I recently finished reading 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore. I'm a bit divided on how I feel.
1Q84 was great up until the final third where the plot with the cult and the little people gets dropped in favor of an under developed romance plot. I thought the book was heading toward Aomame's dohta waking up and becoming a secondary antagonist. I also thought that Fuka Eri had been replaced with her dohta and couldn't be trusted. And it seemed like the main characters were joining forces to go to the world of the little people. Basically I was hyped as hell and absolutely nothing happened for the rest of the book. So if there exists a book that's 1Q84 with the supernatural stuff turned up to 11 I absolutely want to read it.
With Kafka I kinda just didn't care any time Kafka was the focus and I was all in for the Nakata parts. I wasn't as excited about the plot since I had no idea where any of it was going. Though, it was weird enough that I was down for whatever. I'd read an entire book of "Old man talks to crazy people and sometimes commits crimes".
The weird sex stuff I didn't mind too much but I prefer not to read a teenage boy describing the texture of semen if I can help it.
I'm not against more Murakami but I'm open to new authors too.
— Random Bonus Info
My absolute favorite book is Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. Which is kind of a detective story about a mysterious web series. I've read all of William Gibson's books but the Blue Ant Trilogy is my favorite.
I also really liked the 3 Body Problem series. Especially The Dark Forest.
I liked the You series by Caroline Kepnes. It's about a serial killer looking for love and being an absolute mess of a person.
And I enjoy detective novels. Hercule Poirot, Philip Marlowe, When Gravity Fails, etc.
by seashellvalley760