goodness, this book took me for a ride. prepare to be confused for about 90% of it. strongly recommend reading it in one shot and then re-reading it. it’s a very meticulously planned and woven storyline but that’s almost all i can tell you. i remember at one point being very frightened, and i thought that was amazing and wonderful

Don't expect to finish this book in one sitting.Read each story carefully, each narrative with a keen attention to the subtle hints and details brought to light. Take note of the date before each chapter, and form the timeline in your head. Then read and find yourself pausing after every story simply to digest the story you just consumed.You will find yourself wondering a lot and asking many questions, but just keep reading. Let each story tell its own tale. Your only job is to piece the informa...

Kappa Quartet is a rather peculiar and profound novel that is hard to describe. It basically centres around a group of characters whose lives are intertwined in ways that they might not even be aware of. These characters include humans and kappas—the “river demons of Japanese folklore”.In his holiday in Tokyo, Kevin Lim, a young Singaporean man without a soul, meets one of these kappas and this chance encounter leads to reverberations within the complex web of characters who surround him. Weird

honestly,,,,,,, was seriously contemplating a 5 star review for this one for the sole reason of THE LAYERS!!!!!! THE WRITING!!!!!! THE WONG-KAR-WAI-ESQUE SERENDIPITY DONE RIGHT!!!!!! but i settled for a four star bc this book has given me much to ponder about and it wouldn't feel right to give it 5 stars when i have not made up my mind entirely about what this book means to me,,,,,, so. will update.update: okay, i've made up my mind. this was everything i could have wanted in a book. by no means...

Swept up in the captivating mood of Yam's writing I finished this book in no time at all. I would absolutely reccomend this novel.Jumping through the minds of each new character, with every addition making the story disconcerting clearer created an odd feeling. It felt as if these new characters were intimately connecting me with the narrative, by sharing their 'souls' I began to loose a sense of my own definitive place as a reader. These characters felt so intrinsically human, it was impossible...

The first Singaporean book I ever read, and from start to finish at that. Confounding but brilliant – can't wait to read the other books on the Fiction Prize list.

Contrived and confusing. For the most part, characters engage in cryptic dialogues while stationary.

Very original, reminded me of Haruki Murakami or David Mitchell. A lot of intriguing characters and stories and introduced without any resolution, but that didn't make it less enjoyable.

Interesting. Murakami and Japanese book fans should try it.

“The seed of a desire,” I replied. “Do you know what a shirikodama is, Ms Neo?”“I think so,” she said.“It is said to contain the essence of one’s soul. It is also said to resemble a small bead, nestled deep in one’s anus. This,” I stressed to her, “is a particular belief held amongst a subset of Japanese people: that the anus is the centre of the soul.”-p51And yet her face had a way of catching the light, in a way I couldn’t explain. At that moment I realised that there are people out there who

This is a novel that Singlit needs, a novel that transcends the usual genres Singaporean authors find themselves preoccupied with, to veer out into the realm of the surreal. I'm glad this novel exists. Having said that, I felt a certain sense of hollowness in the story, like the son without a soul. But let us backtrack a little. The pacing and switch of perspectives every chapter reminded me of Confessions by Kanae Minato, which I enjoyed. Confessions was more tightly knit, stemming from the epi...

i'm very sleepy but this is a very nice book. daryl has a very nice way of interacting and manoeuvring words. the concepts that are explored in the book are very interesting to think about, and the mythology created behind them. i liked it a lot, but upon reflection, i've revised my rating a little for how much i remember it. it could do more, somehow.

yo – am not here to rate books but i just wanted to chip in and say that you need to read this. trust me. i dunno why, but yeah. i can attempt a summary but that would be too wild haha. my brain is on fire and my body is in the water.

I'm in love with this bookI wonder why this has low ratings it was such a beautiful connection of eight stories characters flowing across stories weaving their lives into one anotherAuthor did such a great job to make me care about each and every single characterI don't read mystery or thrillers but this was mystery and thriller at some point though mystery isn't solved and I wonder if thriller scenes were actually wonderful scenes for charactersThere's happy ending but there's notEach story gav...

It felt like a dream, a dream that we all want to return to one day. Murakami-lite? Maybe, though at the same time completely unique in its own way. It's a thematic novel that embodies its themes. A masterpiece in its own right.

A couple of caveats before we start: -I believe reviews should be honest about their intentions and their preferences before they start, so I'll just come right out and say that Daryl Qilin Yam is a close friend of mine—-this is a very specific novel, written by a very specific writer, and this is crucial to how much you enjoy this book. I'll start by articulating the previous statement. When I say that this is a very specific novel, I don’t mean to say that it’s restricted in its time and cultu...

Curiouser and curiouser, Kappa Quartet is perhaps one of two things: (i) an intricate enigma, or (ii) an undercooked entrée. But is it really one or the other? Hardly. The very last line of the novel hints at its own ambiguity: (view spoiler)[I see everything; I see nothing at all. (hide spoiler)] — gesturing suggestively at the pervasiveness of unresolved tensions, which I took to be a central motif of the novel. Indeed, many tensions and 'subplots' (if one can call them that) remain unresolved...

Advance Praise:“Located somewhere between the shattered filmic worlds of David Lynch and Satoshi Kon's apocalyptic anime, Yam's narrative hypnotises us into questioning our reality in ways that are terrifying, revelatory and fundamentally profound.”—Cyril Wong, award-winning author of Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me “Irreal and intricate, Daryl Yam's riveting debut teases the perimeters of what a Singaporean novel can be.”—Amanda Lee Koe, award-winning author of Ministry of Moral Pani...

Confounded and yet truly in awe of this book. There's a particular strain of work appearing in 2016 that seems to baffle people, be it Sense8, The OA, and this book as well, that seems to go against the grain of everything we've come to believe in and really challenge our expectations + expose our biases of what we ought to expect from a certain sort of medium / media / genre / art. There was an initial resistance, admittedly, that I clung onto quite stupidly before I realised that I simply had

“Kappa Quartet” is a very heavily based around dialogues of many types of characters, some human some kappas, beings inspired by Japanese folktales. The book is divided into a number of segments in which you slowly but surely peak little further into who kappas are, how they interact with the world of humans and what soul really means to the characters you encounter while you skip from Singapore to Japan.Personally I enjoyed the story very much and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy...