Luong N’s Reviews > Người Tivi > Status Update

Oh my. What a great story. Reminds me of The Yellow Wallpaper, but much more psychological and disturbing. If I can give more scores I would. Perfect 5/5.

Okay. I finished that story. Upon arriving at the ending, I thought, hey, that was abrupt. So she finally gave in to insanity, that's it huh. I wasn't satisfied. So after a round of the internet, one interpretation rocked my mind and literally gave me shivers: the shadowy men rocking her back and forth is her husband and son, trying to wake her from her finally sleeping and put her back to her mundane routine life.

Who haven't had million of thoughts when you can't sleep?

This whole story is basically one long internal monologues and it's hard not to feel sympathy for the character, who still exists in today's world - the housewife, the mother whose day-to-day life consists of the same routine, whose life got churned into meaningless cycles of tasks and responsibilities.

Okay, reading to feel asleep is... so me. Im reading a character, describing something that...im doing

Losing your self-identifying hobby just because of growing up and having no time to do so is sad but again, relatable to so many of us out there. That's why brands BANK on nostalgia.

My gawd. This story is SO RELATABLE. As adults, who haven't got a sleepless night once? Who haven't tried everything to get their mind to shut up? Who haven't got a nightmare and sleep paralysis when you finally do get some sleep? I was quite surprised to find that this story is also another horror-adjecent themed, and even more surprised to see that I was actually scared when reading about her nightmare.

5th story: Zombie!
This brief one is full-blown horror - and I enjoyed it tremendously! I feel like it could even sit comfortably in one of Stephen King's short story collections - it's dark, short, and disturbing. Perfect 5/5!

Note: Apparently, "Kano Creta" and "Zombie" remained untranslated for English readers, which is such a shame!

...Score: 4/5

The 4th story, Kano Creta. By this time I was fairly used to Murakami's writing style and topics. But this story got my eyes opened wide with surprise: it was filled with supernatural horror. My god. Murakami really unleashed himself here. By the end, not only my eyes, but my mouth opened too. A disturbingly creepy story, and I dare say it's even darker than the darkest stuff that any western writer can come up with