Trinity Trinity Trinity
★★☆☆☆ (2.5 stars)

Trinity Trinity Trinity by Erika Kobayashi is a sci-fi novel about an illness that causes older people to become obsessed with radiation and commit terrorist acts.
I checked this book out from @piercecountylibrary

The year is 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics are about to be held. A grandmother wakes up with no recollection of who she is, her daughter is exploring her sexuality, and the granddaughter is a typical teenager who spends a lot of time on her phone. Elderly people throughout the country start committing acts of radioactive violence and it seems the grandmother may be next.

I did not like this book - it just fell so flat in almost every aspect. It had a lot of potential but just did not get there for me.

If you liked Trinity Trinity Trinity, I also recommend Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor.

Happy reading!
@Ms.Bjork

#trinitytrinitytinity #erikakobayashi

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity is a trippy, unique, quick read. Set over one day - the opening day of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics - with flashbacks of one family’s history, the story opens with an unnamed narrator waking up in a sterile room, not knowing how she got there. Across the country, elderly people are falling ill with “Trinity,” a new disease that compels them to pick up and listen to strange voices coming from black stones, often telling them the history of radium and nuclear power. Over the course of the day, a woman runs around the city, chasing after her elderly mother and dealing with her own issues.

A testament to the dangers of nuclear power, this book is powerful and thoughtful. I love that Kobayashi focuses on women and intergenerational memory to tell the story. I wasn’t sure what happened at the end at first but I love what I’ve decided happened! Overall my mind is blown and I am glad I picked this up when my brain was in the right place for it.

there is something about kobayashi's prose that is not really grabbing me sadly. perhaps this is due to the translation...

I’m unsure how I feel about this one! It helps if you know a bit more about Japanese history than the surface stuff. If I had to sum up this book in one word — it would be ‘chaotic’. You don’t really know what’s going on, who’s really talking and even when it’s set. You have to be pretty focused while reading.

Although, towards the end when you see the link between trinity and uranium — it gave me quite an ah hah moment. Very clever.

The only issue I had with the story was that it was too confusing to follow and I lost interest quickly. Unsure of what actually happened at the end too???

Not your typical novel, by any means. 'Speculative' indeed. Inter-linked generational stories around radiation, nuclear meltdown and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, this book often left me slightly perplexed, It didn't help that my ARC was about to expire, so I was dashing to get it finished. What I got from it left me thinking, so it's definitely one I will return to and read at leisure. 3.5ish, rounded up to 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I really like the idea of this but struggled with following the narrative. It seemed to want to tell many different stories, which is great, but there was a lot of overlapping and they're told from the point of view of characters who don't really feel like people. Possibly a translation issue? I still like that it had a big idea and did what it could

This one didn't do it for me. When I read the blurb it felt like something which would look into the scenario of a pandemic which was one of a kind. It started strong, the first scene draws you in and it does a good job at keeping you interested in the first 10% of the book. However, very soon the author decided to confuse you. While I understand that is possibly supposed to be the crux of the novel - overlapping timelines, overlapping narration, confusion, suffocation etc but I sort of felt like the author was confused on what she wanted to convey. I also found myself losing interest in the various historical events that were mentioned in the story - there was the Olympics info, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki info, Nazi rule, Chernobyl, radium girls - everything related to nuclear leaking and explosion. Overall did not work out for me.

Thanks for the arc though, Netgalley!

It’s not badly written at all, but I think I’m just not the right reader for it. The constant repetition of very similar events and/or characters made me dizzy and lose interest in it (if not early in the novel, then eventually anyway). Too much (some relevant but mostly unnecessary) cultural and historical references. The entire book’s a chaotic mess. Lots of screaming, fainting, and random blood. And it also ends with a vaguely incestuous note. Yea, no. Not for me.

Do you know those books that you have to ponder for a while after finishing? The ones that you honestly can't decide if you enjoyed reading or not?

This book is definitely one of those.

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity is set during the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. A new disease has begun popping up leading people to commit various acts of "terrorism". The disease, known as Trinity, is common in elders with dementia and is linked to "accursed" black stones (uranite) that whisper the story of radium to the inflicted.

We observe this from the point of view of an unnamed narrator as she struggles with her to adjust to changes and the state of her life and relationships. It was easy to empathize with her feelings of dissatisfaction with where she was at in life. Her sense of alienation from her young daughter and concern for her aging mother only served to make her seem more human. She wasn't perfect, or even always a good person, but she gave voice to feelings that many of us have likely felt before.

This, combined with beautiful writing and a growing feeling of suspense (was the narrator losing her grip) kept me riveted. Additionally, the history of radium and social commentary woven into the narrative were both interesting and thought-provoking.

So why isn't this book getting 5 stars? That largely has to do with the ending. Some of the revelations made in the final pages left me with a sour taste. They weren't anything that would ruin my overall impression of the story, but I could have very much gone without them.

Additionally, a lot is left open to interpretation. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I will confess to feeling unsatisfied and even a bit confused upon finishing. I had to mull things over for a bit and reread a few sections before I was able to decide how I felt.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this arc.

A story about radiation poisoning told in a very unique way that may be too weird for some, but really worked for me. Plus, this story was actually very well researched and gave a good insight into the story of the discovery of uranium and the development of the nuclear bomb. I really enjoyed reading the story out of the main characters POV, as she’s trying to come to terms with this new reality and what’s happening to her mother, while simultaneously becoming more and more unhinged herself. I was pleasantly surprised!

Extremely thankful to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a wonderful reading experience. Erika Kobayashi has written a modern and unique speculative fiction that will definitely blow everyone´s mind. A couple days ago I wrote a review about how hard it is to actually nail writing a book with an amount of metaphors linked with history and collective trauma. It is SO hard. And Kobayashi did it as masterfully as only she can do! In only 240 pages she managed to reflect and critique on a society that has gone through a lot of traumatic experiences but also has caused so much damage. On top of that, she also showcases a perfect portrait of family dynamics and intergenerational relationships.(Which is very necessary on these times). A perfect book.

This is a really quick, but really unique read. The story brings together the history and legacy of nuclear power with three generations of women in a small family during the beginning of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Old people in Japan have begun to pick up black radioactive rocks and listening to voices that compel them to commit acts of terror, generally related to exposing others to high levels of radioactivity. Kobayashi focuses on one family, beginning with an unnamed narrator who wakes up in a sterile room with no memory of how they got there. As the story goes on, we are bounced between narrators within the family as buried memories and connections are unveiled. The writing captures a propulsive sense of dread that keeps you turning the pages.

I really enjoyed how Kobayashi pushes different dynamics together in this novel. She creates a layer of mysticism around nuclear power while also speaking to the practical dangers it poses—both as a producer of power and a weapon for mass destruction. And within all of this, there is a strong focus on family, generational memory, and femininity. This is a novel that may be an easy read, but one that will leave you puzzling over it for awhile.

Quite an interesting and layered account of the impacts of radiation on the collective conscious. I will say the narrative can be choppy at times, though whether this is intentional or not is unclear; however, ultimately it does not take away from the sense of foreboding that accumulates near the climax of this novel. Interspersed through the narrative are historical references to the discovery and utilization of nuclear energy, which I found both informative and interesting in how they played a role in the narrative's progression. There's a lot to unpack, and I find myself continuing to think about the different aspects of this book. It is certainly a multifaceted critique of Japan's relationship with nuclear technology, but also a critique of motherhood, aging, and societal paranoia. Overall enjoyable read that gives the reader plenty to ruminate on.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ebook of Erika Kobayashi’s TRINITY, TRINITY, TRINITY 🤗  This piece of speculative fiction, translated by Brian Bergstrom, comes out on June 28.

“This is the beginning of the revenge of the invisible.”

So reads the social media posts of several people infected with Trinity, a mysterious disease that targets the elderly and compels them to behave in bizarre ways. Trinities find and hoard radioactive material, spout mantras about the history of radiation, and even throw 235 million yen of bills out to the public—which was the same amount of money the Japanese government approved to develop nuclear capabilities after the war. We follow an unnamed narrator in the eerie progression of the disease, which ultimately culminates in a terrorist attack at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In TRINITY, the Japanese public is forced to contend with their ongoing nuclear legacy, after traumatic events such as Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and Fukushima Daiichi, despite a want to believe that it’s far away in the past: Trinity is a way for the invisible to be made visible. Even as the public stigmatizes the elderly, a parallel to a forgetting of history and the grim reality of continued effects of radiation, it celebrates the beginning of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (a timely choice of date given the Japanese public’s opposition to the holding of the Games during the pandemic).

As someone who thinks a lot about the generational legacy of disability wrought from environmental violence, TRINITY’s use of blood, birth, sex, and female eggs reminded me of how these legacies are continued through lineages, passed down so that those most impacted don’t have any choice but to remember through their bodies and minds. There is so much more to unpack from this book that I have no space here to get into—so if you’re into speculative fiction focused on Japanese history and modern society, this is probably the book for you!

This is more like 3.5 stars but I'm rounding up because I'll be thinking about this one for a while (and trying to figure out exactly what happened).

I was curious to read this because it was about multiple generations of women grappling with the fallout of radiation during the Olympics. It is certainly very experimental and won't be for everyone, which seems to be the case with a lot of modern Japanese literature. I greatly appreciated the history of radium and radiation, which the author's bio mentions as a topic of particular interest for her.

I'm still not entirely sure what happened at the end of the book, but I learned a lot on the journey to the end and I'll be thinking about it for a while. I'm curious to pick up a finished copy and see how the formatting looks, as it wasn't clear on the digital version.

Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for an eARC!

This is a unique story that's uniquely told! It takes place in Tokyo where there is a disease called trinity going around, that affects the elderly. As our narrator wakes up in her grandmother's body, we piece together links between trinity and radiation, nuclear weapons, and the Fukushima disaster. This one will stay with me for a long time.

i don't know if it's the translation making the prose very choppy and unnatural because i do understand that a good translation from an asian language that uses a completely different system is very hard to translate well but i feel as if the story didn't flow as it should and the formatting 0f the book, most noticeably the lack of proper chapters bothers me because it makes for a very strange reading experience. there's some line where it just breaks off and continues on the next line and i'm unsure if it's the fault of my kindle or the book should be like that.

the timeline of the novel is very unclear due to the lack of chapters and it often switches to different ideas and scenes without any prelude. the story itself is great, an older woman taking care of her family in the midst of a pandemic. the main character is humanised and she has desires too, even at her age, it reminds the reader that even mothers have a life outside of being a mother too. the execution on the other hand is much more confusing so i couldn't properly empathise with the characters.

Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by writer and artist Erika Kobayashi might be the most interesting Japanese novel I've read in the last couple of years. A short book full of fascinating moments, metaphors, ideas, the history of radiation, Fukushima and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Would recommend to everyone who's interested in contemporary Japanese literature and exciting new literary voices.

This is a really strange book that touches on varying issues in Japan, from the 2021 Summer Tokyo Olympics, to nuclear trauma from Hiroshima, Fukushima, an aging population, and loneliness to name a few. I feel like there's a lot to unpack in this small, yet dense book. Sadly, in the instance of this book, I feel like my knowledge of Japanese culture and history is lacking in being able to fully appreciate the intersections in this book. I do think it is a book worth reading and exploring if you're interested in Japanese current events and Japanese culture/history.

An electrifying atmosphere pervades the whole of Japan as the nation gets ready to host the 2020 Olympics. Gaiety and euphoria envelop an eager populace. However there is a frightening phenomenon that threatens to hurl sand in the gear. The bane of the accursed stones. Following the horrendous Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear meltdown, a strange spectacle has gripped the elderly of the nation. A multitude of them have begun scouring for black shiny stones that are commonly called 'pitchblende'. Pitchblende, also known by the name uraninite, is a mineral comprised mainly of oxides of the element uranium. The mineral is black in color, like 'pitch'. The term 'blende' comes from the German miners who believed it contained many different metals all blended together.

When held close to one's ear, strange voices are heard and the person holding the rock begins to wax lyrical on complicated topics dealing with Uranium, Nuclear fission and the like. The spectacularly inexplicable sight of an illiterate old man holding forth on the properties of Uranium and the mining sites such as Jáchymov and Karlovy Vary in Prague, renders onlookers both stupefied and scared. Crazed individuals tightly grasping black stones in their palms also make a break for the now abandoned and shuttered buildings of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima. A nonagenarian even assaults and injures a few policeman and a truck driver before running amok and settling before a building modelled on the house of one of the world's greatest Physicist and Chemist, Marie Curie. Hammering away on the door of the empty structure the woman is finally 'tackled' by the security guards and hauled away.

Erika Kobayashi's "Trinity, Trinity, Trinity" to be released in June 2022 is neither an ecological thriller nor a run of the mill whodunit. Instead it is the rumination and lament of a divorced middle aged woman, the mother of a chirpy teen obsessed with a black metal band called "DEATH BE NOT PROUD, and the daughter of an infirm lady confined to her bed after a fall. The book explores conflicts and contrasts in human behaviour and the ways of the world at large. While, on the one hand there is the barely uncontained excitement surrounding the Olympic games, on the other hand lies the unspoken but inevitable elephant in the room. Thus even when people are hollering and cheering the Olympic torch relay, they are driven to the edge of panic when they see an old man holding a shiny, slick and black object in the carriage of a moving train. The offending object ultimately turns out to be a bar of chocolate.

The heroine of the book herself leads an existence veering between angst and acceptance. When not installing and servicing water purifiers, she seeks temporary refuge in the unseen underbelly of Cybersex. She is also forced to grapple with the plague of Trinity at her own home when she discovers a few black Uraninite stones amongst her mother's belongings.

All hell breaks loose when the protagonist’s mother flees the care home, carrying with her one of the accursed stones. However, since the mobile phone which she holds has a GPS tracker, her daughter can track her movements. The destination of the absconder – The National Stadium where the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics are going to be conducted. A diary left behind contains a weird notation of time: 5.29. This is a reference to the time when the atomic bomb was detonated for the purposes of testing by Robert Oppenheimer and his team. This is also the time (although in the evening) which the old woman has decided, would be most appropriate to ‘interfere’ with the opening ceremony.

The daughter races to the National Stadium to prevent her mother from wreaking havoc. But……
There are throes of ethics, emotions and extravagance in Kobayashi’s book. Is it a subtle clamour to balance scientific temper with humanitarian perspective? Is it a clarion call to watch out for untrammeled development in dangerous sites that have been the sites of cataclysmic activities? Or is it just a breathtaking testimony to the magnificent breadth of human imagination? Is it a warning to the world on the need to go slow with nuclear energy by demonstrating in a clinically impartial manner its pernicious impact on brain and body? Or is it a measured agglomeration of all of these?

Whatever it may be, “Trinity” sure makes its readers think!

('Trinity, Trinity Trinity' by Erika Kobayashi is published by Astra Publishing House and will be available for sale from the 28th of June, 2022)

Thank You Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy!