A review by afi_whatafireads
The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Premonition: a strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant.

The way Madam Banana Yoshimoto holds the reigns to my heart? Its bloody insane.


"Listening with eyes closed, I felt as though I were at the bottom of a green ocean. All the world seemed to be lit up by shafts of light. The current moved limpidly, and in it, my troubles skimmed past me like schools of fish barely brushing against my skin.

I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide as the sun went down, ending up far, far away from where I started."


Banana Yoshimoto's works had always held somewhat like a power - in the way that she writes her proses and in how she pans out her characters. Grief will always be a subject matter in most of her novels and I love how subtle but also vividly written it is with her characters. If you look on the surface, it almost seemed that all of her characters either seemed normal or eccentric. But if we look deeper, there's more than meets the eye and its how Yoshimoto always wins with her books. Its in the way she puts into perspective of each character's motives in their actions, and in how she describes everything that surrounds them and how it affects them as people.

Her writing is not only captivating, but it leaves a deep sense of resonance to our hearts. I teared up at the very end, because how every line and every emotion poured into the notions that is portrayed by nature and the character's surroundings makes us feel like we were there with the characters as well. Its as if we are going through each and every moment that has been written, the loneliness and solitude and in the longings to be seen and heard by her loved ones - to bring a place that feels like home.

There was a kdrama that I've recently finished - Welcome to Samdal-Ri- and the ending credit was this ;
"Having a place to return to is an incredible relief."
And a place does not have to be a physical house, its also in the people that cares about you and the community that accepts you for who you are. The concept of home and belonging and trying to find something that feels missing in your life and how when its finally found, you feel at home, and whole.

The Premonition has such a simple prose and plot and yet, it gives so many feelings after finishing it. My heart feels so so much for the characters, for their struggle, their search to feel belonged and the longingness for something that you might and possibly can't have. Its in the way that Yoshimoto writes that feels personal, quiet and tugs at every piece of your heart. Its in how there's deep sense of warmth and sorrow interlaced and you leave with a deep sense of longing for more.

What a book. What a read. Definitely one of the reads that I will remember for a very long time.

Thank you to Times Reads for the copy. I'm forever thankful