Butter: anyone read it?

[CharlotteRumpling]

I was underwhelmed. Maybe because there was too much hype. The actual butter scenes were good, but it was so rambling and way too much filler.

I gave up after 100 pages.

I read it. It was very typically Japanese, if that makes sense. I was hoping for something more like the scenes in Tokyo Ueno Station.

Although I have been wondering if it played a part in the butter yellow fashion trend...

I agree - I enjoyed the butter part & food descriptions but the rest was boring! I forced myself to finish it but didn’t rate it at all.

There was no proper ending?
I felt like it was a long list of things the patriarchy/ society does.
Hates women
Hates fat women
Hates women who don't cook
I agree with all that but it was tedious to read, with no real plot.
Apparently based on a true story.

I preferred My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki.

Ditto all of above. Recommended impulse buy after the woman in Waterstones told me it was brilliant ...
Was underwhelmed and felt I'd been "had". So much .. it felt really like she was drawing it out in the style of "If it's longer it's better"...what can we add to draw it out.
Highly "not" recommended

Too many mentions of the condition of lips.

Oh good! I thought it was just me. Very underwhelming.

I read it for my book group. We all thought it was tedious, although some of the descriptive passages were compelling. It just went on and on.

OMG - it was the Waterstones woman at the till who convinced me to buy it too! Otherwise I’d never have considered it!

I wonder if ther is some sort of scam.. altho she genuinely did sound like she loved the book. But who knows...

Ghastly. Was given it for Christmas & so was a duty read but urgh so flat & I wanted to give the characters a good shake.
Forcing myself to read the damn thing honestly wrecked my reading habit & it's taking weeks to recover

It was Waterstones Book of the Year, and you couldn't move for seeing it everywhere last year!
So hyped.
I too was massively disappointed.
Soldiered on til the end, only for a 'is that it?'
Glad it wasn't just me.
Feel like it had a lot of squandered potential and author just let it meander pointlessly til it petered out.

I tried but couldn’t get through it, had to give up. Only read it because of the reviews but having asked around, at least three friends have given up on it too, so god knows why the reviewers thought it was so good.

Far too long for a start, and the ending was completely confusing.
I spent most of it thinking it’s probably for the best I’m not Japanese if 50kg was fat.
The past year I’ve read a number of Japanese authors, they are all this sort of style, and I’ve decided it’s not for me, no matter how big the hype or cute cover.

Was the ending simply that the killer accuses Rika of being unprofesssional- possibly sexually- but by then Rika has learnt to love cooking and cooks a turkey? 😆
I feel stupid.

I gave up half way in. So tedious!

Yes, it just seems that way for their books.
I think it works better in film.

Each to their own but I loved it :) I thought it was going to be a bit of a slog but it for me it was an easy read. Very atmospheric and descriptive and moving.