★★★★★ Full of violence, full of actions, full of sisterhood. Yoriko is extremely violent, but she is unapologetically a woman. Very entertaining, yet it’s stepping into the new, unknown world. An important book.
🔽 log 🔽
The Night of Baba Yaga
Akira Otani, 2020
ババヤガの夜
王谷晶
Read 2025.10
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Full of violence, full of actions, full of sisterhood.
Having a woman as the protagonist, with such detailed description of violence, of physical, sexual, verbal violence - this is unique.
These yakuza or mafia stories tend to have women who are usually weak, or bad, or traumatised (therefore an excuse of her violence) or too masculine.
So even though they have a woman as the main character it's full of (sometimes hidden) hatred towards the woman or women in general.
Not here.
Yoriko is extremely violent, but she's a woman, she is unapologetically a woman.
We don't need only these weak women, or bad women, just to please male readers.
We need strong bond, strong sisterhood.
We need stories where she want to be the happy kick ass monster.
I kind of worry about how it's sold in the West though, it's not a new Kill Bill (full of revenge and trauma) it's neither queer novel as they want to portrait it.
Ultimately it's a story of a women who finds a happy life.
It'd be a pity to read this only as a violent novel.
It's without a doubt very entertaining, yet it's stepping into the new, unknown world.
An important book.
🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽
●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
The Night of Baba Yaga: the multi-award winning cult Japanese thriller
●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
The Night of Baba Yaga: the multi-award winning cult Japanese thriller
●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
The night of Baba Yaga (English)
赤パンの本棚 