Real World Book

When I said that this book is intense, I might have understated a bit. Imagine, if you will, that you have stepped into the heads of four very different teenage girls and one, probably insane, teenage boy.

Kirino's Real World gives you a closer look at reality than you might have wanted to get. The books explores issues of blatant materialism, consumerism, how contemporary society seems to be fervently buying, selling, consuming and asks what the effect of this is on children. Society has turned into a huge business transaction and everyone is competing. Worm, whose mother is constantly pushing him to be more and more successful, who feels that he is but a puppet being manipulated by his mother, kills this same mother and feels a fierce elation at having done so. There is no remorse whatsoever in any of the pages of this book. None at all.

And then there are the girls who are titillated by this boy who has rebelled against the rules of the society. They interact with him through the phone, in shabby hotels, seeing themselves reflected in his run from the law, see him as a saviour and as a manifestation of their own suppressed desires. Real World is, I reiterate, intense. It is both an introspective and extroverted endeavor. It delivers both in an intellectual capacity and a physical one (as in there is plentiful action). The conclusion is shocking and thought provoking.

I really liked this novel. I don't think there was any distance from the themes it discusses to what is true about Western society. I think that materialism and consumerism are issues found in all societies of first worlds. What is fascinating is how it shapes minds and thus society. I recommend this to you.