjoyed it. Some translated works I have enjoyed that are not as intense but still a good time (in my opinion) are What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa.
OMG BLUEY SHIRT! I'm guessing it's probably bandit from the ears but I might be wrong and it could be bluey. It's hard to tell
The plot made a lot of sense to me as someone who's read a lot of fiction from East Asia. Writing traditions in Eastern Asia enjoy non-linearity and play on POVs.
It's short and not this wierd but check out "The Human Chair" by Edogawa Rampo
Had incest jumped on me in a book I'd been enjoying up til that point. Completely soured me on the rest of it! IIRC, it was supposed to be the start of a series, but I never even went and checked if there were sequels.
I like this type of review. You enjoyed yourself, and it was nice to see that tbh.
The amount of times Rachel says something like, "This is where it starts getting weird..." 😂
If someone could clip the moment Rachel smirks and winks while making the “daddy” joke… that would be great 😂
doesn't that means they were responsible for the shiaki falling and dying? they burried her to hide it and that's why she never came home or am i missing something?
I thought they concealed her death because they wanted to sub the other girl into the agreed & paid-for adoption
I loved this review. Thank you, @ReadswithRachel !!!
The title reminds me of "Goulds book of Fish: a novel in 12 fish" by Richard Flanagan, havn't read it yet.
Another disorienting Asian thriller is The Good Son by Jeong Yu-jeong; a guy wakes up at home to find his mother dead on the floor.
Ooh, on the topic of translated books, one of my favorite books of all time is a translated Japanese psychological thriller as well!! Confessions by Kanae Minato. It is about child death, cw, but that much is said in the synopsis. I read it all in one day because I was hooked - tho it's been a few years and I don't remember it suuuper well.
New Rachel video after a terrible weekend? Hell yes!
Thank goodness you posted Rachel really needed it 😊😅❤
Books like these inspire me to write weirder stuff
the way i never knew what was going on here. but also, in the vein of crazy japanese books, you should read the bridegroom was a dog.
31:30 that song is so Alabama.
15:51 i call this one the cassandra clare special. iykyk
I think I read and watched too many weird Japanese media, as they do love to mindfuck you, so after hearing the triggers hearing the conclusion was like “yep, that makes sense.” 👫
"this book made me feel like a disoriented alligator" is quite the achievement 😂
thank you for content warning on adoption. it can be a highly triggering subject for adoptees, and i really appreciate the warning, so i can watch it when i'm in the headspace where i'm actually able to handle it.
This feels like a Maury episode lol, so many twists! Imagine a movie adaptation of this!
Excited to listen to this at work tomorrow, your content is my new favorite work RUclips videos
LMAO that tiktok is great 😂😂
Pls do be my daddy 🤣 also I love your bluey shirt! ❤️
it’s wild how the other main character suddenly got the ick. her reason was baffling to me
I am low-key interested in reading this one, maybe because of the bonkers lol. I see why they did the ending the way they did with the theme of "I dunno sometimes life is just weird like that" but I also see why it could be unsatisfying.
So I don't know about other guys but when I was like 19 my friend and I ended up smoking near playgrounds cause the park had a lot of benches. I bet a therapist would say something like "we're trying to go back to when we were young and not dealing with whatever drove us to smoke" but I dunno about all that.
I read this book because of this video (decided to before watching your impressions)
Aki states that the burying was metaphorical, and it wasn't a memory. It was a dream made up of a lot of little memories from childhood that she interpreted.
Unless they literally buried her in the construction site, which is still a possibility because those two are wild.
Edit: Also interesting thing I noticed while reading is we never actually find out how they found out about their relation. There's just this big blank in their life that they refuse to talk or think about.
Book Daddy Rachel is the one I can count on
As someone who was SAd by my cousin, ew no get it away.
If I had a nickel every time ""Oops. Incest" was said by a reviewer, I'd have 2 nickels. It's not a lot but strange it happened here and on weirdo book club 😂😂
Sounded intense! 👯
“Who’s your daddy?”
**Me, having massive crushes on fictional women who could step on me, call me pathetic and a loser, tell me if I’m allowed to breathe today, and I would still be their housewife:** Are fantasy characters a viable answer to this question, ma’am?
[I am a woman.]
Okay, sorry I talked, back to the video
________________
I got further into the video now, a whole few seconds. Thank you for being my daddy, Rachel 😭🤧! My bio sperm donor is dead to me, so now my daddy issues are now resolved with you as my father 🥰
**Can I have some allowance now?** Just need 500 USD a month k thanks Dad 😘
________________
WHAT DO YOU MEAN INCEST?! MA'AM????
I’m gonna need another Daddy to spot me that allowance money 🤣
if youre looking for another absolutely bookers book-the aosawa murders (also by riku onda!) is really good. it reminded me of the short story 7 in a grove (commonly confused with rashomon by the same author because they also named the 7 in a grove film adaptation rashomon despite them being different stories??)
👫Twin emoji I think, at least the closest one I could find. I gotta say this, my parents are distant cousins and I didn't know about it until 2014-2017 at the Christmas season and some of my other cousins (whom are first cousins) had babies with each other and I still agree with that TikTok video you put in.
Very cute look with the hat and hair to the side.
I’m so glad the sponsor for this weird story was not a sex toy. XD
if you want some more whacky translated books, check out sayaka murata! my favorite is "convenience store woman"
Nice ad switch!
Ngl, I've read a lot of manga with these vibes lol.
If you’re looking for a translated book to read by an Asian author, I highly recommend Almond. I read it twice and it bought me to tears both times
i have a question, can we suggest you Publisher of books you could try to look into? one is my favorites is Valancourt Books, they republish books that have been forgotten, like Horror , Sci-fi and LGBT titles, like as an example for the theme of bastard main characters "Foreign Affairs" by Hugh Fleetwood, "The Happy Man" by Eric C. Higgs and "The Servant" by Robin Maugham . some of the books they republish have inspired movies like the Servant as an example.
Criminal being here this early omg
Early bird gets the jokes first
Yikes, just yikes 👫
Marrying a cousin? Oh brother!
You all should consider the book of short fiction called Dragon Palace, translated from japanese.
You look as confused as me reading the ruin of kings 😂
All of these bad books give me hope that I can one day get a book of my own published
This one’s not bad just WILD!
The most bonkers book I ever read was also Japanese (Earthlings by Sayaka Murata). It's a pretty short read and I couldn't put it down but I was also happy that it was over, it got more and more messed up as it went on. It was very hard to understand some of the characters' motivations - I think I would have needed a lot more cultural context which gets lost in translation. I'm all for reading translated works from different cultures but it can be hard to fully understand or appreciate them.
This feels a bit like old boy mixed with flowers in the attic is that fair
Having seen some Japanese and well East Asian movies, the zing-zaging of the plot and the twists aren't that shocking to me. Nor is the indirect story-telling.
"Twin emoji"
I'm not leaving the actual emoji because I can't find it and I tried lmao
👯♀️hahaha I gotchuuuu
I’m gonna need to take a break after this. I don’t care if it’s a culture thing, I don’t care if it’s an island; why are y’all maintaining bloodlines like the English nobility from the Regency Era?
Please god, please. I can’t get past the incest. Like girl WHO. I can’t. I can’t. That means culturally that Vampire Knight WASN’T incest, and I for real still categorize it as incest.
It’s 6 AM. It is 6 AM and I’m having a crisis.
Thank you for being braver than me, Father Rachel. 🫡🫶🏻
This is kinda also the plot of Chef Lin in Seoul...
as a fellow floridian, i can confirm that "if an alligator is chasing you, run zigzag" is taught to kids. but it's very wrong lmao. a gator can turn its head and whip around easily and faster than you can zigzag. just run normally! (also fences won't save you anything but time, as gators can and will climb those too.)
Translated titles? Omg read Strangers by Taichi Yamada (trans. by Wayne Lammers)! It's very good. Also watch the film adaptation, All of Us Strangers. Andrew Haigh queered it for screen. Warning: It's a little sad.
Also read Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (trans. Michael Hofmann), White Nights by Urszula Honek (trans. Kate Webster) and The Details by Ia Grenberg (trans. Kira Josefsson). All three were longlisted for International Booker this year and these three are the best of the longlist IMO😊
I don't really understand why people think this book is weird. I thought it was really thoughtful and introspective.
But I've been reading weird stuff for a long time so maybe that one's on me lol
I didn't finish the video because I went to read the book almost immediately and had a great time. Just wanted to say thank you because I may not have heard of this book if not for you and I really enjoyed it. 😊
I’m lying down with a back spasm. Put this on. My meds kicked in when the book started getting crazier, I believe around the ‘incest, oops’! part. And I was talking back to you like we were gossiping over morning coffee “What? Oh, no Rachel, you MUST have read that wrong?” “Oohhhhh, I think twin/cousin is gonna kill brother/cousin!” Now my abs are tired, but my back feels better 😂
I skipped the trigger warnings, and stopped at 10:13 to write a comment how I am already convinced I want to read this book and after that I'll return to this video
It was then when I saw the "oops incest" comments :'D Dear lord.
...I'm still going to read this