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Pull Me Under
Elle 's 33 Best Books of the Year
A Searing Debut Novel from One of the Most Imaginative Minds in Fiction Chizuru Akitani is the twelve-year-old daughter of the famous violinist and Japanese “Living National Treasure” Hiro Akitani. Overweight and hafu (her mother is white), she is tormented by her classmates and targeted by the most relentless bully of them all, Tomoya Yu. When Chizuru’s mother dies suddenly her father offers her no comfort and she is left feeling alone and unmoored. At school, her bully’s cruelty intensifies, and in a moment of blind rage, Chizuru grabs a Morimoto letter opener from her teacher’s desk and fatally stabs Tomoya Yu in the neck. For the next seven years, Chizuru is institutionalized. Her father visits her just twice before ultimately disowning her. Upon release, Chizuru flees Japan for a new identity and life in the United States. Determined to outrun her murderous past, she renames herself Rio, graduates from nursing school, marries a loving man, and soon has a daughter. But when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, announcing the death of her father, Rio feels compelled to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years, leaving her husband and her daughter confused and bereft. Going back to her homeland, and to the scene of her complicated past, feels like stepping into a strange and familiar dream. When she unexpectedly reconnects with Miss Danny, who had been her beloved teacher at the time of the stabbing, long-kept secrets are unearthed, forcing Rio to confront her past in ways she never imagined, and to decide if she will reveal to her family who she once was. Full of atmospheric and illuminating descriptions of Japan and its culture, Pull Me Under is an affecting exploration of home, identity, and the limits of forgiveness. Kelly Luce has written a bold and psychologically complex first novel that grips and dazzles from start to finish.
A Searing Debut Novel from One of the Most Imaginative Minds in Fiction Chizuru Akitani is the twelve-year-old daughter of the famous violinist and Japanese “Living National Treasure” Hiro Akitani. Overweight and hafu (her mother is white), she is tormented by her classmates and targeted by the most relentless bully of them all, Tomoya Yu. When Chizuru’s mother dies suddenly her father offers her no comfort and she is left feeling alone and unmoored. At school, her bully’s cruelty intensifies, and in a moment of blind rage, Chizuru grabs a Morimoto letter opener from her teacher’s desk and fatally stabs Tomoya Yu in the neck. For the next seven years, Chizuru is institutionalized. Her father visits her just twice before ultimately disowning her. Upon release, Chizuru flees Japan for a new identity and life in the United States. Determined to outrun her murderous past, she renames herself Rio, graduates from nursing school, marries a loving man, and soon has a daughter. But when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, announcing the death of her father, Rio feels compelled to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years, leaving her husband and her daughter confused and bereft. Going back to her homeland, and to the scene of her complicated past, feels like stepping into a strange and familiar dream. When she unexpectedly reconnects with Miss Danny, who had been her beloved teacher at the time of the stabbing, long-kept secrets are unearthed, forcing Rio to confront her past in ways she never imagined, and to decide if she will reveal to her family who she once was. Full of atmospheric and illuminating descriptions of Japan and its culture, Pull Me Under is an affecting exploration of home, identity, and the limits of forgiveness. Kelly Luce has written a bold and psychologically complex first novel that grips and dazzles from start to finish.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2016
72 people are currently reading
3906 people want to read
About the author
Kelly Luce
19 books189 followersKelly Luce is the author of Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail (A Strange Object, 2013), which won Foreword Review’s Editor’s Choice Prize for Fiction, and the novel Pull Me Under (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) a Book of the Month selection and one of Elle's 33 Best Books of 2016. She grew up in Brookfield, Illinois. After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in cognitive science, she moved to Japan, where she lived and worked for three years.
Her work has been recognized by fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ucross Foundation, Sozopol Fiction Seminars, Ragdale Foundation, the Kerouac Project, and Jentel Arts, and has appeared in New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Salon, O, the Oprah Magazine, The Sun, and other publications. She received an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin in 2015. She is the editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading Commuter and was a 2016-17 fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She lives in an old grist mill in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Twitter: @lucekel
Her work has been recognized by fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ucross Foundation, Sozopol Fiction Seminars, Ragdale Foundation, the Kerouac Project, and Jentel Arts, and has appeared in New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Salon, O, the Oprah Magazine, The Sun, and other publications. She received an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin in 2015. She is the editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading Commuter and was a 2016-17 fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She lives in an old grist mill in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Twitter: @lucekel
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 315 reviews
August 9, 2016
I'm biased.
November 8, 2016
3.5 The opening page is shocking, immediately drew me into the story. Wanted to see what happened, and why. So we follow the story of a young girl, Chizuri, father Japanese, considered a national treasure and mother Irish, who had just recently committed suicide. A young woman who never felt as if she fit in, was teased, bullied until she reacts in a horrifying manner. A life changing manner and she loses everything. Eventually she will resettle in the US, make a new life for herself, but can secrets ever stay hidden? After not seeing her father for over twenty years, she returns to Japan to attend his funeral. There she will attempt to come to terms with the young woman she was and who she is now.
An interesting moral question is posed? Does the end ever justify the means? Can a person change and become someone different someone better? Changing her name to Rio, she is an avid runner, running from her past and to keep her black organ as she calls it, at bay. My favorite parts are in Japan, the culture, the pilgrimage she takes, the temples and what the offerings mean, the celebrations and customs. Well written for sure but too slowly paced, I never really felt I knew this young woman, felt as if I was kept at distance. Also didn't feel as if we could see the change in her, I don't think until the end that she did change much and I found that frustrating since she had built a new life, married had a daughter. I did love her husband, he is literally one in a million. Also liked the young man she met on her pilgrimage. So a mixed read for me, interesting but would have liked feeling more involved with the main character.
ARC from Netgalley.
An interesting moral question is posed? Does the end ever justify the means? Can a person change and become someone different someone better? Changing her name to Rio, she is an avid runner, running from her past and to keep her black organ as she calls it, at bay. My favorite parts are in Japan, the culture, the pilgrimage she takes, the temples and what the offerings mean, the celebrations and customs. Well written for sure but too slowly paced, I never really felt I knew this young woman, felt as if I was kept at distance. Also didn't feel as if we could see the change in her, I don't think until the end that she did change much and I found that frustrating since she had built a new life, married had a daughter. I did love her husband, he is literally one in a million. Also liked the young man she met on her pilgrimage. So a mixed read for me, interesting but would have liked feeling more involved with the main character.
ARC from Netgalley.
December 19, 2016
This is a worthwhile and thought-provoking read but it is not an overly moving one. After much consideration I’m giving Pull Me Under three stars and still having trouble writing anything that doesn’t turn into a plot summary, which is not what I want to convey.
I can appreciate the clever structuring of this book. We first meet a grieving and lonely twelve year old Chizuru Akitani living in Japan. Next we meet Rio Silvestri, a thirty-eight year old nurse, mother, wife, living in Boulder, CO. As the story unfolds, Rio speaks via a largely unsentimental first person narrative and the two versions of this woman begin to move toward the middle, allowing the reader to ascertain how the events in her life have shaped who she is today. She’s essentially on a pilgrimage, both literally and metaphorically, to affect real change in her life by finally being honest with herself about her true nature. About the things she’s done and the way she feels about the things she’s done.
So why three stars? Because it fell utterly short when it came to the characters. Which just happens to be, for me, one of the most important aspects of any book. Try as I might I couldn’t connect with Rio, nor did I feel any sense of connection between the characters themselves. I’d even go so far as to say that some of the interactions between Rio and others were painfully stilted and inconsistent. In the end, the intelligent writing was not enough to buoy the story… a bit like wading in the shallow end of the pool, roped off from the deep end.
This is a provocative story that blends the haunting perspective of a juvenile violent offender, nuanced and fascinating Japanese cultural references, and a brief but sad foray into the issue of child-on-child violence. Read this one if you want to think about these issues, but if you need strong characterization then you might be disappointed here.
I can appreciate the clever structuring of this book. We first meet a grieving and lonely twelve year old Chizuru Akitani living in Japan. Next we meet Rio Silvestri, a thirty-eight year old nurse, mother, wife, living in Boulder, CO. As the story unfolds, Rio speaks via a largely unsentimental first person narrative and the two versions of this woman begin to move toward the middle, allowing the reader to ascertain how the events in her life have shaped who she is today. She’s essentially on a pilgrimage, both literally and metaphorically, to affect real change in her life by finally being honest with herself about her true nature. About the things she’s done and the way she feels about the things she’s done.
So why three stars? Because it fell utterly short when it came to the characters. Which just happens to be, for me, one of the most important aspects of any book. Try as I might I couldn’t connect with Rio, nor did I feel any sense of connection between the characters themselves. I’d even go so far as to say that some of the interactions between Rio and others were painfully stilted and inconsistent. In the end, the intelligent writing was not enough to buoy the story… a bit like wading in the shallow end of the pool, roped off from the deep end.
This is a provocative story that blends the haunting perspective of a juvenile violent offender, nuanced and fascinating Japanese cultural references, and a brief but sad foray into the issue of child-on-child violence. Read this one if you want to think about these issues, but if you need strong characterization then you might be disappointed here.
November 8, 2017
3.5
I'm having trouble forming words to describe my reading experience of this book.
Chizuru Akitani is bullied as a child and takes matters into her own hands by stabbing him. She goes to a juvenile detention center and then eventually leaves for Colorado where she re-starts her life. In Japan, her family is broken, detached and disconnected. Her father is a "Living National Treasure" of a musician and her mother is out of the picture.
I immediately connected to the writing- it was gorgeous and captivating. I was immersed almost instantly to the storyline and the characters. I completely understood Chizuru and all the darkness and pain she was carrying. I found myself rooting for her to overcome her past. She eventually has to come back to Japan and face her past. She starts a pilgrimage with her teacher, Danny. I wanted this to work so bad, yet somehow it didn't. All the writing devices that Luce used were beautiful and tragic and painful, but somehow I closed the book not feeling satisfied. Maybe that was the point? I think this one would be hard to recommend. While I enjoyed the journey, I worry that maybe I'll forget all hardships and eventually this one will fall out of memory. I think I need to continue to mull this one over the next few days...
I'm having trouble forming words to describe my reading experience of this book.
Chizuru Akitani is bullied as a child and takes matters into her own hands by stabbing him. She goes to a juvenile detention center and then eventually leaves for Colorado where she re-starts her life. In Japan, her family is broken, detached and disconnected. Her father is a "Living National Treasure" of a musician and her mother is out of the picture.
I immediately connected to the writing- it was gorgeous and captivating. I was immersed almost instantly to the storyline and the characters. I completely understood Chizuru and all the darkness and pain she was carrying. I found myself rooting for her to overcome her past. She eventually has to come back to Japan and face her past. She starts a pilgrimage with her teacher, Danny. I wanted this to work so bad, yet somehow it didn't. All the writing devices that Luce used were beautiful and tragic and painful, but somehow I closed the book not feeling satisfied. Maybe that was the point? I think this one would be hard to recommend. While I enjoyed the journey, I worry that maybe I'll forget all hardships and eventually this one will fall out of memory. I think I need to continue to mull this one over the next few days...
December 7, 2016
[Actually 3.5]
If you've been to Japan, you will enjoy reading this book. If you want to feel like you've been to Japan, you will also enjoy reading this book. At the beginning, you're immediately drawn in. Half Japanese, half American girl Chizuru kills her school bully - SO JAPANESE. We see her at that time and we see her later as a pretty well-rounded, stable adult. But when she learns that her father who abandoned her has died, she decides to go to Japan by herself. And that's when all sorts of pent up stuff bubbles up to the surface. Rio/Chizuru has a lot of stuff to figure out about herself that she has been ignoring. Even though this book is about someone who murdered their school bully, the vast majority of it felt like a road trip book (on foot). Luce is excellent at capturing how it feels to be in Japan. It was a complete delight for me, because I went there so recently. And there are some pretty interesting characters that are introduced once Rio arrives.
Because I was having so much fun vicariously being in Japan again, I had to force myself to take a step back and see how the book was actually doing plot-wise. And, to be honest, much of it felt just like things were just happening for things to happen. Often there were strained interactions between characters that seemed unrealistic. Like a character bails on a planned dinner with Rio to go on a pilgrimage to different temples and Rio runs into her before she gets a chance to bail. What does she do? Insists she go with her. I get that the intent was to show how awkward and unaware Rio was being, but there are a lot of strangely motivated choices like this. Things sometimes felt like they were coming out of nowhere, because we didn't get as close to the characters as we could have.
I think Pull Me Under edged into some really important and interesting questions about personal identity and whether or not people can change - and what that change could look like. It dealt with some dark themes that I would've liked a deeper look at. I wanted to know more about Rio's mother's suicide. I wanted to know more about what was going through Rio's head during a death that happens halfway through the book. There were a ton of moments that looked like opportunities for big things to be revealed, but sometimes there was no follow through. Like we walked up to the gates of this potential new information, then we walked away randomly. It was a little jarring a couple of times. Though the pacing and plot structure were both a little uneven, Kelly Luce is quite a good writer and at no point did I want to stop reading. Not bad for a debut novel.
Full Review: Outlandish Lit
If you've been to Japan, you will enjoy reading this book. If you want to feel like you've been to Japan, you will also enjoy reading this book. At the beginning, you're immediately drawn in. Half Japanese, half American girl Chizuru kills her school bully - SO JAPANESE. We see her at that time and we see her later as a pretty well-rounded, stable adult. But when she learns that her father who abandoned her has died, she decides to go to Japan by herself. And that's when all sorts of pent up stuff bubbles up to the surface. Rio/Chizuru has a lot of stuff to figure out about herself that she has been ignoring. Even though this book is about someone who murdered their school bully, the vast majority of it felt like a road trip book (on foot). Luce is excellent at capturing how it feels to be in Japan. It was a complete delight for me, because I went there so recently. And there are some pretty interesting characters that are introduced once Rio arrives.
My mom hated the misogyny she witnessed in Japan. She'd ranted about Miura-san ogling her in his office to Hiro, who only shrugged. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time--I'd have loved to be thought pretty like my mom was. I noticed the stereotypes when I got older, for a different reason: people were always surprised when they learned that Tomoya's killer was female. As if a girl couldn't feel rage, couldn't be brutal.
Because I was having so much fun vicariously being in Japan again, I had to force myself to take a step back and see how the book was actually doing plot-wise. And, to be honest, much of it felt just like things were just happening for things to happen. Often there were strained interactions between characters that seemed unrealistic. Like a character bails on a planned dinner with Rio to go on a pilgrimage to different temples and Rio runs into her before she gets a chance to bail. What does she do? Insists she go with her. I get that the intent was to show how awkward and unaware Rio was being, but there are a lot of strangely motivated choices like this. Things sometimes felt like they were coming out of nowhere, because we didn't get as close to the characters as we could have.
I think Pull Me Under edged into some really important and interesting questions about personal identity and whether or not people can change - and what that change could look like. It dealt with some dark themes that I would've liked a deeper look at. I wanted to know more about Rio's mother's suicide. I wanted to know more about what was going through Rio's head during a death that happens halfway through the book. There were a ton of moments that looked like opportunities for big things to be revealed, but sometimes there was no follow through. Like we walked up to the gates of this potential new information, then we walked away randomly. It was a little jarring a couple of times. Though the pacing and plot structure were both a little uneven, Kelly Luce is quite a good writer and at no point did I want to stop reading. Not bad for a debut novel.
Full Review: Outlandish Lit
January 6, 2019
This story of a half-Japanese woman returning home to Japan after the death of her famous father was well written but a bit slow and too earnest for my taste. But there is a lot of good stuff in it: great look at Japan, psychological insight, and even though I guessed the plot surprise well before it came, it is well paced. This will appeal more to readers who love women’s fiction.
February 10, 2017
Ahhh I want to give this 5 stars so bad, but I just can't. I just don't feel like the main character went through the appropriate amount of character development to satisfy me. BUT - that's my only complaint. The plot was engaging and a tad disturbing, the rest of the characters are lively and unique, and although the book is on the shorter side I haven't been so immersed in a foreign setting in a very long time - I felt like I really was in Japan, experiencing the culture. I would heartily recommend it; the writing was excellent and this reading experience is one I will definitely repeat. I think it'd be a cool idea to read this one before reading "A Tale for the Time Being" by Ruth Ozeki - then you'd get a one-two punch of excellent fiction novels set in Japan that have school bullying as a major theme.
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December 1, 2016CAN ONE MOMENT OF RAGE ALTER AN ENTIRE LIFE?
BY JUDGE LIBERTY HARDY
What no one knows about Rio Silvestri, a thirty-something woman living a picture perfect life in Colorado with her husband and daughter, is that when she was 12 years old and living in Japan, she stabbed the school bully in the neck with a letter opener. Gasp!
Rio would be content to keep her secret hidden for the rest of her life, but when a mysterious letter arrives at her doorstep informing her of the death of her father, Rio realizes she may not have put the past completely behind her She journeys back to Japan alone for his funeral opening the door to decades-old hurts and grief, while taking readers on a dark journey in search of truth and closure.
Kelly Luce is an incendiary writer, and her sentences sizzle like a lit fuse. Beginning with the story of Rio’s traumatic childhood in Japan, Luce delves deep into the problems Rio faced - losing her mother, being abandoned by her father and tormented by the school bully - but never once makes excuses for her violent act. Instead Luce captures Rio’s loneliness and rage, and explores these themes with rawness and compassion, from Rio’s teen years as a resident of a Japanese psychiatric facility, through to her years of rebuilding herself in America, right up to her return to Japan.
The question at the heart of this psychologically intense mystery is not a whodunit - we know Rio did it. Instead, the mystery lies within Rio herself: Has she really changed? Will returning to Japan make her repressed feelings and anger come bubbling to the surface? Is it possible to be a whole person without redemption or forgiveness? Can a person ever escape her past?
I cannot stress enough how magnificent the writing is in the book, and how well Luce breathes a haunting realism into the story so that despair and hope become entwined.
BY JUDGE LIBERTY HARDY
What no one knows about Rio Silvestri, a thirty-something woman living a picture perfect life in Colorado with her husband and daughter, is that when she was 12 years old and living in Japan, she stabbed the school bully in the neck with a letter opener. Gasp!
Rio would be content to keep her secret hidden for the rest of her life, but when a mysterious letter arrives at her doorstep informing her of the death of her father, Rio realizes she may not have put the past completely behind her She journeys back to Japan alone for his funeral opening the door to decades-old hurts and grief, while taking readers on a dark journey in search of truth and closure.
Kelly Luce is an incendiary writer, and her sentences sizzle like a lit fuse. Beginning with the story of Rio’s traumatic childhood in Japan, Luce delves deep into the problems Rio faced - losing her mother, being abandoned by her father and tormented by the school bully - but never once makes excuses for her violent act. Instead Luce captures Rio’s loneliness and rage, and explores these themes with rawness and compassion, from Rio’s teen years as a resident of a Japanese psychiatric facility, through to her years of rebuilding herself in America, right up to her return to Japan.
The question at the heart of this psychologically intense mystery is not a whodunit - we know Rio did it. Instead, the mystery lies within Rio herself: Has she really changed? Will returning to Japan make her repressed feelings and anger come bubbling to the surface? Is it possible to be a whole person without redemption or forgiveness? Can a person ever escape her past?
I cannot stress enough how magnificent the writing is in the book, and how well Luce breathes a haunting realism into the story so that despair and hope become entwined.
December 29, 2016
Mostly I thought this book was beautifully written while also being a page-turner, which is usually a difficult balance. I have no doubt that Kelly Luce is an amazing writer. I particularly loved the plot structure and her handling of themes pertaining to identity.
I have a few issues with it, though. I hated the ending. I get that not every book will have a satisfying ending that perfectly completes an arc, but to me it was a little more touchy-feely than I thought it should have been. This ties into my other issue: Rio refers to her latent anger/depression as "the black organ," and I think throughout the book, the author begins to use that nickname as a crutch to tell rather than show. In other words, Luce wasn't afraid to take on some really dark themes and subjects, but fell short on fully delivering them.
Still, it was a really enjoyable read.
I have a few issues with it, though. I hated the ending. I get that not every book will have a satisfying ending that perfectly completes an arc, but to me it was a little more touchy-feely than I thought it should have been. This ties into my other issue: Rio refers to her latent anger/depression as "the black organ," and I think throughout the book, the author begins to use that nickname as a crutch to tell rather than show. In other words, Luce wasn't afraid to take on some really dark themes and subjects, but fell short on fully delivering them.
Still, it was a really enjoyable read.
March 24, 2021
This is the tale of Chizuru Akitani, a girl who, at 12, ‘snaps’ and kills a classmate who has been bullying her. When she’s discharged from juvenile prison (an experience recounted in the prologue, which turns out to be the best and most powerful part of the novel), she changes her name to Rio, moves to the USA, becomes a nurse, gets married and has a daughter, Lily. In the story’s present day, 26 years on from her crime, she learns her father has died, and decides to return to Japan. The blurb hints at mysterious goings-on and secrets unearthed, but it’s much more mellow than that would suggest – perhaps oddly so, given its dark beginnings. The focus is always on Rio and her soul-searching; it’s clear we are supposed to regard her as a tormented heroine on a path to personal fulfilment, no matter how troubling her behaviour becomes. (Her victim and his family are barely acknowledged.) There’s also so much superfluous stuff about running in this book that I wondered whether the author had at some point wanted to write a running memoir and decided to smuggle that material into a novel. Still not sure why it was called Pull Me Under, either.
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TinyLetter | Linktree
December 29, 2017
4.25/5 stars
I really enjoyed this! Tbh I can't understand the negative reviews on this at all, but to each their own I suppose!
This book totally hooked me from page one. In the very beginning we find out that Rio - or, Chizuru - had murdered one of her classmates (very specifically with a Morimoto letter opener) only a few months after the death of her mother and she has been sent to a juvenile detention facility at the age of twelve. By the time she's twenty years old, she's had hardly any visitors - including her father who doesn't visit after the first few months because of the shame she has brought him - and she is given a chance to start over and go to America. So she goes abroad to become an American citizen (allowed because of her mother's background) and attends college to become a nurse. She gets married and has a child, hiding her past from her new life, until one day that she gets notice that her father has passed away.
I feel like the majority of reviews are negative because people wanted the story OF the murder. They don't care about what happens afterward - they want the excitement of a murder story. But, unfortunately - or fortunately, at least in my eyes - Kelly Luce, even though she is not Japanese, has nearly perfected the Japanese story telling ways. I think many people picked this up expecting excitement, and were disappointed when it wasn't upheld, because they've never read Japanese literature. Most Japanese lit is extremely quiet, focusing on just a handful of characters and their everyday lives, and sometimes a personal/spiritual journey. TBH this one had almost a little too much plot - but, again, Luce isn't actually Japanese so we have to forgive her on those grounds.
I LOVED this story. I appreciated the fact that it wasn't just a murder mystery or a quick thing about a twelve year old girl killing a boy in her class. There are way too many books like that - that feed off of people's short attention spans and need for instant gratification. I appreciated so much getting to see what Rio's life was AFTER the murder, AFTER she lost control of herself and had to waste away eight years of her life in a detention center, and AFTER she has already completely changed herself and made a new life for herself. I thought it was a fascinating character study.
The reasons this isn't a 5 star is because I did find myself just a little bit bored in the middle - there was so much about her Elementary School Teacher I didn't really care much for, as well as when they're hiking there's just so much unnecessary description and explanation of things that weren't important. BUT, other than that, this book was wonderful!
I loved the characters, I loved the snippets of the story falling into place over time, and I loved the writing. This also lowkey felt a little like Black Mirror with making you question your morals. The question of "do you agree that murderers are murderers for life and deserve to be locked up or do you believe that they can genuinely change" was always present, at least for me. It was definitely an interesting one for sure.
I don't suggest this book for everyone, seeing that everyone who got this from their BOTM box or whatever has hated it - this is definitely a story for people who enjoy a quiet little Japanese story that doesn't have you flipping the pages needing to know what happens next. It's a story for people who want to THINK rather than gain instant gratification from plot twists and turns.
I really enjoyed this! Tbh I can't understand the negative reviews on this at all, but to each their own I suppose!
This book totally hooked me from page one. In the very beginning we find out that Rio - or, Chizuru - had murdered one of her classmates (very specifically with a Morimoto letter opener) only a few months after the death of her mother and she has been sent to a juvenile detention facility at the age of twelve. By the time she's twenty years old, she's had hardly any visitors - including her father who doesn't visit after the first few months because of the shame she has brought him - and she is given a chance to start over and go to America. So she goes abroad to become an American citizen (allowed because of her mother's background) and attends college to become a nurse. She gets married and has a child, hiding her past from her new life, until one day that she gets notice that her father has passed away.
I feel like the majority of reviews are negative because people wanted the story OF the murder. They don't care about what happens afterward - they want the excitement of a murder story. But, unfortunately - or fortunately, at least in my eyes - Kelly Luce, even though she is not Japanese, has nearly perfected the Japanese story telling ways. I think many people picked this up expecting excitement, and were disappointed when it wasn't upheld, because they've never read Japanese literature. Most Japanese lit is extremely quiet, focusing on just a handful of characters and their everyday lives, and sometimes a personal/spiritual journey. TBH this one had almost a little too much plot - but, again, Luce isn't actually Japanese so we have to forgive her on those grounds.
I LOVED this story. I appreciated the fact that it wasn't just a murder mystery or a quick thing about a twelve year old girl killing a boy in her class. There are way too many books like that - that feed off of people's short attention spans and need for instant gratification. I appreciated so much getting to see what Rio's life was AFTER the murder, AFTER she lost control of herself and had to waste away eight years of her life in a detention center, and AFTER she has already completely changed herself and made a new life for herself. I thought it was a fascinating character study.
The reasons this isn't a 5 star is because I did find myself just a little bit bored in the middle - there was so much about her Elementary School Teacher I didn't really care much for, as well as when they're hiking there's just so much unnecessary description and explanation of things that weren't important. BUT, other than that, this book was wonderful!
I loved the characters, I loved the snippets of the story falling into place over time, and I loved the writing. This also lowkey felt a little like Black Mirror with making you question your morals. The question of "do you agree that murderers are murderers for life and deserve to be locked up or do you believe that they can genuinely change" was always present, at least for me. It was definitely an interesting one for sure.
I don't suggest this book for everyone, seeing that everyone who got this from their BOTM box or whatever has hated it - this is definitely a story for people who enjoy a quiet little Japanese story that doesn't have you flipping the pages needing to know what happens next. It's a story for people who want to THINK rather than gain instant gratification from plot twists and turns.
September 5, 2016
It's Kelly Luce, whattya expect?
February 9, 2017
Really strong beginning, but I found the plot to kind of fall apart in the latter half. Also, while I appreciated the use of Japanese language and culture, and there were many things that demonstrated a rich knowledge of both, some of the inaccuracies about Boulder, Colorado were a bit irksome. For instance, there is a line that states that almost no Japanese people are on CU's campus (my alma mater, where I majored in Japanese, by the way), which is emphatically not true. CU Boulder has a renowned Japanese program, as well as many Japanese exchange students. That was one of the things that felt sloppy about this novel.
That being said, there were some great passages, and I thought the symbolism and motifs were interesting and unique, if not a little heavy-handed. This novel is extremely readable and compelling, but could have been tightened up in a few spots.
That being said, there were some great passages, and I thought the symbolism and motifs were interesting and unique, if not a little heavy-handed. This novel is extremely readable and compelling, but could have been tightened up in a few spots.
November 17, 2016
“What if there was a fork in the road a long time ago, and I took the wrong path?” asks Rio Silvestri, the narrator of Kelly Luce’s debut novel, Pull Me Under. Rio’s question is a fundamentally human one: would my present be better if not for my past? In Luce’s hands, the answer is a nuanced dance across many decades and between two countries. Rio must reconcile her fraught childhood in Japan as Chizuru Akitani—an infamous juvenile delinquent—with her painstakingly constructed life in America. Pull Me Under offers a lush map of one woman’s journey through the ramifications of her choices and the nature of forgiveness....
[To see my full review for The Rumpus, go here: http://therumpus.net/2016/11/pull-me-...]
[To see my full review for The Rumpus, go here: http://therumpus.net/2016/11/pull-me-...]
September 15, 2024
I finished listening to the audiobook of Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce. It was one of the 25 books I wanted to finish this year. For me it was just OK, and probably one that I could have dnfed.
And there are trigger warnings for:
illness, death of a loved one, bullying and physical assault bullying, there was also a little bit of language and one scene of two teens undressed but nothing is described.
And there are trigger warnings for:
illness, death of a loved one, bullying and physical assault bullying, there was also a little bit of language and one scene of two teens undressed but nothing is described.
July 2, 2018
Poignant and profound. I loved this book so much. Felt for Rio.
December 15, 2016
I loved this book. It's the kind of book that you can't--or don't want to--put down; the story doesn't lull at any point. I love learning about other cultures, so I loved that this book offers you a glimpse into Japanese culture. The protagonist is a character you will root for, feel heartbroken for, and want to reach through the book to hug. #allthefeels
December 16, 2016
This was such a pleasant surprise. I knew very little of the story beforehand, but I devoured this book in two short days (which is quick for me). The plot focuses on facing your demons from your past, but it's the smooth, pleasing writing that made this such an enjoyable read for me.
October 18, 2021
Though I found this interestingly different to start with - following the live of a Japanese-American woman returning to the country of her birth after her father dies, forced to confront vary dark secrets from her childhood she left well behind - it didn't really maintain my interest. Tiptoeing along the edge of the trap some authors have where they believe exotic automatically means exciting, it went more and more in to the area of padding out a less eventful second half of the novel with cultural reference after cultural reference, and held my attention less. Though the premise of denying/escaping one's past can be an intriguing one, and contrasts can provide thought-provoking aspects, for all the fact this novel was well-written in the main, I think it fell short following an excellent first quarter.
March 19, 2022
To co w tej książce jest dobre to okładka i historia tego co zrobiła. Czyli niewiele. Reszta była nudna, zagmatwana, chaotyczna, bezsensowna. Zmęczyła mnie ta książka i z radością ją zamknęłam. Wynurzenia Rio i część jej problemów, przyprawiała mnie momentami o śmiech, zamiast o wzruszenie czy poruszenie czy co tam jeszcze może być.
Ogólnie nuuuuuudy.
Ogólnie nuuuuuudy.
November 18, 2021
I have no idea why this book isn't popular?? This is actually ACTUALLY GOOD! Y'all go read!
March 13, 2017
I'll admit one of the most appealing elements of this book was the Japan setting, and I loved the snippets of Japanese culture described throughout. The details of the temple pilgrimage were fascinating and led me to seek more details about the trail outside of the book.
But travel inspiration aside, I did really enjoy this read. I loved how the story started off by recalling the narrators time spent in the detention centre; doing so really grabbed my interest and I was invested in the story before I knew it.
As we learned more about Rio as an adult I started to dislike her as she seemed selfish and dishonest. I tried to cut her some slack as her upbringing obviously caused some trust and relationship issues. I can (sort of) also understand how a lie told enough times can be believed as truth by the teller. Rio basically lied a little bubble around herself to protect herself from the truth of her past.
At first mention of the 'black organ' I thought we were going to hear about a Dexter-esque 'Dark Passenger', but it seemed to me that Chizuru was just referring to her heart. Dealing with the constant bullying and casual racism due to her parentage seems to have made 12 year old Chizuru hot-tempered and her heart/black organ reacts strongly to indignation. I wouldn't say that's particularly uncommon, but her reaction to it was interesting.
I never pictured her as a murderer. It wasn't until her husband asked her whether she felt like a murderer that I even really associated that word with her. It certainly wasn't a premeditated act, but it wasn't exactly an accident either, so I'm not sure what to make of it.
But travel inspiration aside, I did really enjoy this read. I loved how the story started off by recalling the narrators time spent in the detention centre; doing so really grabbed my interest and I was invested in the story before I knew it.
As we learned more about Rio as an adult I started to dislike her as she seemed selfish and dishonest. I tried to cut her some slack as her upbringing obviously caused some trust and relationship issues. I can (sort of) also understand how a lie told enough times can be believed as truth by the teller. Rio basically lied a little bubble around herself to protect herself from the truth of her past.
At first mention of the 'black organ' I thought we were going to hear about a Dexter-esque 'Dark Passenger', but it seemed to me that Chizuru was just referring to her heart. Dealing with the constant bullying and casual racism due to her parentage seems to have made 12 year old Chizuru hot-tempered and her heart/black organ reacts strongly to indignation. I wouldn't say that's particularly uncommon, but her reaction to it was interesting.
I never pictured her as a murderer. It wasn't until her husband asked her whether she felt like a murderer that I even really associated that word with her. It certainly wasn't a premeditated act, but it wasn't exactly an accident either, so I'm not sure what to make of it.
December 18, 2016
More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.
Pull Me Under was my Book of the Month selection for December. I wasn't really thrilled with any of the selections, but I wanted to get two other books, and you can't skip the month and still do that, so I went with Pull Me Under. The story here is about Rio, originally Chizuru, who is half American and half Japanese, and spent the first half of her life there--though eight years of that time was spent in a juvenile detention facility after she stabbed and killed a classmate with a letter opener. After she was released from the center, she moved to the United States, changed her name to Rio, and essentially erased her entire past. Now married and with an eleven-year-old daughter, Rio Silvestri is completely disconnected from the life she once led...
...until she gets a letter that her father, a Japanese National Treasure and renowned violinist, has died. Rio decides to return to Japan to attend the funeral despite the fact that she and her father haven't spoken in at least eighteen years. She leaves her husband and daughter behind in the US, not wanting them to realize who she was in her past life, and jets off for the funeral. Once in Japan, she runs into Danny, one of her former teachers, and basically invites herself along into Danny's life and onto a pilgrimage to eighty-eight temples that Danny has sent herself to doing. Meanwhile she continues to avoid telling her husband what's really going on, despite his obvious frustration and knowledge that something is going on.
We know from the beginning that Rio killed someone, and that she doesn't really feel like a murderer. There's a sense of disconnect from the actual murder and its aftermath and what her life has become. That said, I still didn't like Rio. She has this real sense of righteousness about her and is, again, a very selfish character. I understand her fear that her husband might not want anything to do with her if he knows about her path--that I get. But when she returns to Japan and forces herself into Danny's life, when Danny clearly does not want her there, and then inviting other people along, too...that was incredibly inconsiderate and very selfish of her. She holds no consideration for other people and how they might feel regarding her father, and instead seems to feel that she should be the center of this trip even though she and her father have been completely out of touch for more than half her life.
There was some lovely writing here, and I feel like Luce got a real sense of Japan for someone like myself who hasn't ever been there. I don't think Luce is a bad writer, not at all, and I liked how the story was constructed, all of the supporting characters, and how unique everything was. I just didn't like Rio as a character or a person, finding her far too selfish for my tastes--refusing to be there for her daughter because her daughter was "testing" her, feeling indignation that her husband is upset that she was hiding her past for their entire marriage, etc.--and that really dragged down the book as a whole for me.
3 stars out of 5.
Pull Me Under was my Book of the Month selection for December. I wasn't really thrilled with any of the selections, but I wanted to get two other books, and you can't skip the month and still do that, so I went with Pull Me Under. The story here is about Rio, originally Chizuru, who is half American and half Japanese, and spent the first half of her life there--though eight years of that time was spent in a juvenile detention facility after she stabbed and killed a classmate with a letter opener. After she was released from the center, she moved to the United States, changed her name to Rio, and essentially erased her entire past. Now married and with an eleven-year-old daughter, Rio Silvestri is completely disconnected from the life she once led...
...until she gets a letter that her father, a Japanese National Treasure and renowned violinist, has died. Rio decides to return to Japan to attend the funeral despite the fact that she and her father haven't spoken in at least eighteen years. She leaves her husband and daughter behind in the US, not wanting them to realize who she was in her past life, and jets off for the funeral. Once in Japan, she runs into Danny, one of her former teachers, and basically invites herself along into Danny's life and onto a pilgrimage to eighty-eight temples that Danny has sent herself to doing. Meanwhile she continues to avoid telling her husband what's really going on, despite his obvious frustration and knowledge that something is going on.
We know from the beginning that Rio killed someone, and that she doesn't really feel like a murderer. There's a sense of disconnect from the actual murder and its aftermath and what her life has become. That said, I still didn't like Rio. She has this real sense of righteousness about her and is, again, a very selfish character. I understand her fear that her husband might not want anything to do with her if he knows about her path--that I get. But when she returns to Japan and forces herself into Danny's life, when Danny clearly does not want her there, and then inviting other people along, too...that was incredibly inconsiderate and very selfish of her. She holds no consideration for other people and how they might feel regarding her father, and instead seems to feel that she should be the center of this trip even though she and her father have been completely out of touch for more than half her life.
There was some lovely writing here, and I feel like Luce got a real sense of Japan for someone like myself who hasn't ever been there. I don't think Luce is a bad writer, not at all, and I liked how the story was constructed, all of the supporting characters, and how unique everything was. I just didn't like Rio as a character or a person, finding her far too selfish for my tastes--refusing to be there for her daughter because her daughter was "testing" her, feeling indignation that her husband is upset that she was hiding her past for their entire marriage, etc.--and that really dragged down the book as a whole for me.
3 stars out of 5.
January 3, 2019
Synopsis
This is the story of a young woman who holds a terrible childhood secret. This secret comes to haunt her in her adult life, and on a new continent. You follow Rio, as she goes home to her hometown in Japan, and uncovers secrets, and tries to come to terms with her past.
Thoughts // Review
I didn’t want to give much more of a synopsis than I did, because I have heard a lot of complaints about this book centered around people’s expectations. This book is definitely not your typical thriller; it’s not really a thriller at all. There are very ominous and mysterious aspects of the story that keep you turning each page, but this is definitely more literary than thriller (and even a character study of sorts).
I really loved how much research was put into this novel. I could tell that Kelly Luce spent time making sure that her story was authentic and believable. I loved feeling totally immersed in Japanese culture, and I really enjoyed Rio’s time in Japan, as she explores her past, and uncovers old history.
The writing style was simple and direct (but GOOD), and I think this helped the story feel true with the delivery of its themes and messages.
This book deals with some really hard topics, in terms of how we deal with being bullied, how we feel when we lose a loved one, and how we hide who we are from those we are closest to. This book goes back and forth from Rio’s past, to present, and in the past sections, you see that Rio was mercilessly bullied for her mixed-race ancestry, and she is dubbed “hafu,” by her school peers who refuse to accept her as one of their own.
I did have one complaint of the story, making this book not quite a 5 star read for me. I felt that all of the men in the book were almost paper cutouts of bad guys. I found the biggest offender of male sterotyping was Rio’s husband, Sal. He felt like he was pulled out of your corniest rom-com film. He was always attentive to Rio, even when she was being secretive, and he seemed way too okay with the fact that she keeps in totally in the dark about her past. He only questions what Rio allows him to question, in regards to her former life in Japan. When he does get filled in on the secrets she hasn’t told him, he acts a little upset, but eventually he just accepts the reality of his new life. He is a character that definitely seems written through the filter of a female writer. No one is this good; no one is this understanding. This was the only aspect of the book that didn’t really make sense and didn’t seem realistic to me.
That being said, I also liked how the book ended, and I felt that the length of this book was pretty perfect. The author said just enough throughout the novel to make the story interesting and thorough, but she didn’t drag out the story and tell you anything that was unnecessary. The book felt like it had purpose, and its purpose was fulfilled, in my opinion.
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
This is the story of a young woman who holds a terrible childhood secret. This secret comes to haunt her in her adult life, and on a new continent. You follow Rio, as she goes home to her hometown in Japan, and uncovers secrets, and tries to come to terms with her past.
Thoughts // Review
I didn’t want to give much more of a synopsis than I did, because I have heard a lot of complaints about this book centered around people’s expectations. This book is definitely not your typical thriller; it’s not really a thriller at all. There are very ominous and mysterious aspects of the story that keep you turning each page, but this is definitely more literary than thriller (and even a character study of sorts).
I really loved how much research was put into this novel. I could tell that Kelly Luce spent time making sure that her story was authentic and believable. I loved feeling totally immersed in Japanese culture, and I really enjoyed Rio’s time in Japan, as she explores her past, and uncovers old history.
The writing style was simple and direct (but GOOD), and I think this helped the story feel true with the delivery of its themes and messages.
This book deals with some really hard topics, in terms of how we deal with being bullied, how we feel when we lose a loved one, and how we hide who we are from those we are closest to. This book goes back and forth from Rio’s past, to present, and in the past sections, you see that Rio was mercilessly bullied for her mixed-race ancestry, and she is dubbed “hafu,” by her school peers who refuse to accept her as one of their own.
I did have one complaint of the story, making this book not quite a 5 star read for me. I felt that all of the men in the book were almost paper cutouts of bad guys. I found the biggest offender of male sterotyping was Rio’s husband, Sal. He felt like he was pulled out of your corniest rom-com film. He was always attentive to Rio, even when she was being secretive, and he seemed way too okay with the fact that she keeps in totally in the dark about her past. He only questions what Rio allows him to question, in regards to her former life in Japan. When he does get filled in on the secrets she hasn’t told him, he acts a little upset, but eventually he just accepts the reality of his new life. He is a character that definitely seems written through the filter of a female writer. No one is this good; no one is this understanding. This was the only aspect of the book that didn’t really make sense and didn’t seem realistic to me.
That being said, I also liked how the book ended, and I felt that the length of this book was pretty perfect. The author said just enough throughout the novel to make the story interesting and thorough, but she didn’t drag out the story and tell you anything that was unnecessary. The book felt like it had purpose, and its purpose was fulfilled, in my opinion.
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
February 4, 2017
The character development in Pull Me Under is on point, and the storyline creates intrigue and enticement. I was pulled in to the story from the very first page. After about three or four chapters, I was nearly positive I'd be giving this novel 5 stars. A young girl kills a classmate, and as a woman she must confront the demons she's hid away for so long. We get the psychological factor. We get a little bit of suspense, and we get a ton of interaction between characters that allows us as readers to get inside the head of a complex protagonist and truly feel and understand her story. It's a whole lotta good.
But for some reason, as the story went along, I felt that something was missing. As with any book you really, really like, it's hard for me to name exactly what it is that kept me from loving this book like I expected to at the beginning. Maybe a little bit of boringness in the way of characters. When Rio returns to Japan, I think I was expecting more than what was offered both in characters and action. And descriptions started to get mundane. I found myself reading a scene and wanting it to hurry up so I could get to the next scene. There was a small something that just wasn't there for me, so I can't move this book from "really, really like" to "love."
I still totally recommend though. Great story.
But for some reason, as the story went along, I felt that something was missing. As with any book you really, really like, it's hard for me to name exactly what it is that kept me from loving this book like I expected to at the beginning. Maybe a little bit of boringness in the way of characters. When Rio returns to Japan, I think I was expecting more than what was offered both in characters and action. And descriptions started to get mundane. I found myself reading a scene and wanting it to hurry up so I could get to the next scene. There was a small something that just wasn't there for me, so I can't move this book from "really, really like" to "love."
I still totally recommend though. Great story.
December 26, 2016
This is such a beautifully written, mesmerizing story. The opening page had me hooked immediately, and I expected a much different story arc. I was surprised to find such a stunning personal exploration by our narrator, Chizuru Akitani. Now 35, Chizuru takes us on her journey forth from age 12, forth from the one event she felt she would never escape.
May 20, 2017
There are several inconsistencies in this book that don't hold to true, IRL facts, and a few things that I think editing should've caught. It also was NOT AT ALL the type of book that I thought it would be. Based on the (very limited) amount I read from the blurb/some reviews, I thought this would be more of a mystery/thriller-type book. But it isn't. Because I went in mostly blind, however, I had no real expectations of this book, and as such, I think I enjoyed it more than many of my friends seemed to. I liked the slower pacing of this book, I liked the way that each new facet of the story was revealed piece by piece, and I liked reading about complicated family relationships. I thought the parallel between Rio facing her 12-year-old self's actions/relationships was nice when she was also trying to navigate parenting her 12-year-old daughter, too.
I don't know what else to say about this, but I did really enjoy it.
I don't know what else to say about this, but I did really enjoy it.
January 3, 2017
This is an interesting read. We know from the beginning of the murder and the murderer. The mystery is the unveiling of events leading up to the murder and the consequences of that action. There are many complicated relationships which all are somehow related. The main character is half Japanese and half. This causes great difficulty throughout her life. The differences between the two cultures is a theme throughout the novel.
February 10, 2017
Easy read that I finished in a day. It was interesting to read about the Japanese culture and I really enjoyed all of the characters; flaws and all.
June 4, 2017
What a disappointment.
To read my full review, click here.
To read my full review, click here.
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