my interest was piqued when i read that this book was for fans of both klara and the sun and chain-gang all stars, but ultimately i don't think it was very similar to either. it was too over the top for me, lacking subtlety in its themes and its writing.

Actual Rating: 3.75/5

Sympathy Tower Tokyo was a really short, thought provoking read. I absolutely enjoyed it, but feel a bit disappointed there wasn’t more to it. It felt like running out of chips too soon. The characters were interesting, but again I felt like I didn’t get enough time with them. Qudan explores ideas I haven’t put much thought into but feel like I should, such as what constitutes a criminal, the privilege of happiness, or how a society sets certain individuals up for failure and what it could do differently to even the playing field. For such a short novel, I feel like it stayed in my mind much longer than I expected, causing me to reevaluate how I view criminality and what I feel is fair.

As with many of the Japanese books I’ve read, the lingering thoughts afterward skew my rating higher, because I love a book that makes me rethink my opinions. I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for something thought provoking, and for anyone who works with disadvantaged populations.

I am deeply grateful to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this opportunity to read a digital ARC and provide my honest review.

This speculative novella follows a timeline where the 2020 Tokyo Olympics happened on time and the stadium designed by architect Zaha Hadid was built. We follow several perspectives, including that of another architect, Sara Machina, who is debating whether or not she should bid on the design for Sympathy Tower Tokyo, a revolutionary concept Japan has created to house its criminal population. Her relationship with a younger man, Takt, and their interactions with an American journalist flesh out the author's explorations of language, culture, and artificial intelligence.

Reading this book was an interesting experience. The three primary characters are all extremely different, and we see them all differently when the other characters take over. I was most intrigued by the discussions of kanji versus katakana within the Japanese language, and how the adoption of so many katakana words - including Sympathy Tower Tokyo itself - affects Japanese culture and "waters down" the meaning of those words. I thought it was also interesting how Qudan explored the characters' reliance on the AI chatbot even as they admitted and even criticized the bot's inability to actually think or create meaning on its own. This novel had a lot of potential for me, but it was only after I started reading the ARC that I learned the author did actually use ChatGPT to write the AI chatbot's "dialogue", and I found that offputting. I don't think AI has any place in the creation of art, and while what the author was exploring in the novel was apt for the current time, I think she could have done that without the use of AI.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an eARC.

This book has a very interesting synopsis but the execution failed to elicit the same response from me. I do like that it makes people question their beliefs. But, I personally found this to be all over the place --- trying to cover and connect way too many themes. Also, I was hoping for more of how the residents of the tower feel, how the families of the victims feel and the general feelings of the public apart from the architect, Sara's PoV. But it ended up being about her mostly talking/thinking to herself or talking with a chatbot. I was also looking for the implications from a human feeling point of view -- but ironically, the whole book felt devoid of emotion. Unsurprising, given that she was talking to AI most of the time -- but even her human interactions felt bland. I would recommend this to anyone looking for something written less like a novel and more like a philosophical discourse (I may be incorrect about this though).

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read this early!

I can definitely see why this book is so loved in it's culture. It is very well written and tackles the controversial question of nature v. nurture. However, I felt like I was forcing myself to read this so I could give an honest review. I wasn't drawn in and I had to remind myself to pick the book up rather than actually wanting to pick it up. The book read very lit fic and had a scholarly air to it which I wasn't expecting based on the synopsis. I guess I was hoping for more, but I am still glad I gave it a chance! I think for the right audience, this book will be very highly praised.

Sara Machina starts an architectural firm in a dystopian Tokyo, winning a bid in 2026 to design the project of housing the <i>Homo Miserabilis</I>. The humans who inhabit the sophisticated tower transgressed the law and serve their penal punishment in the circumscribed space. The lawmakers seek to radically reform their system of institutionalization, extending a pathway for <i>Homo Miserabilis</I> to live with dignity. In the dichotomy, the <i>Homo Felix</I> are those who do not break the law because their life circumstances grant them to dream of happiness—since childhood, they enjoy the pleasure of earthly existence.

The public, in Tokyo and beyond, responds to the sophisticated project with variation—some are repelled; others equivocate—and the building’s name, written in Katakana rather than Kanji, sparks a layer of controversy, too. Qudan maps architectural structure with speech habits to create a culture that empowers people and attains egalitarianism. A shorter length book that packs quite the thought-provoking punch as it relates to one’s expression of the self, revelation of oneself through language, and engagement with the transcendental of beauty. Without speaking to the mechanics of Kirkwood’s translation work as such, the English doesn’t hinder readers from following the novel’s virtual experiments.

My thanks to S&S/Summit Books and NetGalley for an ARC. I shared this review on GoodReads on September 14, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7888586914).

This book focuses on the crime and punishment, is it nature or nurture?
How should we treat each other?

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for ARC access!

this book was very interesting and the different perspectives and voices we heard were all very distinct. the translator did an amazing job and the note at the beginning providing linguistic context was very helpful and genuinely important to the story. that said, the plot didnt really hold up for me. the bones were there and maybe things were a bit more lyrical and abstract than im used to but there just wasn't a standard rising action/climax/resolution structure at all. we bounced from perspective to perspective with very little if any context for who's voice we are inhabiting now. there is also a time jump that I think sacrifices some interesting developments during the actual building of the tower. its like there's an entire middle of the book missing and we are left with only the very prosey and mysterious beginning and ending chapters. that said I did still enjoy it for the thinking exercises it put me through especially as an abolitionist. the sympathy tower is definitely something interesting to ponder. I do think a lot of context is unfortunately lost in translation specifically linguistically with the analysis of katakana vs kanji vs loan words and the translator again did an amazing job but there's just some things that can't be conveyed. if you can read Japanese I recommend you read this book in the original language. or read the translation for a fun linguistic thrill ride!

This was such an interesting and ambitious book, and I can see why it’s been so highly praised. The premise really grabbed me—the idea of a skyscraper designed for criminals in the middle of Tokyo felt original and thought-provoking. The writing had a mix of humor, philosophy, and social commentary that kept me curious, and I liked how it played with big questions about justice, conformity, and even the role of AI in creativity.

Short, intense, very very Japanese.

What do I mean by that?
This I liked less—his tendency to mansplain things I hadn't actually asked about. Was his smooth, polite facade really just an attempt to mask his greatest flaw—that he was, at heart, illiterate? For all his computational might, it seemed Al-built didn't have the strength to face up to his own weakness. He'd become so used to stealing the words of others without repercussion that he felt no shame, had no awareness even, of his own ignorance. The question of how humans had learned to use the word "discrimination," of the ordeals that had led us to it and which of us had suffered through them, was of no interest to him. He was incapable of curiosity. He did not thirst for knowledge.

"He", as you might surmise from context, is an LLM, or as we persist in calling them, an "AI", which does not exist...yet. There was a kerfuffle about the author using AI in writing a novel largely about AI that even the usually sensible Guardian sensationalized. Well, having read the piece at the link, the reasoning for doing what she did makes sense to me, and the hype likely did no harm to her sales. Not that this was likely...the deeply prestigious Akutagawa Prize gave this story its nod (and a million yen) in 2023. The Prize has gone to some excellent works available in English (see the list at the link) so I feel little concern for this affecting Rie Qudan's career taking off into the stratosphere.

Should it have done?
Sympathy Tower Tokyo would throw our language into disarray; it would tear the world apart. Not because, dizzy with our architectural prowess, we had reached too close to heaven and enraged the gods, but because we had begun to abuse language, to bend and stretch and break it as we each saw fit, so that before long no one could understand what anyone else was saying.

I think this novel's premise...what the hell do we do about AI in regard to the needs of humans...is not only timely but the angle chosen is so perfectly suited to my concerns it's like she got it from my head. I am, in other words, The Platonic Ideal of her reader. Sara Machina has my sympathetic attention from jump. She's ambitious, intellectually curious, and has strong opinions about language, its use, and its power.

Also, her boyfriend is gorgeous and twenty-five years younger than she is.

You go, girl.

Sara is, in this book-2026, in a different world from ours but only just. It's clear that the author chose to differentiate book-Tokyo from ours enough to enable we-the-readers to feel our real feelings but not pour them over, or incorporate them into, out-of-book reality. Sara's designing the titular structure, a prison-cum-asylum, and is conflicted about its kindly parameters versus its actual intent. (The synopsis clarifies this if you have not read it yet.) Sara also has some extremely Japanese concerns that require significant explanation to the US reader, regarding Japanese writing: transliterating foreign language is usually done using sound-characters called "katakana" to mimic the sound of the foreign word, instead of the Chinese import ideograms called "kanji".

Many are the switched-off brains, reaching absently for the browser tab next in line. I want you to know that it's not just fuss-and-feathers preciousness. It genuinely adds a layer of understanding to the heart of the book, the need to use language in ways appropriate to a given task; to use language as a human, conveying layer after layer of meaning, commentary, information plus context, all very much at the heart of Large Language Models and their masquerade as Artificial General Intelligence. The AGI you hear so much about is not there yet, it's still LLM, and see the first quote for why that very much matters in 2025. The algorithms are very sophisticated, the processing power is behind their use is *staggering* but generative and creative is not available. Yet.

Quite a lot of this read was only subtly conveyed. I went off to do research after it, because my spidey-senses told me there was a lot more to this than meets the eye. There was. Do I think that will give everyone the pleasure in poking around the internet that it did me? No. Will the read be as pleasant for those less thirsty for data than I am? Yes. The bone of speculative storytelling that pokes through is more than involving enough, the parallels among all the ways humans create, use, abuse the structures they create to help, harm, hurt, elucidate...all readily available without digging any deeper than the text.

I don't know if large numbers of speculative fiction/alternate-history readers will cotton on to those elements thus find the book; others put off by those elements will see them clearly and not like that they weren't informed they were in for that. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics occurring on schedule will throw some. A few will see the Zaha Hadid connection without prompting, but I was not one; I wish I had known in advance because I'm a giant nerd and would've savored the effect of that knowledge on my read. The in-text mentions of her sent me searching; better I should've had an endnote.

So you see why I gave no fifth star. I'm glad I read the book; I think it deserved the Akutagawa Prize; the way the author used Chat to enhance the text fails to rouse my readily roused ire should say a lot; but in the end I think this is a read I admired more than loved.

NB links mentioned are In my blogged review

A sharp moral tale weighing nature vs. nurture and the prison of reality—city, culture, or language? The Sympathy Tower name provokes: pity from above vs. empathy as equals. Power and class tensions play out between Sara, 37, and Takuto, 22, adding depth to this thought-provoking story.

I received an advanced reader’s copy of the newly translated version of Rie Qudan’s novel, “Sympathy Tower Tokyo,” published in its original Japanese in 2024 and winning Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa prize. I had read mixed reviews from fellow ARC readers on NetGalley, many none-too-complimentary, ranging from one to three stars, while several giving glowing reviews of four and five stars. Clearly, people’s reactions were mixed! Then I read a review in the New York Times, to which I generally give credence, which said that it “cleverly reflects back to us our current world in which artificial intelligence infects our thinking process, determining what we write and how we speak,” which I found intriguing, so I immediately set out to see for myself my impressions of the book. My review of is VOLUNTARY.

I found the book fascinating. It’s definitely a book about words. There is a lot of discussion about words and their meanings and interpretations and translations and usurpations from one language to another and also about one’s inner dialogues with oneself. Obviously, it’s also a book about the use of AI and its relationship to words, how it relies on the words of its creators to generate content in response to questions posed by users, all in the form of words. It asks the question whether AI words are less than, equal to, or better than the words individuals can create themselves. Isn’t this a question some of us ask repeatedly today? I do. How can a computer write as beautifully as any human mind? How can it ever be better than the sum of the parts it took to create it, i.e. the words of previously written works? I don’t think it can.

Thankfully, it’s a short novel. I found the protagonist, the architect, exceedingly strange — her younger boyfriend much less so, quite normal, in fact. The only other character to appear and be given a voice, an American reporter, is almost repugnant, obese and smelly and prone to f-bombs. The concept of treating “criminals” with sympathy, assuming they were forced into their actions because they had no other options available to them, has some merit in certain circumstances and situations, but I don’t think it can be applied universally to every person and every crime. Perhaps it could be utilized on a case by case basis using specific criteria. Nevertheless, some of the ideas espoused in “Sympathy Tower Tokyo” on how such persons should be treated have merit. Clearly, the American penal system does not prevent crime nor recidivism.

There were a couple of instances in the book that actually made me chuckle out loud by their cleverness. One was when the architect tells her boyfriend that his hugging her made her happy, but if they were to become even more physical, she probably would be beside herself with joy! Another time, the architect asks him what he would think if a woman was standing in front of him saying certain things to him, and he responds that there’s no need to speak hypothetically because he’s speaking to the woman right now, because she’s standing next to him, and the architect, seeming astounded, says, “ She is?” One passage I found personally amusing, but which didn’t make me laugh out loud, was the author’s reference to “Twitter,” noting that is the site’s original official name but also the one by which most people still refer to it. Seriously, does anyone call it “X?” I guess not even in Japan!

Would I recommend this book? I don’t know — certainly not for people who enjoy quick, easy reads; yes for people who like intellectual writing who like to think for themselves. Did I enjoy the book? Yes.

I am relieved this book was brief or I would not have made it to the end. I read the e-arc for Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan. I did not enjoy the read and while I was preparing my review, I discovered the author used AI to write part of the book. This is very disappointing. I do not support AI use by authors. Thank you to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the e-arc.

I’m going to be honest, the summary for this story sounded so calm and insightful, but I have no idea what I read. There was the story, but then there wasn’t the story and it felt like it got off track.

This book went over my head. I wasn't really sure what was going on and what the author was trying to get at. I thought the book was going to be about something other than what it was.

This is really hard to review - as most extremely-literary-fiction books are - but I think the best I can say is that I can absolutely tell why it won the Akutagawa prize. Qudan entrenches us deeply in thoughts of what language and the choice of words reflects about society and how it can change the direction of the future, pulling both real and speculative political issues in. This is paralleled with Sara's architecture career as well as directly with the tower of Babel, a construction of both words and physical space.

I don't think the comparison to Chain Gang All-Stars is warranted, as this is more concerned with the potential impact of calling prisoners a different race of humans and the debate of the name of the tower that will be built to house them than the actual fallout of that decision upon society or those who will live in it. It is much more the language around how crimes and criminals and victims are discussed that is the topic here.

It's a book that begs for and demands your attention, despite its short length - you have to turn over each of its statements and characters in your head and see what side of them you fall on. It's also...uh...very entrenched in Japanese nationalism while putting on a face of progressiveness. There are some statements that unfortunately reminded me of propaganda I've read, particularly when it comes to the Japanese language and kanji itself. As Sara herself states, she is a very Showa adult (the American equivalent would be Gen X), and it's that struggle of being entrenched in what she believes and the visions of the future she sees through architecture that runs throughout her decisions but that also makes it ultimately very hard for me to not struggle with it myself.

The translation is quite masterful, tackling a lot of the interplay of languages that is happening throughout with deftness.

I absolutely enjoyed Sympathy Tower Tokyo.

This novella stands out because it’s truly unlike anything I’ve picked up before. It follows Sara Machina, an architect designing the Sympathy Tower, a futuristic “prison” where criminals are redefined as victims of circumstance. Alongside this, Sara navigates her own grief and an unsettling relationship with an AI chatbot, which adds an extra layer of depth and eeriness.

What struck me most was how the book raises big questions: Can empathy be designed? How far should society go in forgiving? And what happens when technology begins shaping our emotions?

It’s sharp, daring, and hauntingly relevant...a compact yet powerful story that lingers in your thoughts long after finishing.

Highly recommend.

Thanks a lot to Summit Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange of my honest review.

A quick read, but......I'm not quite certain what I've read. The fact that parts of it are written by AI is a complete turn off for me - aren't we inundated enough with chatbots, etc.? Perhaps it's the author's way of demonstrating how normalized artificial intelligence is becoming in our lives, but when I read a book I like to think I'm reading only the author's words. I get it, the author is giving us a philosophical tour of humanity's feelings about what it means to be a victim, what it means to be a criminal, and how criminals are often victims. And at the same time, how our methods of writing shape our thoughts, in this case the various forms of Japanese writing. The only thing I've walked away with is that this book is not for me. I'm sure that others will and already do love it, but just the fact that AI had a 'hand' in this book is enough for me to give it a thumbs down.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

DNF at 34%!

Unfortunately this book is incredibly dull and cerebral. I expected a bit more plot around the Sympathy Tower but it's actually more of a philosophical exploration of characters.

The AI bits were interesting, the main character essentially has an AI in her head that optimizes language or creates different connections from words to memory to cultural contexts. It's an interesting concept but didn't really hit me the way I felt like it should have.

It's experimental and ambitious, but ultimately just felt like a group of ideas rather than a fully fleshed out story. I'm also not sure that it works well translated; with the distinction between kanji and katakana being a main focus of the story, I don't think it really hit quite the same for someone that doesn't know a lot about Japan beyond the baseline.

I'd probably like it if I were in the mood to get a bit academic and really tear into the philosophical musings but alas I am not.

I thought this was an interesting, haunting, and at times inscrutable story about creating, considering one’s humanity, and technology’s interplay within society. I’m curious to see how others view the book, since I was never quite sure how I felt about it (and even now, reviewing it, I haven’t quite decided). It’s worth the read, and is still making me think, so that’s worthwhile.