A young woman who works at night as a hostess, sits by her dying mother's hospital bed, reflecting on the abuse she endured throughout her childhood. The story unfolds as she contemplates the reasons behind her mother's behaviour, and is I feel ultimately a character study that tackles some uncomfortable and intense themes on relationship dynamics, abuse and the desire to be loved, with the young woman reflecting on how much her childhood has ultimately impacted her life overall...and more importantly how she sees her relationships with others.

An intriguing read if you want to think philosophically on human relationships and grief.

I’m deeply ambivalent about Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell. I think I love the book for how deeply affecting it is but at the same time the extremely distant narration style which to my mind is intentional in order to make this book impactful works both ways, it pulls you in and pushes you out in equal parts.

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Our narrator works as a bar hostess in the red light district of Tokyo, goes about her daily routine until her mother who is on her death bed arrives to stay with her in her last days. A relationship long lost, associated with a lot of grief, guilt and trauma. Our narrator then goes through a rush of past memories, traumatic experiences endured, extreme burn marks now covered with tattoos which though cover the past but also serve as constant reminders of how one unexplained incident inflicted by her mother is here to stay on her body for life.

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The narration meanders in the middle. We see two lost friends, one a runaway and one who takes her own life. More grief and guilt while we feel the tension spilling in the background with regard to her past. The narrator extremely detached and aloof in her dealing with the trauma, pushing it away. A mother daughter relationship, extreme trauma, both physical and emotional is dealt with such cold hands by the author here that at times it gives you the chills. You can see the narrator feeling a sense of relief from what is to come, the umbilical cord finally severing with the impending death of her mother yet there is this sense of darkness that is to come, nothing left to hold on to. Can one really detach themselves from natural ties?

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That ending brought a lump in my throat, the relationship and its tragedies remain unacknowledged for both the women carry such deep sense of grief and guilt that they don’t have the will or the strength to confront it but yet there is this pleading hope for forgiveness, for acceptance as one leaves and one stays behind.

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It’s a novella that will leave you feeling things no matter what you think of the narrative style.
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Thank you @netgalley @scribe_uk @scribepub for the ARC.

While this book sounded promising on paper, it unfortunately didn't quite live up to my expectations.
'Gifted' is about a complicated and strained relationship between a mother and daughter.
It's about an unnamed narrator, a woman in her 20s, who works in Tokyo's red light district. It's about the daughter revisiting her past, and dealing with the trauma from the past abuse she received from her now terminally ill mother. She experiences a rollercoaster of emotions: resentment, pity and the grief that is yet to come.
The story was interesting, but felt a bit disjointed and mundane for my liking.
Huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This short book fell flat for me. I found it quite disjointed and I almost DNF'd it. It just didn't do anything for me really I feel like some of the topics seemed really hard hitting but nothing ever hit hard.

This was an ok book. I liked aspects but overall, it fell flat for me. I found my attention waning unfortunately.

All I can say about the novel is that it was too short and too flat for me to enjoy any of it. There was an interesting story in it, but I needed more pages and more flourish to really get into it. As it stands, I'm not unhappy to have read it, but I didn't enjoy it.

As a young woman watches her mother die in hospital, she thinks back to the abuse she suffered at her hands and spends the novel musing about her childhood and what caused her mother so be so violent. This is a quiet novel but which carries really heavy themes. Quiet because the voice is so cold and detached that there is no sense of tension, but more of the narrator finally beginning to slow down now that they have the space to reflect on their damaging relationship with their mother. It’s a short book, but if you like novels about women floating around Tokyo, drinking, smoking and reflecting, then you will very much enjoy this sharp little book.

Gifted is a compelling exploration of identity and belonging, perfectly balancing fantasy elements with real-life struggles. It’s a great pick for fans of character-driven stories with a twist.

Nothing much happens in the book, certainly no dramatic thrashing it out and discussing all the problems between mother and daughter, but then you wouldn’t expect that of a Japanese novella.
The author probably chooses to emphasise the narrator’s hidden grief and frozen emotional state with these deliberately pared-down, repetitive sentences, but, as is often the case with translations from Japanese, it can sound very flat and awkward in translation, so I was not convinced by the style.

*I received a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review*

Gifted is a novella reflecting on mother-daughter relationships, following a protagonist whose mother is dying. It delves into the complexity of a seemingly abusive relationship, with fragments of the narrator’s past being woven in between descriptions of the mundane, juxtaposing ordinary actions with shocking memories.

I have mixed feelings about this as it felt very passive at times, as though I was watching the narrative unfold at a distance. This made it an incredibly fast read, even for the short 120-page length, and the ending felt quite abrupt. I thought this was effective in the way it reflects time passing and how quickly things change, but it also meant we never got a full picture of what happened to our narrator. The emotion was definitely there though, and the seamless movement between the past and her current reality made me focused in on how her mother’s actions may have influenced her life, despite the fact that a lot of gaps were left to be filled by the reader.

An interesting portrait of a strained relationship, with a strong focus on grief and memory. I’ll definitely be looking out for more by this author!

Thank you to Scribe UK and NetGalley for a copy of this. A short, poignant read set in Tokyo’s nightlife district, with a beautiful writing style that explores a complicated mother-daughter relationship.

Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki, and translated by Allison Markin Powell presents a touching and nuanced portrayal of a troubled mother–daughter relationship, deftly exploring delicate themes such as mourning, anger, anxiety, and the hope for reconciliation. The first-person narrative draws readers deeply into the protagonist's emotions, creating an intimate connection to her inner struggles. As the protagonist navigates her complex feelings toward her mother, the rawness of grief and the tension of unresolved conflict come alive on the page. Yet, amid the turmoil, there are moments of tenderness and the possibility of healing, making the story both heartbreaking and hopeful and the delicate writing adds depth to this emotional journey, making it an impactful read.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC! Gifted by Suzuki Suzumi is translated from the Japanese (by Allison Markin Powell) and about a troubled mother-daughter relationship. On paper, this is the perfect book for me, but unfortunately it didn’t really leave an impression me. It’s only short, 100 pages or so, and so it had to pack a brutal punch which I don’t think it did. It kind of just ~was~. Considering it tackles topics like childhood abuse, sex work, a dying parent, it lacks the emotion you’d expect. It’s detached, likely purposeful, but for me that style didn’t work. I’d probably give this author’s work another go, but sadly this one missed the mark.

A short and profound meditation that centres on the relationship between a, daughter and her dying mother, that contains so much more than this. It covers Tokyo life as a sex worker, family relationships and fleeting moments that have a lasting effect as they are experienced and afterwards.

The matter of fact narration, the disturbing details that stay with you, the fact that as much is said in the gaps between the words as in the sentences themselves. Very little comfort is to be found in the pages, but the story rings very real and very true. Intriguing.

Published 24 October 2024. A short novella, translated from the Japanese, and set in Tokyo. The book is about a mother-daughter relationship. Our narrator is a twenty something hostess and now her mother, who she left home to get away from, is dying. What I was expecting was a coming together of these two before the mother's death - a death-bed reconciliation type of thing. What I got was something more melancholy. There are no meaningful conversations between mother and daughter, she is too ill. Our narrator revisits her past, the cruelty she received at her mother's hands, her 'escape' and her life as a hostess while her mother concentrated on writing poetry. We see lots of mundane activities - catching a taxi, the 24 hour drugstore, her unlocking routine when she gets home. We also learn a little about the lifestyle of a hostess in Japan. Surprisingly we also learn quite a lot about the mother, not from mother-daughter interactions, but from a man that our narrator meets at the hospital which could explain her mother's actions perhaps. There is a feeling of loneliness throughout this book, our narrator always felt that she was a burden to her mother and now drifts from club to club never making any meaningful relationships - just friends who work in the same clubs who sometimes show kindness. I found this full of empty spaces - like the mother's poetry - where you have to either try and piece things together or be content with not knowing. I would have liked a more emotional connection to the narrator - I felt there was a distance but that might be deliberate as she doesn't seem to have emotional connections to anyone.

I did enjoy this book but not as much as I was expecting to from its description. It is a really interesting exploration of mother-daughter relationships as well as of the red-light, entertainment industry in Japan. This was particularly fascinating as I have read very little about it in the past. I also enjoyed the writing style, which flowed easily, and the descriptions of small, everyday events and items. I did, however, feel that the narrative suffered due to its shortness. I struggled to really connect or empathise with the characters, who seemed to almost remain behind a wall, slightly out of reach for both the narrator and the reader. Whilst this distance from other characters could be a stylistic choice to highlight the isolation of our narrator, I found that struggling to empathise with and understand the narrator herself impacted on my enjoyment of the narrative. Despite this, it was a quick and enjoyable read that I would recommend to others.

This is the perfect length for such a novel. The entire time I was reading it, it felt more as a memoir than a novel, it doesn’t overly exaggerate or dramatize the accounts so it feels natural and real.

I couldn’t annotate it directly on the NetGalley app, but because I badly wanted to, I didn’t mind stopping to write down quotes in my personal notes app. An example of an extremely simple and sad, yet beautiful portrayal of someone surrendering to the reality of life: “I had left the futon bedding spread out beside the table, assuming my mother would be back after receiving treatment. But by the third day, it became clear that she wouldn't return.”

This story recounts a daughter’s thoughts and day-to-day life at the time her mother was dying. She primarily mentions her relationship with her mother but also her escapes from the pains in her life. The protagonist clearly suffers from past traumas and perhaps depression because of the way she keeps escaping to the night life of Tokyo, always wanting a bit more than just being home alone or next to her mother’s bed at the hospital. And yet she constantly feels guilty for not always being with her sick mother despite their rocky relationship.

I liked it enough to finish it but I can see why some readers might find it boring. I say it’s the perfect length, but if it were a tad longer, I would’ve found myself pushing to finish it. Although it has beautiful prose, the story felt slightly meandering, especially in the beginning, but once I got the hang of the structure, I was able to read for longer stretches not that it takes long to read.

I’m pleased I finished it because the last section with the poem is heartbreakingly elegant.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the review copy!

I found this short novella really promising, although some areas definitely needed to be explored more. Perhaps it would have been better as a longer book to give depth and meaning and life to the characters and what they are going through. Overall I did enjoy it, but there is definitely room for more pages as it felt a bit underdeveloped and flat by the end.

A poignant and unsettling account of a mother-daughter relationship in contemporary Japan. There is a lot to unpack here, despite the brevity of this short novel. The protagonist's personal choices and what influence her relationship with her mother had on them gets most of the attention.

I loved the tension between the surface level harshness of the narrative and the tender topics it explored, namely the emotional commitment between a daughter and her mother, despite all. This is particularly revealing as it is set against the background of Japanese nightlife and the role of the "hosts". There is also room to learn more and understand the mother, whose life choices were, in many ways, as constrained as those of the daughter.

I warmly recommend to anyone interested in contemporary Japan and the lives of "hosts" and "hostesses". It will also resonate with anyone trying to understand more about strained mother-daughter relationships and what makes them tick.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with early access to the book in return for an honest review.

I received this book from NetGalley and Scribe UK in exchange for a free and honest review.

This translated book is set in Tokyo and follows a protagonist in her mid twenties who has a strained relationship with her mother. Her mom was an unemotional and unattached parent that caused her bodily harm. Her mom dying in hospital is making her rethink a lot of things about her life especially around her friendships and employment. She is employed as a hostess in a bar and is used to the night life, a chance meeting illuminates her mother's mysterious past and could possibly explain her behaviour. An interesting study of a tense mother-daughter relationship and Tokyo's nightlife. I would recommend.

The translation by Allison Markin Powell was seamless too.