2025/10 Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan

[Jack]

Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan is the choice for October 2025. English translation by Jesse Kirkwood.

[Mathew]

fantastic! Thanks for all the work getting this set up Jack!

[Bill]

In the last few days, I've moved from 9 of 12 in the queue for this book at my local library to 9 of 22. Coincidence?

[Alison]

Was *not* expecting the book to open with a long digression on whether the narrator has been raped. 😱

Offered as a CW and not a spoiler. (It’s in the first few pages anyway.)

[Aki]

Alison wrote: "Was *not* expecting the book to open with a long digression on whether the narrator has been raped. 😱

Offered as a CW and not a spoiler. (It’s in the first few pages anyway.)"

Oh no 💀 Thanks for the warning!

[Ana]

looking forward to this one!

[Carola]

I just started reading and the paragraph about katakana on page 10 (of the paperback) is interesting. (view spoiler)[I know it's supposed to reflect Sara's feelings about katakana, but if you don't know you'd get the impression katakana was a modern invention. It's in fact really old, and while it was first used to transliterate foreign texts, it was the main script used in official documents alongside kanji (not hiragana, as you'd maybe expect). (hide spoiler)]

Maybe more will be explained later. I do love that language is such a focus of this book. No idea where the plot's gonna go.

[Carola]

I just finished it and well, I sure am curious what everyone else thinks.

[Mathew]

Carola wrote: "I just finished it and well, I sure am curious what everyone else thinks."

I'm about half-way. It's a lightning fast read. I'll be finished soon :)

[Mathew]

(view spoiler)[Yeah I'm having a hard time understanding her opinions on language. Unless she's supposed to be an unreliable narrator.
And you're absolutely correct. Not only can hiragana and katakana be traced way back, but they are both Japanese in origin, unlike the adopted Chinese Kanji, so I feel the character's statements a bit jarring, especially if she's the educated woman she appears to be.(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Leah]

I finished the book and have given myself some time to think about it. The first half felt slow and kind of confusing, but it really picked up for the second half. I enjoyed the different POVs and kept thinking someone was going to end up actually being AI themselves.

I felt like the story was doing too much in its given length. There were so many issues brought up about things or events that had negative effects upon Japanese society such as AI, COVID and the Tokyo Olympics, and the Tower.
Maybe there was something that was supposed to connect all of these issues together, but to me it just felt like each topic was just starting to get interesting before we were led into another subject and it left me wanting more.

Overall, I enjoyed delving into the concepts brought up within the story. My favorite part was the story of A-ko and how society failed her.

My favorite quote from the story was, “This is what I can’t stand about you AI natives—this assumption that as long as you ask a question, you’ll always get your answer. Well, I’m not AI okay? Try having a guess or coming up with your own theory from time to time.”

[Alison]

That’s one of my favorite lines, too, Leah!

I’m almost finished. Does the jump between time/narrators work a little better in print? It’s causing me issues on audio.

[Leah]

I think I was so confused the first half of the book because the different POVs weren’t pointed out specifically so I had to interpret for myself that the POV had changed to another person. Finally after like the third change I started understanding better what was going on. I think that’s why I kept thinking that their was going to a be a twist where on of the POVs were going to end up being AI.
The changes were very abrupt though so I can see how that would be hard to interpret as an audiobook if the whole book is narrated by the same person.

[Den]

I enjoyed this one. had a few sensible chuckles... a few not so sensible chuckles as well

[Ikkychann]

Thank you for picking up this book; I enjoyed it a lot! Even though its scope is quite large, covering numerous issues, it never felt unfocused or arbitrary for me because it consistently explored the superficiality of things. Every major character—Sara, Takt, Seto—has built a life on the triumph of appearances.

My least favorite part of the book is Seto, I don't really care much about him.

[chen]

i enjoyed this one. they jump through topics a lot and honestly kinda validated my adhd lol. i like this...blend between relying on the robotic, void-of-feelings AI and having sympathy which...takes a lot of Feelings to have

[Kim]

I found this short, intense novel to be very thought-provoking, and I like that about it.

[Nose-in-a-Book]

The subject matter was quite interesting. I enjoyed focusing on word choice, use of AI, and architecture. Takt and Sara's characters and drive were interesting. I was a bit thrown off by the narration. Thanks for the suggestion, an interesting read indeed.

[Bill]

I didn't have any trouble with the change of narrators. I guess I read a lot of books with that, so I take it in stride.

I think her point about katakana isn't that it's of foreign origin, but that it's used primarily to import foreign words into Japanese. I think Sara would prefer Japanese people to speak words that have been part of Japanese for a long time (even if they were originally Chinese imports) over newly imported English words in katakana.

I would have liked some discussion about whether the sympathy tower works, in the sense of reforming its inmates, but the author chose not to go there. I feel that overall her sense of justice is undeveloped; she only considers that the poor and abused go on to be criminals, when we know that the rich and powerful also commit serious crimes.

I find the book lacked any kind of resolution, either in the tower or in the characters' relationship. But maybe that's a consequence of how I read it: I got this by ebook from my local library (first time) and had to read it on their website with no page numbers and no progress bar. So I had no idea it was about to end until I turned the page and there was nothing more. I've never had to read like that before.

I feel her look slightly into the future was already full of anachronisms, and she could have tried a little harder. DVDs, for example, have already gone out of style and make not be long for this world. There are a few other anachronisms, but I didn't make note of them while reading.

[Stacia]

I'm a little late to the discussion because I waited to get a copy from my library.

While it has quite a few intriguing ideas & topics, the whole didn't fully cohere for me.

I think, even though it can spawn numerous discussion points, it never really delves into any of them &, therefore, feels like it has the overall depth of a bunch of writing prompts. You can have some heavy & open-ended prompts, each person who sees the prompt will layer on their own interpretation & meaning, but the prompt or a group of prompts still does not a story make. I'm being a bit hyperbolic when I liken it to the depth of writing prompts but there is a vagueness in this novel in spite of the intriguing topics.

Ultimately I found it ambitious, thought-provoking, & also somewhat unsatisfying in the end.