Out is the anti-Japanese novel. It’s set in a grotesque version of Japan, one that is fundamentally darker and grimier than one that we are normally exposed to. Make no mistake, we are deep inside the Japanese underbelly, and it is not pretty. There’s a sort of pervasive rot in Out’s Japan, a societal decay that seeps into all parts of life — one that as the reader we are usually content to ignore and one that many authors are content to skim over.
Kirino seeks (at least a little bit) to interrogate the role of women in Japanese society. Out functions remarkably well as a period piece of the 1990s. It’s enraging how deeply unequal society of the time is — and this ends up motivating the murder that sets the story in motion. Eventually things cascade out of proportion, and outside forces are drawn in.
The book is disgustingly dark and gruesome at times — I wanted to vomit at many points. It’s also plain fucking scary at times. The tension gets so thick as the book progresses, and it reaches a peak again and again, each somehow more tense than the one before. That’s remarkable. I cannot express how deeply terrified the last half of the book had me.
There are some plotlines that were never finished, and there was a noticeable change in tone near the end. This is balanced out (in my opinion) by how well Kirino writes fear.
I think there’s much I’ve missed relating to the book’s commentary and literary qualities. I simply could not put it down.
4/5
Written 9 May 2024
Adapted from my review on Goodreads.