Thank you NetGalley and the publisher/ author for the chance to review this ARC!

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa is an intriguing read that offers a unique perspective on the classic tale. The character development is commendable, particularly in how Ichikawa explores the complexities of the protagonist's emotions and struggles. However, the pacing can be uneven at times, which might leave some readers feeling a bit disconnected from the storyline. The writing style is engaging, but there were moments when the narrative felt a bit convoluted. Overall, it's a solid book worth reading for fans of reimagined classics, but it may not resonate with everyone. 3 stars.

Hunchback has shaken Japanese literary culture w Hunchback is a well written, often humerous, book about a woman born with a congenital muscle disorder who refuses to let her physical limitations and disability overtake her life or deprive her of her autonomy. While her physical life is limited, her mind and thoughts know no bounds. She expresses her fantasies through online fictional publications and writes confronting tweets to provoke controversy. One of these tweets results in shocking unforeseen events.
The novel also provides insight into the physical implications of having a disability and the treatments and compromises that are required on a daily basis.
Thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the ARC. ith its skillful depiction of the physical body and its unrepentant humor. Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, it’s a feminist story about the dignity of an individual who insists on her right to make choices for herself, no matter the consequences. Formally creative and refreshingly unsentimental, Hunchback depicts the joy, anger, and desires of a woman demanding autonomy in a world that doesn’t aways always grant it to people like her. Full of wit, bite, and heart, this unforgettable novel reminds us all of the full potential of our lives, regardless of the limitations we experience.

At first I thought I’d downloaded the wrong book lol. The intro was well placed and did its job to grab our attention and subvert the tendency to desexualise those with disabilities.

This was interesting and opened my eyes to many things without coming across preachy. I found the ending a little confusing (I probably need to go back and reread it at some point) and thought this could have been a little longer, but enjoyed it all the same.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa is a haunting and evocative tale that delves into themes of identity, isolation, and the search for acceptance. Ichikawa's lyrical prose brings a sense of depth and poignancy to the story, exploring the inner world of a protagonist marked by difference and struggle. The narrative is both introspective and intense, capturing the complexities of human emotions and the often harsh realities of societal perceptions. With its blend of raw emotion and delicate storytelling, Hunchback is a powerful and thought-provoking read that leaves a lasting impact, challenging readers to confront their own views on beauty, empathy, and the human spirit.

Hunchback is a highly unique and original story.

Saou Ichikawa has dared to challenge the perceptions of readers by exploring the desire, lust and sexual imagination of Shaka who is wheelchair bound; has a curved spine and requires a ventilator to breathe.

Shaka spends much of her writing explicitly erotic stories for an online site; she also posts challenging / contentious comments on social media.

This leads to one her carers providing her with the opportunity to undertake a sexual act with him

This is a book that opens our minds to consider the sexual desires that frequent people who are not able bodied - reviewed by some a comedic … not so sure ..but this novella certainly has a punch and will divide readers

This is a novella unlike anything I have ever read before. Written in a dual narrative style, this is the story of a young woman who lives in a group home. Our protagonist requires help with personal care due to her disability but while her body limits her movement her mind is active studying for her second degree and writing erotic fiction under various pseudonyms.

The is a feminist story about a disabled woman and her desperation for autonomy over her body and mind and when she Tweets her inner most thoughts, a surprising character answers the call to action.

There are graphic depictions of sex so this is definitely an 'open door' novella.

A brilliant and exciting work of own-voices disability fiction. Ichikawa isn't afraid to get weird or gross, yet manages to also keep all the characters grounded in reality. As I was reading, nothing felt too abstract, too absurd, and yet in a way that is exactly what this was— utterly absurd.

I think our main character's desire may put some readers off due to the nature of it, but those that are able to move beyond that are in for such a treat. The ride to the ending (and what an ending that was! It would make for an excellent discussion in a book club) is a wild one, with the writing both factual and incredibly visceral in its descriptions. I mean, I finished this book 6 weeks ago and still have multiple scenes playing out in my mind.

I highly encourage people to pick up a copy when it releases in early 2025. If not for the story then at least for that gorgeously evocative cover.

For fans of short translated work, own-voices fiction and endings that can have more than one interpretation.

I’ve been reading a lot of translated Japanese fiction lately and really enjoyed it.
This one is no exception. The author is a Japanese lady, who lives with the disability of which she writes about here.
It’s very well done, thought provoking, and inspired.
I’m extremely pleased to have picked this one up and am happy to recommend this to all.
Thank you to the author and the publisher for allowing me the ARC.

This novella is about a middle aged Japanese woman who has a severe disability due to a congenital muscular disorder and severe scoliosis. She lives in a group home, using a ventilator and needing help with activities. In her spare time she writes online porn and studies.

It's a sparsely written account with minimal plot. The author tackles ableism and the taboo subject of disabled people's sexuality. The writing is explicit in parts and its a challenging read but there's something strangely beautiful about it and it's thought provoking.

As soon as I saw this published and translated by Polly Barton from Japanese author Saou Ichikawa, the first novel by a disabled writer to win Japans most prestigious award Akutagawa prize, about disability, sex and privilage. I knew I had to read it!! I could talk about this so much!
This book won't be for everyone!
Talks of pregnancy/abortion/sex

Saou Ichikawa has Scoliosis, an S shaped curvature of the spine along with a muscle condition called Myotubular Myopathy! I also have Scoliosis S shaped spine, but I have been so lucky to have the spinal fusion surgery to insert metal rods down my spine to stop the curve progressing. I was told if I didn't have the surgery I would be in a wheelchair, breathing difficulties, organs crushed etc, just like what Saou is living with.

This story is about Shaka a woman living in a care home, seeking the full possibilities of her life as a disabled person. She is an erotic sex writer and writing content online, "so it serves as a good part-time job for those with caring responsibilities or people with serious disabilities like me, who struggle to leave the house." (I did find all the written sexual content a bit strange). She one day asks her careworker to be a sperm donor, so she could feel what it would be like to get pregnant but couldn't keep the baby with her disabilities! She relies on an electric wheelchair and ventilator to breathe. She reads and writes on her iPad, and a passage she writes about "Able-bodied Japanese people have likely never even imagined a hunchbacked monster struggling to read a physical book, while all those ablebodied ebook hating physical book lovers"

This book is about her own dignity and the right to make choices for herself, even if that ended her in hospital at one point.
I wish Saou all the best and what a lovely lady donating her money to charities! Such an inspirational lady!

I was intrigued by the reviews for this book but after reading I have no idea what all the hype was about. It’s great to see a book about the experiences of a disabled person out there but this book has no substance at all. There is no real plot and the writing is mediocre at best. Sorry not to have enjoyed it more.

ARC obtained from Penguin General UK via NetGalley.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC! This book won a prestigious Japanese literary award, with Saou Ichikawa being the first physically disabled author to do so. I thought it was stunning, honestly. Dark and disturbing, for sure, but forcing readers to confront their internal prejudices/stereotypes of disabled people - primarily that they’re non-sexual beings. The main character and narrator of this semi-autobiographical novel(la) was born with a muscular disorder, is a super rich orphan living in a care facility, and is incredibly horny. She yearns to live life the way able-bodied women do, and regularly tweets out inflammatory tweets along the lines of wishing she could try sex work or get an abortion. She writes SEO articles about sex clubs for seedy websites and publishes online erotica under several pen names. When a male careworker links Shaka to her online personas, things get dicey.
.
Exploring lust, desire, abuses of power and privilege, ableism in Japan, money and the freedom the internet affords people denied it elsewhere, this is just a little bombshell of a book. Perhaps too little - I wanted more of Shaka, she’s cheeky, intelligent, headstrong and I could have read 200 pages more of her. The ending was fantastically grim and could be read a couple of ways. Flawlessly translated by Polly Barton. Desperately hoping this author has more to come!

July 26, 2016 is the date of one of the deadliest attacks in Japanese history. After breaking into a care facility in Sagamihara, just outside of Tokyo, Uematsu Satoshi murdered 19 disabled people, and injured a further 26. Actions he later justified as “mercy killings” of people he characterised as unable to fully participate in society. His victims received remarkably little attention in the mainstream media - compared to those who’d died in other killing sprees on Japanese soil. But the date, and aftermath of Uematsu’s crimes, retain significance for Japanese disability activists: eloquent examples of discriminatory attitudes and an accompanying culture of silence. These aspects of Japanese society are part of what Saou Ichikawa sets out to confront in her award-winning variation on a protest novel.

At the centre of Ichikawa’s semi-autobiographical novella’s narrator Shaka Izawa. Like Ichikawa herself, Shaka was diagnosed during childhood with a form of congenital myotubular myopathy and is now in her forties. Shaka’s an extremely wealthy orphan with a studio apartment in a group facility she inherited, named Ingleside in honour of her love of Anne of Green Gables. Ichikawa’s arresting narrative is set during the Covid pandemic, and presents a highly-detailed portrait of Shaka’s everyday life underlining the specificity of her situation: emphasizing her individuality rather than confining her to membership of an amorphous grouping dubbed “disabled.” The vast majority of Shaka’s time’s spent inside the apartment where an array of mobility aids and medical equipment supports her existence: allowing her to breathe without suffocating from the mucus constantly clogging her lungs. She has no visitors other than care workers and facility employees, although she sometimes eats in the facility’s communal dining room, eavesdropping on fellow residents. But Shaka’s keenly aware of her outsider status, someone who disrupts society’s rhythm in a Japan that works on the “basis disabled people don’t exist.” She wryly refers to herself as “monstrous hunchback.” She’s enrolled in in a distance-learning degree which has the added attraction of affording her the “acceptable” title of student.

However, Shaka has a series of secret online identities. She contributes ‘kotatsu’ articles, composed from secondary sources, promoting adult entertainment including ‘happening’ bars designed for anonymous sexual encounters. These writings overlap with fictional erotica, and provocative tweets related to Shaka’s frustrations, sex, and disability. A means for Shaka to experiment with, otherwise inaccessible, desires. But when care worker Tanaka links Shaka to her online personas, his attempt to use this information to extort money provides an opportunity to act on her fantasies. Through their transgressive interactions Ichikawa confronts taboos and stigmas surrounding explorations of disability and sexuality. But their vastly different economic status, comparatively-impoverished Tanaka versus ultra-rich Shaka, raises further questions of relative privilege and power: it’s never entirely clear who’s the abuser and who’s the abused in this relationship. It’s a complex, unsettling storyline which anticipates, and resists, any temptation to position Shaka as automatically without agency – an all-too-common assumption underlying numerous depictions of disabled people. Although Tanaka, with his overwhelming air of “ressentiment,” also conjures elements of the prejudice displayed by certain quarters of the non-disabled community.

Ichikawa’s influences include Kenzaburō Ōe and Masahiko Shimada; like Shimada, Ichikawa’s unconventional novella plays with genre boundaries, framing Shaka’s narration with extracts from Shaka’s erotic journalism and fiction. A move which highlights the artificiality of narrative and forms of representation, feeding into Ichikawa’s own concerns about storytelling and disability. It's a gripping, erudite piece which touches on topics from reproductive rights and eugenics to mind/body dualism, to the exclusionary practices of a publishing industry that often shuns the e-book formats that make it possible for Shaka to read without pain. Ichikawa draws too on her research into the history of disability and Japanese literature; as well as paying homage to previous generations of disability activists and protestors including Tomoko Yonezu - famous for spraying the Mona Lisa with red paint while on display in Japan, calling attention to Tokyo National Museum’s policy of barring entry to anyone requiring assistance. Translated by Polly Barton.

I read this in about an hour. I didn’t see the ending coming.
It was compelling, intriguing, and unexpected.

I’m struggling to give this book a star rating, simply because of the themes and deeply personal aspects in this story. It explores a disabled woman’s life and sexual desires, and the ableism she faces on a daily basis. Her life is slightly depressing, but her addiction to lust is even more disturbing, as are her lengths to achieve her desires. I can see why this book sent shock waves when it was published, it’s graphic and crass and incredibly detailed.

An extremely powerful novella about ableism in Japan, from the point of view of a woman with a serious physical disability, written by an author with that same disability. It is furious and relentless, brutal and unforgiving, and places the body, with all its flaws and desires, firmly in the centre stage and doesn’t take its eyes off it for one second.

*Hunchback* by Saou Ichikawa is a raw and confronting examination of disability and ableism. The novel offers a powerful critique of societal prejudices, immersing readers in the life of Shaka, a disabled woman living in a care home funded by her wealthy parents. Through her online fiction and interactions with a carer who discovers her secret, the story explores themes of desire and societal exclusion with unflinching honesty.

The writing is sharp, combining humor with an intelligent, unapologetic look at disability and human desire. It's a compelling 4-star read for its bold narrative and insightful commentary.

Thanks to the publisher and #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I'm really not sure how to rate this book. It was predominantly about a disabled woman who describes her disability and the issues she has with some able bodied people, but I found a lot of the concepts confusing and lacking focus.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

While I liked the blurb and following a character with disabilities, I expected a deeper exploration of the themes after starting the book and the style of the prose was not my favourite.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for the e-ARC of this book.

“Being able to see; being able to hold a book; being able to turn its pages; being able to maintain a reading posture; being able to go to a bookshop to buy a book - I loathed the exclusionary machismo of book culture that demanded that its participants meet these five criteria of ablebodiedness. I loathed, too, the ignorant arrogance of all those self-professed book-lovers so obvious to their privilege.”

Right from the outset this is a confronting, raw, dark, pulsing examination of disability and ableism. A strong commentary on societal prejudices towards those with disabilities, providing an insight most people will never have even considered.

We follow the life of Shaka, a disabled woman living in a care home funded by her parents’ wealth. She lives vicariously through the online posts and fiction she writes, until one of her carers reveals he has found her online alias and they make an arrangement…

Beautifully written with humour and wit. The inclusion of sex and desire; the refusal to censor what are basic human desires. Full frontal and intelligent. I really loved this book for everything it is throwing in the readers face, and rightfully doing so unapologetically.