Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Enjoyed reading Rainbirds!

When I picked it up, I didn’t really checked on what it was about and was taken by surprise that instead of a local story, it’s characters are actually Japanese!
I couldn’t stop thinking about Haruki Murakami whilst reading it though.

That silent slow build up mystery, ‘normal’ but weird characters in their own way and that every chapter starts with a title, made it seem one is reading short stories. It feels like reading a ‘soft’ mystery thriller. not gory but sad and emotional. there’s that need to find out who the murderer is (there was no answer to who anyway) but at the same time, invested to know how the main character deal with the loss. left with more questions than answers but glad that there’s some form of closure.

i really don’t mind if there’s a sequence to Rainbirds. or a prequel even. I feel like stalking the characters.

sigh…this is going to leave me ‘lost’ after reading a good book. Going to be hard to pick up the next and stay intrigued!




View all my reviews

if you’re into japanese authors or storylines, i think Clarissa did fantastic. you might like this book if you’re into haruki or kazuo. mysterious and thriller-ish enough to keep you wondering who-did-it, but always have that feel japanese authors usually have, normal- eccentric characters, enough emotions to understand what the characters are going through and that heartwrenching search for self identity and/or the truth.