Out by Natsuo Kirino

 

I finished this one a few weeks ago but haven’t wrote a review post because WOW where do I begin?!

The narrative starts with four women  in the Tokyo suburbs working in a boxed lunch factory - all trapped somewhat by their personal circumstances. Outside the factory women seem to be defined into two categories in society; either they are exhausted care givers expected to provide all of the emotional and domestic labour, or they are valued only as sexual playthings that can easily be replaced.

Exhausted and with seemingly no way out of their commitments, the four women begin to make increasingly risky choices to try and gain some control over their lives and break free. When one of the characters commits a murder, it throws the entire plotline into an extremely intense cat and mouse game as the characters try to outwit each other in a bid for freedom.

I felt stressed every step of the way, and if that isn’t a sign of a good crime thriller I don’t know what is! You can’t help but root for some seriously morally ambiguous characters, and I’m so there for it as the lines get increasingly blurred between justice. There is also some really interesting insights into society and the exploration of how certain characters are treated based on their circumstances.

I have also really enjoyed how much it plays with morality; you find yourself rooting for people who have committed horrible crimes and the lines between whether the characters actions are justified or not becomes so blurry.
Whilst this is definitely a bleak read (TW: rape, abuse, murder) - it was impossible to tear my eyes away. The suspense just about killed me off at the end, and I’m still reeling from the last pages.

I don’t want to give anything major away from the plotline that isn’t already in the synopsis, so I will end it there and 100% recommend you give ‘Out’ a read if you enjoy dark crime thrillers 👹👹