From Amazon:

"Two prostitutes are murdered in Tokyo.

Twenty years previously both women were educated at the same elite school for young ladies, and had seemingly promising futures ahead of them.

But in a world of dark desire and vicious ambition, for both women, prostitution meant power. Grotesque is a masterful and haunting thriller, a chilling exploration of women's secret lives in modern day Japan."

This is an amazing book. There are 4 main characters and I got to know them all a bit too well! The only one I could relate to at all was Zhang, the murderer! His story was really well told, I was totally immersed to his and his sister's epic journey from rural China to Guangzhou! Then I was returned to the story of gruesome sisters and their twisted friend...
All that said I really liked this book and could hardly put it down. Highly recommended :)

Sent to my European Secret Santa recipient, enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Thank you for this awesome wishlist book! I loved 'Out' by the same author and I knew I had to put this on my wishlist! Thank you also for the chocolate :) Merry Christmas!

Sometimes when you don't warm to any of the characters in a book, it's hard to enjoy the story, however this is not the case with 'Grotesque'. I was hooked on this tale of jealousy, prostitution and murder.

I really didn't like Yuriko or her older sister (can't seem to remember her name!) who narrates most of the story. She spends her whole life being jealous of her younger sister, which is pathetic as Yuriko has nothing going for her but her looks. Also the way she just brushes off her mums suicide is cold. She never bothered to write back to her, not once.

Kazue was irritating when she was at school and did sound like a total head case in the office! However I did end up feeling sorry for her as she was so desperately lonely. I feel like if someone had just said something nice or encouraging to her, then she may not have have taken the path she did.

Most of the book, the only person I had sympathy for was Zhang, the murderer! His story of how he came to Japan was really interesting but ended up being a pack of lies!

This was a really twisted book that keeps you turning those pages, I thought the end was a bit unrealistic but still worth reading as the journey was amazingly Grotesque.

Quick stop to the Phone Box library this morning!