The title and three short stories contained in this book are about being different in a society that does not accept or even tolerate differences. It's about finding ways to cope with the things in the world that we don't like or that make us feel a certain way.

I will eventually learn that I don't get most Japanese literature and accept it, but today was not that day. It is slightly surreal and the way the stories are told makes it feel like nothing is happening while there is, in fact, a whole lot of action going on.
It's very calm and I found it extremely relaxing, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting to. I will say that it brings up excellent points and think this would make an excellent book club selection because it touches on a lot of things that would make great conversational topics.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for the thought-provoking read.

This was so interesting !I really enjoyed the unique plots and the characters. I look forward to the author’s next work!

This book is composed of the title novella and three short stories. The author writes in a succinct way that evokes emotions and deep thoughts. The stories in this book discuss friend and romantic relationships, human interaction, gender identity and expression, belonging, and kindness. The main characters in each story face a struggle and express themselves in unique ways, including disappearing and pretending.
Some of the stories are thought-provoking. Others invoke emotions. And at least one is confusing, and I had trouble keeping characters straight in a few of the stories. But each story is interesting and helped me think differently about life, relationships and my behavior toward others. I recommend this book to curious readers who want to explore a different perspective.

I didn't hate the stories, but I just felt I couldn't resonate with them in any way. Well written, just boring for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Goodreads, and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a collection of translated short stories that deals with mental illness and has some gender commentary? Do you like stories that are a bit of a musey bummer, but don’t really have any takeaway messaging?

Pre-reading:
This title is bonkers. I read such a wide range, guys.

Thick of it:
It’s giving MLM. It’s giving essential oils.

This translation is rough.

You wouldn’t live with the person you married? That’s odd to me.

osmanthus

2/5? Girlypop, grow up. Don’t settle for men. Go after what you actually want. Go to therapy. Stop people pleasing.
———————-

Go to therapy y'all. This is insane people-pleasing and social anxiety.

Doria

Zelkovas

Happi

I do not care about this story.

That’s called depression.

purikura

I want to read more about Japanese love hotels. Cultural differences surrounding sex are so wild to me.

See, this is very interesting commentary on toxic masculinity. Because men shouldn’t feel bad just for existing. But I do think it’s interesting how he’s going out of his way to make her hurt about himself. And it’s an interesting concept that people who consume trauma porn essentially are going out of their way to prove that they have empathy to prove that they’re a good person thereby proving that they’re not actually a good person, but that message is sort of hidden and buried within this clunky story because of the translation.

izakaya

You can definitely get by in the world without drinking. What the fuck kind of thought is that?

I don’t think you need to reject your gender identity to not be a threat.

3/5 I’m glad I read it. It’s an interesting think piece. But I don’t think it reached any sort of moral verdict. I think it’s just saying that sensitive people are overwhelmed by the world, and if you’re not overwhelmed, you’re missing a bit of empathy. But also, if you’re overwhelmed, you can’t function in society. And society needs people to function, so you can’t be pure empathy.

I don’t know, I feel like there’s a bit of a cultural disconnect. I would be curious to see this sort of concept Americanized and then see what I think of it.
——————-

2/5 Again, not really sure what to do with it. Sexist jokes succeed in a sexist society-fucking duh? It’s hard to go against the norms, but you can definitely find people that will go against them with you.
——————-

Girlypop this is not fine.

2/5 What a weird story. I feel like it was about mental illness and suicide and trying to be horror, but it was just so disjointed that I got nothing from it.

Post-reading:
This was an interesting collection of short stories. I think the translation might be limiting its impact a bit, but I obviously can’t read the original to verify that. All the stories seem to deal with some facet of mental illness and anxiety, but it’s hard to connect and engage with the characters. Again, that may be due to a bit of a cultural mismatch. I think if you like translated works and thought-provoking gender commentary, the collection is worth a read, but I’m not sure how much you’ll get out of it other than this general sense of huh, that’s something to think more about. All the stories just feel incomplete. They don’t have any simple takeaway messages which tend to be a vital backbone for memorable and impactful short stories. These are just musings that basically amount to the state of the world is pretty shit, and you should feel sad about it, but whoopsies, you also have to function in society and you can’t do that if you’re too sad. Like we done been knew.

Who should read this:
People who like translated works
Gender commentary fans

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* There Is No Death in Fonding Nemo by Jeffrey M. Feingold-modernized fairytales and morbid short stories
* The Merry Spinster by Daniel M. Lavery-purposefully difficult to interpret set of dark fairytale retellings
* Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica-dark and edgy short stories that think they’re edgier than they are
* Amor and Psycho by Carolyn Cooke-edgy short stories
* How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu-interconnected sci-fi short stories, social commentary
* Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado-feminist short stories
* Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield-dementia horror, musey, all vibes very little plot
* Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt-gender commentary horror
* Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica-dystopian, societal commentary, cannibal horror

Very interesting collection of short stories! The first story is by far the best out of the four. Best of luck!

this was okay. meh. wouldn't recommend. feels like a waste of pages tbh.

— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.

I just don't have any strong feelings in any direction about these stories. They were not bad, I finished the book, but I did not connect.

I enjoyed the first story of this collection, but the novella and rest fell flat to me. I wish I could read this in the original language because maybe the translation is just a little clunky. The stories themselves are original and fun.

This book of short stories was a simple enough read, with commentary that often went over my head. There seemed to be a lot of repetitiveness, especially in the titular story, People Who Talk To Stuffed Animals Are Nice. I do think translation has a lot to do with the disconnect between this story and foreign readers.. Americans like myself might not understand the significance of some of the events or dialogue in these stories. Because of the repetitiveness, I was often bored. However, the shorter stories were much easier to read, especially the first one about water that prevents cancer.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my advanced readers copy of People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice by Ao Omae.
A collection of short stories about love and identity, I enjoyed parts of this book very much. I didn’t really enjoy the short story that the book is named after. It was just so long compared to the others and I couldn’t get through it. I ended up skipping that short story and reading my favorite one Bath Towel Visuals. I just thought the character was very relatable here and I felt like I could feel what she was feeling.
All of these stories though made a little uncomfortable, just because of how honest and open they felt. I really enjoyed sitting with that emotion and reading something outside of my comfort zone.
I would rate this book 3 out of 5 stars!

Thank you to Harpervia and Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, the cover = FANTASTIC.
Secondly, the title = ALSO FANTASTIC.

The stories in PWTTSAAN explore themes of community, connection, misogyny, and personal responsibility on both the micro and macro level. These zany tales showcase narrators troubled with social convention and their desires to avoid culpability in the everyday violence humans inflict upon other humans.

The title story was a bit long; It could have been edited down quite a bit. (still liked it!) On the plus side, each story was distinct and original.

Overall, I was impressed with this unique collection and found myself highlighting several lines in each of the four stories.

I'd recommend!

I'm no stranger to translated Japanese short stories and I don't shy away from the odd ones, but for some reason these missed the mark for me. They didn't hold my attention as anticipated, though I appreciated some of the questions they posed. Perhaps if I had someone to discuss the stories with, I could have gained more from them in conversation.

"If you're having a hard time, it's better to talk to someone. But the person you direct those hardships at might get sad or hurt. That's why we should talk to stuffed animals. We can have the stuffed animals comfort us."

This was a very interesting collection of stories. I really enjoyed Realizing Fun Things Through Water and People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice as I thought they were accurate portrayals of feelings of social awkwardness/anxiety and not knowing how to speak up when things make you uncomfortable, or feeling like you just have to go with whatever people are pushing you to do because you don't know enough about your emotions to know what you really want.

I was a little confused by Hello, Thank You, Everything's Fine. It didn't feel like it fit in with the other stories. I'm not the best at finding greater themes in books and stories though, so maybe I just didn't understand it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher HarperVia for the e-arc.

This one is harder for me to rate. I feel like books like these are typically difficult for me to rate. I could like some stories, while disliking others, then where does that leave my rating? Overall, I'd say I enjoyed my time reading them and the overall theme of the stories. The writing style, too, was nice and made for a fluid reading experience.

I really love short story collections, but this one ain't it! The writing was so choppy and awkward. I know this book is translated, but the translation is lazy and messy. I've read translated fiction in the past, and it's never read this strange before. I didn't really care for any of the stories. The only positive I can say is the cover art is adorable. Ho-hum collection. Skip this one.

This collection, comprising one novella and three short stories, explores several heavy topics from the perspective of young Japanese protagonists.

While I believe the anthology has a great underlying premise, it's ultimately unsuccessful in its execution. For example, the basic idea of the title story - in which a group of university students comprising the "Plushie Club" have created a safe space in which they can communicate their complex emotions to stuffed animals - is both unique and intriguing! However, and this is likely due to the translation, the way the story was told felt disjoint, overly simplistic, and failed to communicate the overall message clearly.

The cover and title are perfection, and both of those factors drew me in to reading this collection of translated short stories.

Unfortunately, I feel a lot was lost in the translation, and too much of the narrative/dialogue felt disjointed and very awkward. Despite the funny cover and title, the stories in this collection deal with very dark subjects, including some heavy mental health issues. The translation didn't really reflect the seriousness of the topics, and felt a bit too simplified/childish. Perhaps the original version works better.

There are some very creative concepts, and I was fascinated by the existence of a "Plushie Club"--what a unique way to unite people with social anxiety and depression into a group that celebrates being different and needing space to communicate quietly.

While this book didn't work for me, I think the topics approached are important and the stories could help the right reader.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVia for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on 6/6/23.

Not what I expected at all. This is something id gladly put in my collection of books. I love the cover and I love the story.

Really enjoyed this book, it had some brilliant writing alongside very original concepts which really amplified the message or learning from each story. The title story was particularly good and moving for me and 'Hello, everything is fine" was really great. Hope to see more from this author, especially a novel.