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Out
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Natsuo Kirino's novel tells a story of random violence in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works a night shift making boxed lunches brutally strangles her deadbeat husband and then seeks the help of her co-workers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime.
The ringleader of this cover-up, Masako Katori, emerges as the emotional heart of Out and as one of t ...more
The ringleader of this cover-up, Masako Katori, emerges as the emotional heart of Out and as one of t ...more
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Paperback, 400 pages
Published January 4th 2005 by Vintage (first published July 15th 1997)
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MonYes. And non-sexual graphic violence as well
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Showing 1-30
![](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eed.png?d=47cf22e33&m=BO1mm)
Start your review of Out
![Jim Fonseca](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/6743601.jpg?d=1c7c0cb17&m=BO1mm)
Let’s start with a few descriptors from the blurbs on the cover: nervy, perverse, dark, gruesome, depressing, daring, disturbing, brutal, unsentimental, scathing, gutsy, hair-raising. You get the picture.
After all that build-up it seems like a come-down to say that this is basically a story about four thirtyish, lower-class or lower-middle class Japanese women who work night-shift filling box-lunches in a factory. With the increasingly common globalized life-style, their lives and families are ...more
After all that build-up it seems like a come-down to say that this is basically a story about four thirtyish, lower-class or lower-middle class Japanese women who work night-shift filling box-lunches in a factory. With the increasingly common globalized life-style, their lives and families are ...more
![David Putnam](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/5463364.jpg?d=a5ed2140b&m=BO1mm)
This book surprised me. I was not expecting to like--love it so much. It reminded me of A Simple Plan by Scott Smith (wish he'd write more books). It shows how unintended consequences can quickly spin out of control. A woman is put in an untenable situation, someone dies and she makes the best of a bad situation. It's really quite creative. I highly recommend this book to those who like dark noir with strong female characters.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
![Samadrita](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/13266158.jpg?d=9f24c7040&m=BO1mm)
The night air trembles with a malevolent intensity. Something hangs heavy in the humid breeze - the stomach-churning smell of deep fried tempura prawns sealed inside boxed lunches mingled with something putrid, perhaps the stench of rotting dismembered human limbs hidden away in trash cans. The insufferable July heat accelerates decomposition, causes beads of sweat to cling to Masako's neck persistently as she waits in the taut darkness of the deserted parking lot for 3 of her colleagues - women ...more
![Shannon (Giraffe Days)](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/395599.jpg?d=d61efb9dd&m=BO1mm)
There's just something about Japan that produces the grittiest, darkest, scariest, most realistic horror, psychological thriller, and suspense. The seedy underbelly of Japanese society is perhaps so successfully portrayed because so little has been embellished. And with the dark, empty surburban streets, so much is possible, so much can go unnoticed. In Natsuo Kirino's wonderful crime novel, Out, a sharp social commentary on Japan's patriarchal society and the situation for women and foreigners ...more
![Preeta](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/794787.jpg?d=3e49e22f1&m=BO1mm)
What a disappointing ending! At first, I was absolutely entralled by the characters and their various relationships. The first 3/4ths of the book are filled with so much texture - it felt like I was running my hands through a fabric store. Most intriguing are the female-female relationships ranging from trust to need to fear. How I hated Kuniko! How I rooted for Masako!
And then, this whole S&M dark and violent erotic stuff comes out, which threw the entire book in downward-spiral away from nuanc ...more
And then, this whole S&M dark and violent erotic stuff comes out, which threw the entire book in downward-spiral away from nuanc ...more
![Robin](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/36555254.jpg?d=983cb8ee0&m=BO1mm)
Women have it tough, all over the world, but now I know they have it tough in Japan, too.
If this book is to be believed, Japanese women are surrounded by chauvinistic, sadistic a-holes, cruelly remote ghosts, or losers who spend all their money with a nasty smirk. Or they are jerks-in-the-making, sullen teenagers who can go a year without saying a single word to their mothers, conveying hate through their angry eyes. At best, they're cowardly, bumbling, social pariahs... or dead.
Also, these po ...more
If this book is to be believed, Japanese women are surrounded by chauvinistic, sadistic a-holes, cruelly remote ghosts, or losers who spend all their money with a nasty smirk. Or they are jerks-in-the-making, sullen teenagers who can go a year without saying a single word to their mothers, conveying hate through their angry eyes. At best, they're cowardly, bumbling, social pariahs... or dead.
Also, these po ...more
![Edward Lorn](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/8850418.jpg?d=83ed4dc83&m=BO1mm)
Jan 01, 2016 Edward Lorn rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Fans of noir and crime fiction.
Recommended to Edward by: Bark
Reviewing good books has always been difficult for me. Not because I don't know what to say, but because I don't want to say too much. Part of the wonder of reading, for me, is discovery, and I want you to be able to discover this book for yourselves.
Predictable books are the worst, and for the most part I do not read synopses. I decide what to read based on friend reviews/recommendations and, yes, the absolutely risky business of buying media based on pretty packaging. I dug the cover of this ...more
Predictable books are the worst, and for the most part I do not read synopses. I decide what to read based on friend reviews/recommendations and, yes, the absolutely risky business of buying media based on pretty packaging. I dug the cover of this ...more
![Beverly](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/68708752.jpg?d=087d033b1&m=BO1mm)
Out is so gritty and grotesque, so violent, that I was revolted many times, but there is such truth amidst grim reality here, especially in how women are treated in society. I noticed that one of the other reviewers wrote about how this reminded him of the 1950s in the US, but wage suppression and inequality is still going in good old 2018 in the US.
Women in Japan, where the book is set, are supposed to do all the housework, their outside job, and take care of all the members of the household, ...more
Women in Japan, where the book is set, are supposed to do all the housework, their outside job, and take care of all the members of the household, ...more
![Melki](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/5293536.jpg?d=a1eb9cc85&m=BO1mm)
You know how sometimes you answer a phone call, and suddenly . . . your life is changed forever.
"What's up? Are you taking the night off?"
"No, I just don't know what to do."
"About what?" She sounded genuinely concerned. "Has something happened?"
"It has." She might as well get it over with. "I've killed him."
Three Tokyo factory workers get sucked into the proverbial web of lies and deceit when they help a fellow employee dispose of the body of her murdered husband. The author goes into a disturb ...more
"What's up? Are you taking the night off?"
"No, I just don't know what to do."
"About what?" She sounded genuinely concerned. "Has something happened?"
"It has." She might as well get it over with. "I've killed him."
Three Tokyo factory workers get sucked into the proverbial web of lies and deceit when they help a fellow employee dispose of the body of her murdered husband. The author goes into a disturb ...more
![Yulia](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/185835.jpg?d=ae9649d51&m=BO1mm)
A literary page-turner as timely as when it first came out, this biting critique of Japan's social and economic underclass begins when three female co-workers are forced to confront the act of a friend against her abusive husband, but evolves into a blistering exposé on those whose stories are never told: the unseen night-shift factory workers who make Japan's endless supply of box lunches; women who are swamped in credit-card debt but cannot live off their looks, youth, or father's paychecks as ...more
![Apoorva](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/25605420.jpg?d=5effe289a&m=BO1mm)
‘Out’ revolves around four ordinary women working the night shift at a boxed lunch factory whose life changes drastically after a violent incident. One of the women, Yayoi is sick of her useless husband and impulsively strangles him to death. Not wanting the incident to come to light, she seeks help from her friend Masako to get rid of the body. However, it ends up with the four women being part of the cover-up and the repercussions they face due to their entanglement in the deadly world of crim ...more
![Meagan ✊🏼 Blacklivesmatter ✊🏼Blacktranslivesmatter](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/27847867.jpg?d=bd58c000d&m=BO1mm)
Mar 11, 2020 Meagan ✊🏼 Blacklivesmatter ✊🏼Blacktranslivesmatter rated it really liked it
That ending 👀👀 was weird but interesting. Overall great story! Not at all what I was expecting. I think the story ended up being a great connection to the title.
Popsugar 2020 Reading Challenge
A book set in Japan, the host of 2020 Olympics
A book set in a city that has hosted the olympics
(Tokyo, Japan in 1964).
Popsugar 2020 Reading Challenge
A book set in Japan, the host of 2020 Olympics
A book set in a city that has hosted the olympics
(Tokyo, Japan in 1964).
![Algernon (Darth Anyan)](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/4728718.jpg?d=c8187e3ed&m=BO1mm)
‘You know,’ she murmured, ‘we’re all heading straight to hell.’
‘Yes,’ said Masako, giving her a bleak look. ‘It’s like riding downhill with no brakes.’
‘You mean, there’s no way to stop?’
‘No, you stop all right – when you crash.’
Four women working on the graveyard shift in a food packaging factory in a decrepit suburb of the metropolis. Four tales of despair and loneliness in a world that seems determined to crush the last shreds of their spirit. It’s only a matter of time before one of them sn ...more
![Supreeth](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493.png?d=fff7c4e1a&m=BO1mm)
Mar 27, 2018 Supreeth rated it it was amazing
Shelves: fiction, 2018, read-in-college, favorites, japan, books-i-own, crime-mystery-thriller, noir
I seem to be fascinated by every Japanese crime-thriller I read. But this one definitely stands OUT. Japanese books of these genres are darker, creepier and more thrilling than everything else.
Set in 1990's Japan, somewhere in Tokyo, OUT revolves around four middle aged women working night shift in a factory. They're all unhappy with their disappointed lives, abusive husbands, depressed kids and lousy jobs. There are lot of characters but it is centered around, as the blurb says, ringleader, fo ...more
Set in 1990's Japan, somewhere in Tokyo, OUT revolves around four middle aged women working night shift in a factory. They're all unhappy with their disappointed lives, abusive husbands, depressed kids and lousy jobs. There are lot of characters but it is centered around, as the blurb says, ringleader, fo ...more
![Estelle](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/17934127.jpg?d=9937b68f6&m=BO1mm)
I keep hesitating between 1 and 2 stars... I'm going to be generous and say "it was ok" and it was entertaining enough that I kept reading till the end.
This is just my opinion, but I found "Out" to be poorly written and poorly constructed. Most characters and their reactions weren't credible at all, and the story completely lack of suspense or tension. It was more laughable than gripping.
Not my kind of book at all.
This is just my opinion, but I found "Out" to be poorly written and poorly constructed. Most characters and their reactions weren't credible at all, and the story completely lack of suspense or tension. It was more laughable than gripping.
Not my kind of book at all.
![Tammie](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/5707041.jpg?d=d6b82fc60&m=BO1mm)
Out was a solid 4 star read for me. The book centers around a group of women that work together in a factory-one kills her husband and the others assist her in getting rid of his body. Out was a complex story that is well-written; the only part that was disappointing was the ending (way too graphic for my liking). Recommended to mature/adult readers.
![Bark](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/2905339.jpg?d=c41889480&m=BO1mm)
This is a great book about a group of late shift female co-workers at a boxed lunch factory. It is extremely effective in portraying the desperation in their day to day lives and shows how even the most gruesome of deeds can become just another yucky job if the pay is good enough. It's so violent that, at times, it's almost funny and still very sad and frighteningly realistic as well. This was one of those impossible to put down books but it isn't for the faint of heart as it gets quite grisly.
![Melanie](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/3195534.jpg?d=dea3a9138&m=BO1mm)
Can you say - gruesome and violent? Holy cow! The book blurb tells you - a woman kills her husband and then asks her coworkers for help after the fact. I felt like I got to know the stories of the wife and her coworkers well enough. There is also a concurrent set of characters related to what the deceased husband was up to before his wife had had enough. I also felt their stories were were well told. Sometimes the story felt a bit slow to me but not in a slogging kind of way, just slow. It's har ...more
![Angela](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/123293.jpg?d=412b3c844&m=BO1mm)
Jun 08, 2007 Angela rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: People who like FREAKY stuff
Shelves: japanese-authors
This book is full of amazingly WRONG situations and I thought it was amazing.
HOWEVER...
I may have thought it was amazing because I have lived in Japan for nearly three years and I felt like I could identify with the characters. I picked up on cultural subtleties that made me laugh and made me cringe. I rolled my eyes at Japanese women being Japanese women in the book and I cheered when they broke free from that mould - even though breaking free meant that they were ostracized from society and th ...more
HOWEVER...
I may have thought it was amazing because I have lived in Japan for nearly three years and I felt like I could identify with the characters. I picked up on cultural subtleties that made me laugh and made me cringe. I rolled my eyes at Japanese women being Japanese women in the book and I cheered when they broke free from that mould - even though breaking free meant that they were ostracized from society and th ...more
![Hertzan Chimera](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/922837.jpg?d=1e0015457&m=BO1mm)
Masako Katori; Kuniko Jonouchi; Yoshie Azuma; Yayoi Yamamoto; who are these normal people? Well, they all work the night shift at the local boxed-lunch factory. From midnight until 6 a.m. every 'day' they prepare these meals for the office workers and commuters of downtown Tokyo. It's not much of a life but they work well as a team and they always snatch the best part of the conveyor belt; the easiest jobs, if you will.
These four unassuming women are the heroines of Natsuo Kirino's novel OUT, wi ...more
These four unassuming women are the heroines of Natsuo Kirino's novel OUT, wi ...more
![Gregsamsa](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/22119193.jpg?d=66a2ad2f8&m=BO1mm)
Isn't it weird how some sensations can be intensified by the presence of another, different, sensation? You know, like when you have to pee and you're also really cold?
So many horror writers are bad horror writers because they pack everything onto the back of one horse, horror, and run it to the end. Once a horrific event is reduced to print, it's not the same as horror, so needs more. For me the horrific in itself is rarely enough.
Folks might reasonably quibble over whether Out is a horror nove ...more
So many horror writers are bad horror writers because they pack everything onto the back of one horse, horror, and run it to the end. Once a horrific event is reduced to print, it's not the same as horror, so needs more. For me the horrific in itself is rarely enough.
Folks might reasonably quibble over whether Out is a horror nove ...more
![Tressa](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/226335.jpg?d=25c140ae3&m=BO1mm)
Out by Natsuo Kirino is a brilliant Japanese murder mystery that’s not much of a mystery at all, at least not a mystery in the sense that we don’t know whodunit. Whodunit is a pretty, young wife and mother of two named Yayoi who is fed up with her husband Kenji’s philandering ways, and decides to strangle him one night in an uncharacteristic moment of rage. Assured that her children heard nothing of the struggle, she calls a friend who works the night shift with her at a boxed lunch factory. As ...more
![Rachel](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/6050722.jpg?d=469e85af6&m=BO1mm)
When I caught the words “hard-boiled” on this book’s back cover before reading it, can’t lie: I was less than enthused. During my embarrassingly long mystery-novel obsession, I’ve pinpointed my favorite kind quite precisely – cerebral social comedies, preferably written by British women between 1915 and ~1965, with levels of gore not to exceed your occasional poisoned crumpet.
Out is not that. Out is not even on the same planet as that, and yet it grabbed me by the shoulders and shook, hard, unt ...more
Out is not that. Out is not even on the same planet as that, and yet it grabbed me by the shoulders and shook, hard, unt ...more
![El](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/83144.jpg?d=8a9e57257&m=BO1mm)
I cannot for the life of me put my finger on what it is about this book that rubs me slightly the wrong way. It could be as simple as I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as other readers have, but I think there's more to it. And it's probably a combination of things - the fact that the relationship between the women is clunky, as is their dialogue; the fact that people (readers) think that anytime a female protagonist commits violent acts in literature, it immediately is labeled as feminist; the fa ...more
![Vanessa](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/4636758.jpg?d=eeeb8dcc3&m=BO1mm)
3.5 stars.
It took me much longer than originally anticipated to finish reading Out. On paper, this book has everything I love: dark humour, murder, suspense, a Japanese setting. Unfortunately though, this wasn't the standout read I was hoping for, but one with many peaks and troughs.
The initial storyline drew me in: a woman who is abused by her husband ends up killing them, then enlists the help of her night shift co-workers to help her dispose of the body. It's a really awesome idea, and I lov ...more
It took me much longer than originally anticipated to finish reading Out. On paper, this book has everything I love: dark humour, murder, suspense, a Japanese setting. Unfortunately though, this wasn't the standout read I was hoping for, but one with many peaks and troughs.
The initial storyline drew me in: a woman who is abused by her husband ends up killing them, then enlists the help of her night shift co-workers to help her dispose of the body. It's a really awesome idea, and I lov ...more
![Becky](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/1376766.jpg?d=cb1aa4ae9&m=BO1mm)
I wanted to like this one more than I actually did like it. The beginning of the story, learning about Yayoi, Yoshie, Masako, and Kuniko was interesting, and the death and immediate aftermath was interesting, but I just found myself losing interest shortly after that, and struggled to finish.
I think that this book would work for a lot of people, but I found it kind of disappointing. I found it hard to connect with these characters. I kept thinking how I would react and act and think differently ...more
I think that this book would work for a lot of people, but I found it kind of disappointing. I found it hard to connect with these characters. I kept thinking how I would react and act and think differently ...more
![Sheri](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/91276499.jpg?d=e5cce052f&m=BO1mm)
Horror is my favorite genre. It isn't always easy to find a horror book with a different story. I'm always searching for the best books I've never heard of before and was lucky in one such search when I found this book. It is dark, gruesome and disturbing. The story is very brutal and even after the initial plot unfolds, the characters continue to spiral into an abyss of darkness and despair. I enjoyed the author very much and even throughout this horrible tale there was humor added in good meas ...more
![Patricija - aparecium_libri](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/22955094.jpg?d=1325d67d4&m=BO1mm)
It was very interesting, but also very disturbing at the same time. I finally got out of my reading slump though. The characters were somber and nasty, but they didn't feel flat at least. I liked the plot overall and idea of the book but since it gave me nausea I don't think I'll re read this.
Also I hated the ending.
Also I hated the ending.
![Nafiza](/static/BO1mm/static/picture/2483439.jpg?d=f2f1502d7&m=BO1mm)
Mar 07, 2012 Nafiza rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: read-2012, books-i-own
It took me about three months to read this novel. For those who know my reading habits, you will be aware that I read fast. Inordinately fast, I am told. The reason for my lagging pace where this book is concerned was not because it was so bad I couldn’t make myself read it, it was because the novel was a bit too realistic, it sucked me in a bit too deeply – enough anyway that I had to put it down, recover and then resume reading. So from the synopsis you will know that four women work the night ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Point Blank: Out by Natsuo Kirinp | 10 | 19 | Apr 18, 2020 02:09AM | |
Out by Natsuo Kirino | 7 | 127 | Mar 20, 2020 01:08PM | |
Around the World ...: Discussion for Out by Natsuo Kirino | 10 | 71 | Mar 20, 2018 02:47PM | |
Around the World: Japan - Gaeta recommends Out | 5 | 53 | Dec 25, 2017 09:01PM | |
Lettori sui generis: GdL di aprile: Le quattro casalinghe di Tokyo di Natsuo Kirino | 31 | 27 | Jul 07, 2017 07:57AM | |
Books that will be translated | 1 | 17 | Oct 26, 2016 06:09PM | |
Ellipsis Book Group: And March's Book is... | 1 | 16 | Mar 02, 2015 03:39AM |
NATSUO KIRINO, born in 1951 in Kanazawa (Ishikawa Prefecture) was an active and spirited child brought up between her two brothers, one being six years older and the other five years younger than her. Kirino's father, being an architect, took the family to many cities, and Kirino spent her youth in Sendai, Sapporo, and finally settled in Tokyo when she was fourteen, which is where she has been res ...more
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“You know," she murmured, "we're all heading straight to hell."
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More quotes…"Yes," said Masako, giving her a bleak look. "It's like riding downhill with no brakes."
"You mean, there's no way to stop?"
"No, you stop all right - when you crash.”