Wow, this was totally different than what I was expecting.

I enjoyed getting to know Shaka in the first half. Reading the perspective of someone with this kind of immobilizing disability was very eye opening. The way she thinks is very sharp, straight to the point, and darkly funny in certain scenes. Nobody would ever guess she’s kinda freakyyyy which made this more interesting to me.

The second half left me wanting more. It felt like a fever dream but in a way that seemed to stray away from getting more depth from the characters. I usually don’t mind a no plot book, but it started losing me towards the end. I will be mulling over the ambiguous ending over the next couple days though.

Overall not bad, just not sure I liked it as a whole.

Saou Ichikawa challenged what I thought I knew, taught me a LOT I didn't already know, and made me laugh out loud enough times I lost count. I've never read anything this powerful around disability

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC!

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa was unlike anything I had read before and made me think hard about ableism and assumptions about disabled people. Shaka is a young woman with a congenital degenerative muscle disease who uses both a wheelchair and a ventilator. However, she has a lively internal world and she craves new experiences. She writes erotica and also has a social media account where she posts provocative statements to get people to engage. I felt like the book itself is a provocative statement and I appreciated the glimpse it offered into Shaka’s world.

Published in Japan in 2023; published in translation by Hogarth on March 18, 2025

One gift that authors give readers is the opportunity to exercise empathy. By reading about lives that are not their own, readers gain an understanding of people that extends beyond the knowledge they gain from personal contacts. Reading the first-person narrator’s account of her life in Hunchback opens a window on the life that a Japanese woman might live when she is physically impaired by a severe disability.

Shaka Izawa (like the author) suffers from myotubular myopathy, a rare genetic disorder that causes severe muscle weakness. The condition has affected the curvature of her spine, leaving it “twisted so as to crush my right lung.” As the novel’s title suggests, her body has taken the form of a hunchback. “As a consequence, my way of walking was sufficiently imbalanced to make the word ‘limp’ seem an understatement, and whenever I lost focus, I’d strike my head on the left-hand side of the door frame.

Shaka had a tracheostomy to ease her breathing. She needs the assistance of a ventilator to breathe when she lies on her back. She uses a suction catheter to drain mucus from her windpipe. She needs to cover the hole in her throat to speak, but she doesn’t do so often because speaking increases her mucus production.

Shaka is fortunate to have been born to financially secure parents who assured that she would receive the lifelong care she needs. Shaka owns a building that her parents converted into a group home. She has lived there for since her early teens. Caregivers prepare her meals and help her bathe, as they do for the other disabled residents.

For nearly thirty years, Shaka has not set foot outside the building where she lives. She never has visitors, apart from healthcare professionals and the people who service her ventilator. Saou Ichikawa makes the point that Japanese culture relegates the disabled to the status of nonpersons. Japan, she tells the reader, “works on the understanding that disabled people don’t exist within society.” Keeping the disabled out of sight spares the abled members of society the discomfort of recognizing that some people do not share abilities that they take for granted. The American push for inclusion of the disabled (which will likely be set back by deliberate misunderstandings of what DEI means) has evidently not taken root in Japan.

To help pass the time, Shaka takes remote classes at a university. She’s working on her second degree. She also writes porn. She donates her earnings from porn production to food banks, shelters for homeless girls, and charities for orphans.

Shaka’s focus on sexual pleasure in her part-time work provides another opportunity for Ichikawa to contrast the lives of “normal” people in Japan with the lives of the disabled. Sexual desire is normal, no less so for the disabled, but Japanese society isn’t prepared to accept the notion of a severely disabled individual having a sexual encounter. Hunchback may be an attempt to provoke change in society’s willingness to accept that disabled individuals may be just as interested in sex as the nondisabled.

The novel opens with one of Shaka’s porn stories, an account of a woman visiting a sex club. Her date and another couple adjourn to a private room where they engage in sex acts while patrons on the other side of the glass walls masturbate. We later learn that on the site for which she writes, the greatest demand “among male users is first-hand accounts of various adult entertainment venues or lists of top-twenty pickup spots, together with adverts for dating and hook-up apps, while among women, it’s lists of the top-twenty shrines to pray at for rekindling romance, together with adverts for psychic hotlines.”

Shaka is a virgin, but her “ultimate dream” is to get pregnant and have an abortion. The shape of her skeleton would prevent her from giving birth, but she has the biological ability to conceive an embryo. She sees pregnancy and abortion as a means of living “like a normal woman.”

Shaka tweets her thoughts and fantasies (including working as a high-end prostitute) with the assumption that nobody reads them. She’s surprised to learn that one of her male caretakers has, in fact, followed them. For a price, he seems willing to make her fantasy come true. At the same time, his distaste for Shaka is evident. Shaka realizes that the “appropriate distance between us was one that allowed him to pity me.” Their abbreviated sexual encounter leaves the reader wondering which of them was more affected by the experience.

The novel is filled with insights into the life experiences of a severely disabled woman. The discussion of abortion is particularly telling. Shaka tells the reader that Japanese women routinely abort fetuses to avoid giving birth to a disabled child. Shaka’s fetus could be genetically unimpaired, so she sees an intentional pregnancy for the purpose of having an abortion as an attempt to “balance the scales.”

The story ends by transitioning back to the world of porn, this time featuring Shaka playing out her fantasy life as a prostitute. Yet this time Shaka is not the porn’s creator but a character imagined by the creator, a character who writes porn as “a way for her to survive in society.” The narrator considers that “maybe I myself don’t exist,” circling back to the earlier theme of disabled people living invisible lives, hidden from a society that prefers not to be disturbed by knowledge that some lives are less fortunate than their own.

Hunchback is a powerful and sometimes disturbing work. Readers who are willing to move outside their comfort zones to consider experiences that they cannot easily imagine will find ample opportunities to exercise their compassion in Saou Ichikawa’s semi-autobiographical novel.

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On one hand I don't think I am who this book to. . .at?. . .for?. . .and then on the other hand (is this metaphor misplaced?. . .second guessing overcomes me - catch22ish) I think I'm exactly the one who needs to appreciate my taken for granted place in my body, society and world. Hmm. Yet there's something very important here, between the orgasms and nipple-twiddling. And yet, that's rather off-putting, too.

That seems to be the point, to push every reader who choses to be a reader of this manifesto, to shock and awe, and if it works, grab you by your most private parts to see if you can effing feel your privileges and wholeness. That there are wants, and wishes and hurts that are invisible to you and me happening every moment to others in this world. Invisible. People. So count your blessings? Maybe not, maybe just trying to be more aware, open-eyed, and open-minded in our choices to interact with all humans of every kind and type as opportunities present.

I'm giving this 4 fierce stars with the caveat that this is not a gentle or feel-good tale. It's fully loaded and aimed at . . .all of us. Some will feel the hit. Some will not. The fierceness of it is what I love most, and still can't explain the fullness of it.

*A sincere thank you to Saou Ichikawa, Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Hogarth, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.*

I love a book that says so much with so few pages. Shaka was an interesting character, and i absolutely could have read more about what she does as a writer, her desires, and the want to experience parts of life that she has been denied due to her disability. In a society where ableism tries to dictate how a personal with disabilities should act and feel, Shaka challenges that every step of the way.

Also this book was weird as hell, and that's my favourite kind of book.

Great read. Hauntingly told tale of the main character. The ending was unexpected. Felt like the story was sandwiched neatly within narratives and it worked well. Something I will continue to think about over time for sure.

What an incredible book looking at disability and the way society approaches it in relation to sexuality. I really liked the narrative style and thought it was funny but deep.

A short, interesting exploration of disability and what life looks like through the eyes of a woman with myotubular myopathy. The explanations of Shaka's daily routines, inner thoughts, struggles and feelings were illuminating. This is a good look at how inclusivity doesn't completely exist in the modern world. I think that it is important to share stories from all perspectives, but the novella is too short for me to get into the emotional place I tend to with character novels, making this a lacking experience for me. Still, I see the potential and hope Ichikawa is encouraged by the praise it has received to continue writing from a disabled perspective.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

In just 100 pages Ichikawa made me feel all. the. things. This is an incredibly darkly funny debut about bodies that I will be thinking about for the rest of the year.

DNF @5%

Due to unexpected content that is offensive to me [I cannot even begin to share how much I DESPISE the euphemism "tit" or 'tits". Absolutely hate it and it is used 5-7 times in the first 5% of the book - UGH, and that is just the start of what really bothered me], I will NOT be finishing/reviewing this book.
While I understand the...idea? behind this book [and I absolutely celebrate that there is finally a book with a MC that is disabled], the content [and some of the storyline that I was unaware of and 100% cannot read about] is not something I ever want to read. As I was initially excited to read this book, I am very disappointed. While I have never been a huge fan of trigger warnings, this is the second book this week where I 100% wish that there had been one in the description to help the reader better decide whether this book would be for them or not.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Random House Publishing- Random House/Hogarth for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nothing has left me this kind of speechless before... I finished this a few days ago but still don't think I've figured out all that I want to say. Especially because this is something I'm certain I'll think about for the rest of my life.

Absolutely incredible, vulnerable, hilarious, challenging, SO friggin sharp.
From the very first line, I was determined to ignore all responsibilities and finish in one sitting. When I tell you I COULD NOT put it down, I mean I brought my kindle with me so I could read at the gas station while my car was filling up.

Saou Ichikawa challenged what I thought I knew (no exaggeration there), taught me a LOT I didn't already know (and may not have ever learned otherwise), and made me laugh out loud enough times I lost count. More than 3 though, otherwise I would have remembered to use "a few". That's a lot for a book w 112 pages.
I will 110% be getting a trophy copy the second I can get it in my hands IRL. Like, I'd stand in line for this. (Update, preordered this baby and just waited at the door like a puppy)

I've never read anything this powerful around disability, and that's saying a lot because I've read How To Tell When We Will Die by Johanna Hedva. Anyone else who has read HTTWWWD knows that it's pretty radical (in a good way).

If you need me, I'll be seeking out everything Saou Ichikawa has written that's been translated to English so far. The second I saw Polly Barton's name I should have already known this would be a knockout, though. There's been nothing of hers I didn't immediately fall in love with.

{Thank you bunches to Saou Ichikawa, Polly Barton, NetGalley, Random House as a whole, and Hogarth specifically for the DRC in exchange for my honest review!}

2.75 ⭐️ (rounded u to 3 ) HUNCHBACK by Saou Ichikawa
Translared by Polly Barton from Japanese.

I understand why many people find this to be powerful, and I appreciate the ideas and themes, but it did end abruptly for me, and I was left very confused. After some googling, I think I understand the ending, but it feels unfinished.. at least to me.
I wish these themes were explored more. I wanted more time with the character Shaka.

I read this almost 3 weeks ago, and I'm still not really sure how I feel about it.

Ultimately, this is thought-provoking, at times funny and other times unhinged.

Anyway, this is just my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt. Read the books YOU want to read and form your own opinions🫶🏻❤️ reading is subjective, y'all.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for sharing a digital copy. As always, opinions are my own. 🤘🏻💀🤘🏻

This novel has gained tremendous attention in Japan and globally, Shaka has myotubular myopathy. Muscle weakness causes her body to press her down so her lungs are damaged and require regular suction and periods on a ventilator. In one sense, she is fortunate because she never has to worry about money. Her parents were very wealthy and created the best group home one could conceive of for her lifelong care.

We quickly learn that Shaka spends a lot of time reading and thinking about sex, such that she earns money writing porn for various websites with some success. Her musings on this, what she wants in life, what being this disabled feels like from the inside, how people with disabilities see others' views of disabilities are very matter of fact and sometimes very funny.

This is a very short book and it stops abruptly. I understand why it is considered so powerful, but for me it was an amazing piece of writing but just an okay read that I would selectively recommend to others.

Hunchback is a bold and honest feminist story of a woman born with a congenital muscle disorder seeking autonomy. This book is original and provocative and we need more literature like this! I highly recommend this insightful and thought-provoking novel.

I’m not really sure how to even review this one tbh - it’s a short, horny, quirky novella about a disabled woman living in a care home. it was a fine read but i left feeling like i wanted so much more from the story. it felt a bit conflicting on whether it was trying to be a commentary on the treatment of disabled people or normalizing disabilities.

I wanted to write a review for this work for my blog, Cobleskill Commentaries; however, I have not been able to write about it comprehensively, so I am going to provide a concise review here.

Hunchback, written by Saou Ichikawa and translated by Polly Barton, is an odd little book about a woman named Shaka who has a congenital muscle disorder and lives in a care facility in Tokyo. With that said, she is also a woman trapped in her own body. She is smart as a whip, takes courses on an I-Pad, writes erotic fiction for websites, and regularly trolls individuals on the internet. Along with that, and this is where the dramatic conflict comes into play, Shaka wants to experience pregnancy; so, much of the book is about her attempts to recruit a sperm donor to help her along on her journey (which is much more complicated than what I am presenting here).

There is no doubt that Hunchback is an intriguing novella (of sorts) that redefines readers' notions of how people with physical limitations lead their own independent lives; however, the book also does not give readers a great deal of time to embed themselves into Shaka's life, which is complex, and in need of more context. The work is provocative and cerebral in that it gets us into the measured mind of someone who can hardly speak or move on their own (a variation on a Japanese theme) but, at the same time, the work ultimately ends up being a bit too high-concept and incomplete for my tastes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth for this eARC!

This is my first experience reading Saou Ichikawa's work, but I was fascinated by the premise of the novel. Also, I didn't realize how quick of a read this was! It was so good I was left wanting more of the story. You get sucked in immediately in the beginning of the book, but somehow I was left really wanting more by the end of the book. I wanted to know more about Shaka and what laid beyond the story at hand. At first I thought maybe there was a glitch with the ebook; I would say that's the only drawback of this novel (it ended too soon and somewhat too abruptly). However, I look forward to reading more by Saou Ichikawa!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC.

What a wild ride. This genre of book is still new to me but I am blown away by each one that I get the chance to read. Hunchback is in a league of its own.

Wow!! I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one, but it was excellent. Shaka's descriptions of her disability are so vivid and visceral. I so appreciate the author, who has myotubular myopathy, writing a protagonist with myotubular myopathy as well so that their experience can be seen by able bodied folks who so often choose to ignore the existence of disabled folks.

The sex writing was fun to read, and Shaka, our narrator, is very funny. I chuckled a few times and was never quite sure where this book was going to take us next.

I was absolutely shocked by the ending. Truly did not see that coming. I'm choosing to interpret it as another story that Shaka is writing instead of reality...but who knows. Very curious what other readers make of it!