Read More: IQ84

I am finally done with IQ84, the newest novel by Haruki Murakami. This was a monster of a book. It took FOREVER. I felt like I only had fifty pages left for weeks. Usually if it takes me a long time to finish a book it's because I'm just not that interested in doing so, but that wasn't the case with this one. I think it had something more to do with the magical, 'fantastical' if you will, powers that it possesses.

The story is about two main characters, Aomame and Tengo, who find themselves pulled into an alternate reality - from 1984 to IQ84. Q for 'question mark of the big fat variety'. They must find each other and escape before the baddies find them.

First, I'll say that this will be put towards the top on my Murakami list. Although nothing will probably ever beat The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I enjoyed this story. It didn't go too far with the fantasy element, which has been a major put off with some of his other books.

A big downside to the book was that the dialogue was just awful. All of the characters spoke like robots and kept insisting on how logical they are. I get the point - logical beings brought into an illogical world, blah blah blah. 900+ pages of this style of dialogue was overkill. If it were any other author I probably would be tearing him down, but since it's Murakami I was able to overlook it. I don't remember any of his other books having this problem?

And back to another thing I liked so I can leave this review on a good note. Like in Wind-Up Bird, Murakami left a number of things unanswered. Sometimes it's better not to wrap things up too nicely and Murakami is great at this.

- Megan Leigh