I read a whopping 28 books in Japanese this year! That’s the most I’ve been able to read in a single year.
I think this is thanks to discovering audiobooks in Japanese. I started with 同氏少女よ、敵を撃て (Doushi Shojo yo, Teki wo Ute) which was such a dense story and I began to read it alongside the audiobook to get my reading speed up. This technique worked so well I kept it up for most of the books I read this year!
I also listened to a few via audiobook only. These were mostly non-fiction books on my commute to work. I struggle to read non-fiction because they’re so boring, but listening to them was a lot easier! Most of the non-fiction books I read were focusing on improving my speaking skills.
But besides non-fiction, the bulk of my reading in Japanese were mystery and other genre fiction novels. I found I really enjoyed high-suspense and adrenaline inducing stories as opposed to trying too hard to be “high literature” literary novels. Which certainly shows in my selection for this list!
So without further ado, here are my best and work Japanese books of 2024.
Best Japanese Books of 2024
I focused on trying to read books I thought I would like this year, which resulted in a pretty good year for Japanese novels. Here were my top five Japanese novels of 2024.
店長がバカすぎて (Tencho ga Baka sugite) by Kazumasa Hayami
This novel is about a woman working in a bookstore trying to juggle her frustrating boss, frustrating customers, and frustrating coworkers.
I read this alongside the audiobook and the juxtaposition between her internal voice and what she actually said was so funny.
I love stories with focus on work environments in Japan because you can tell the author has experienced these things (or at least talked to people who have). As someone who lives and works in Japan, the frustrations are too relatable.
Read my full review here: My Manager Is a Moron (店長がバガすぎて)
同氏少女よ、敵を撃て (Doushi Shojo yo, Teki o Ute) by Touma Aisaka
I don’t normally read historic fiction, but decided to give this a go after hearing all the great reviews, and I was not disappointed. The story follows a young Russian woman as circumstances force her to become a sniper in the Soviet Army against the Germans during WWII. It’s based on real events and you can tell the author did his research (not as common as you might think in Japanese fiction).
It’s dark, gritty, depressing, and the ending made me gasp out loud. I couldn’t put it down.
Read my full review here: Shoot the Enemy, Comrade – 同志少女よ、敵を撃て (Doushi Shojo Yo Teki wo Ute)
告白 (Kokuhaku) by Kanae Minato
This story is so dark. It follows several people’s perspectives after a very you girl is found dead in a school swimming pool. Only the first perspective if of the girl’s mother telling her students that it wasn’t an accident—someone in the class murdered her.
Every perspective had me on the edge of my seat with twist after twist making my blood colder and colder.
It was gripping and horrifying and a great read.
CW: child death and abuse
777 (Triple Seven) by Koutarou Isaka
This novel is the non-direct sequel to マリアビートル (also known as Bullet Train in the West). It follows the lucky/unlucky Ladybug as he tries to do a “simple” job in a hotel and gets dragged into mayhem.
This wasn’t as good as the previous books in series, I think because the author was writing off the success of the Hollywood Movie, but it’s still a fun ride.
薔薇色じゃない (Bara-iro janai) by Yuu Nagira
This is a cute slow-burn romance between two men who dated in college, fell apart and then spend the next decade dancing around each other. I picked this as one of my top books of the year because it wasn’t like any BL I’ve read, it felt realistic.
The relationship is messy, the people are messy, the world they live in is messy. There were discussions about healthy communication in relationships, and what happens when you deny what makes you happy because it’s what you think your family want.
Nagira has written a lot of romance, both BL and hetro, her novel 汝、星のごとく (Nanji, Hoshi no Gotoku) (which I plan to read next year) is also incredibly popular.
Worst Japanese Books of 2024
I feel like I can’t give my top favourite books of the last year without also giving my least favourite. In the hopes I can encourage someone to read one of the above, I also hope to make sure no one wastes their time (like I did) on the next five novels.
SPOILER WARNING: I give spoilers for all the books I discuss because otherwise I can’t explain why these novels sucked eggs so hard.
そして、バトンは渡された (Soshite, Baton wa Watasareta) by Maiko Seo
I described this novel as a nothing sandwich because that’s what it is. The main character is in “foster care” (which isn’t real foster care, she’s just passed from adult to adult and somehow that’s legal?) after her mom dies and her dad is transferred abroad. It’s supposed to be a story about found family, but the main character is so incredibly passive that nothing happens for the bulk of the book.
The ending jumps forward a few years and we found out one of her foster parents hid where she was from her dad because she didn’t want to give her back, but handed her to strangers anyway??? And the main character is okay with this???
The book is all tell and no show, even to the point where it tells you how you should feel. Sadly many Japanese people have fallen for this terrible book.
Read my full review here: A Nothing Sandwich “And the Baton Was Passed” (そして、バトンは渡された)
正欲 (Seiyoku) by Ryo Asai
This novel was so bad I stopped reading after 300 pages. The plot is a not-so-subtle argument that people with kinks should be considered minorities the same as LGBTQ+ people. But a kink and a sexual identity are not the same thing. (Not to mention Japan is one of the most accommodating to different kinks.)
The story follows different perspectives but each character is as insufferable as the last. Worst of all, it read more like an apologist’s excuse for pedophilia, and I was not going to force myself through another 300 pages of people bitching and moaning, and lacking common sense.
黄色い家 (Kiiroi Ie) by Meiko Kawakami
This felt very similar to そして、バトンは渡された in that nothing really happens. The blurb’s caption is something like “you’ll do anything for money” which I assumed meant they’d look at the lengths people would take to survive poverty in the late 80s/90s. But that’s not what happens.
The implication at the start of the book is that something traumatizing happens to these young girls while in this woman’s care. Something happened when a young woman died, but when you finally get to the “climax” after several hundred pages, the death happens off screen to someone they barely know. It turns out the women “taking care of them” did nothing (literally nothing) and the drama just fizzles out.
The story tries to be edgy without being edgy. It wants to talk about the underbelly of society without touching on organized crime or the yakuza. It was a very disappointing book that didn’t delivery on what it promised.
If you want to read a thrilling story about what really happens when a young women gets too involved in crime read Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster’s Daughter by Shoko Tendo.
クローズドサスペンスヘブン (Closed Suspense Heaven) by Norio Gojo
This is a mystery novel that is neither suspenseful nor mysterious.
The premise is that a group of people wake up in a resort with no memory of how they got there, apart from they were all murdered. A very intriguing premise…if the story actually did anything with it.
The main issue with this novel is the characters are very quick to accept they’re dead (even though there’s no proof), and even if they “die” in this after-life they’ll eventually come back to “life” (come back to after-life?) anyway, so any suspense is instantly neutered.
The leaps in logic are ridiculous with a contrived ending that had my eyes rolling so hard in my head it hurt.
レーエンデ国物語 (Leende-koku Monogatari) by Rei Tasaki
I love fantasy novels. I read more fantasy in English than any other genre of novel. But Japanese fantasy often feels shallower than Western fantasy and I was disappointed that this novel was just as shallow.
I loved the writing, the tone, the vivid descriptions of the environment and the voice of the characters. But I disliked the bland story and despised the sexist undertone.
The main character Julia is prophesied to change the country of Leende forever. But what is really means is she lives in this country for a few years, not doing all that much, and has a magic demon baby which is immediately stolen from her off-screen.
There’s more going on hinting at an international conspiracy but that happens, again, off-screen. Any time anything interesting does happen it’s only when the other main character Tristin is doing anything.
I was hoping the next book would be Julia rising to power and saving her baby but the epilogue reveals she leaves Leende pretty quickly, never to return or see her magical baby again. She lives a long life, has more children, then dies (all off-screen).
What. A. Disappointment.
This novel tried so hard to be an epic while completely underutilizing its main lead. Even when they’re supposed to be the chosen one, women in this world are only good for making babies.
There you have it, my best and worst Japanese novels of 2024. I luckily read mostly great novels this year, but the ones that sucked, sucked hard.
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