Thanks Summit Books for the advanced readers copy via Netgalley. 2.5 rating

This short story (208 pages) ended up being not quite what I expected. For starters, it’s a story about architecture. And criminals. And language. And AI. The way these seemingly random subjects are woven together is done fairly well, compelling readers to reflect on what determines the meaning of a space or structure, the weight of the vernacular we use to describe and label things and people, and what builds a person, a society. Oftentimes the flow meanders, like train of thought, and while there is a connection, because of its scatteredness, it also felt like this could have been two different stories: one about AI and language, another about the tower and all that involves.

I found it to be at times intellectual, philosophical, speculative, a bit curious, and also odd. While there were points made regarding why some vs others commit crimes that I did agree with, there were also some I didn’t. Due to experience, both professional and personal, I struggled with this. I fully agree we must show compassion to one another, that grace can be warranted, and we all deserve love and support, but I also stand firm on there must be appropriate accountability for one’s actions, regardless of what/who influenced their decision making. I don’t want to turn this review into a philosophical debate but know this story is going to provoke thoughts and discussion material for these topics. However, it didn’t address the inhabitants of the tower anywhere near as much as I thought it would. It primarily focuses on language, which was interesting, and AI, which I didn’t care for.

Because I read this as a digital arc I do hope the final publication format is more clear. There were times I was confused by who the narrator was and when/where something was taking place (for instance, one “chapter” was a dream but there was nothing that explained this until the next section, and there were some time jumps).

Also, as I know this may deter some readers, Qudan did utilize AI when writing this. Given that AI is a side character that others converse with I could understand why the author did this but I am disappointed nonetheless (perhaps this is where the scatteredness and unnatural flow comes from?). Qudan does incorporate real-life events and people (architect Zaha Hadid and her scrapped Tokyo 2020 Olympic plans) which I appreciated but if I’m going to read an author, I’d prefer it to be all their own, original words, not in conjunction with AI.

Overall this is one to read when you’re in the right head space but still want something short. For me though, I was left scratching my head a bit by the end as I felt most of the topics hadn’t garnered enough attention to really make the story feel complete.

A great speculative fiction read that kept me on the edge of my seat. Pacing was my only comlaint, but I know this story will stick with me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Translated from Japanese, Sympathy Tower Tokyo follows architect Sara Machina as she grapples with the ethics of her design of Sympathy Tower Tokyo, which will comfortably house criminals.

Sympathy Tower Tokyo was an interesting meditation on reality through language. The author deals specifically with the Japanese language, as that’s the novel’s original language, but there is enough context in the book that I felt like I was able to keep up as someone who doesn’t speak or read Japanese.

The book also grapples with AI, using interactions between Sara and an AI chatbot (generated using actual AI, apparently) to explore this relationship. While I’m generally across-the-board opposed to the use of generative AI for reasons far more concrete than its lack of humanity, the use of actual AI to generate the AI content to explore these points was arguably intellectually engaging at the least.

The book itself doesn’t take as emotional an approach to its subjects as I expected, often feeling more clinical than I typically want out of this kind of speculative work, but ultimately it does open the door for a lot of interesting conversations on ethics and the nature of humanity.

"Using words to think about words was a terrible idea, really, and not something any self-respecting person would do." p82

Some books, often brilliant (like this one) but not always, can reveal their readers moral values in their responses to the book. If you like it, or don't, or could take it or leave it-- each says something different about what you value morally. Sympathy Tower Tokyo is one of those books. Themes include how we use words, how words shape our experiences, how labels affect our emotions and vice versa and how they impact group morals, and more, so much more.

This story dabbles in several linguistic and epistemological thought experiments, so if you're into philosophical fiction, like Albert Camus or Milan Kundera, I encourage you to check this out. If you're not into that, you likely will not enjoy this book.

I don't know anything about the writer's use of AI but since I know how AI works, I don't care if he did. In fact, I hope we start seeing more of this-- writers using AI without shame or embarrassment. It will help divert pressure away from disabled creatives who have been using AI for years to help them create despite their own limitations.

Thank you to the author Rie Qudon, Jesse Kirkwood, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of SYMPATHY TOWER TOKYO. All views are mine.

The narrative for this book is almost completely in the mind, so there is very little action carrying the story along. There is a great debate about what triggers a person to commit a crime: the old nature vs nurture discussion, as well as environment and opportunities available. A lot of good points are raised on both sides, though clearly the book is about opportunities. Even more important is the treatment of minorities, disadvantaged and criminals. Again, there is a discussion of imprisonment and punishment versus segregation and reform. I really enjoyed the internal debate and the novel options presented: I do think that the book presented a way in which to protect society as well as reform, while remaining kind and humane throughout. I enjoy books that teach me something and make me think; this book is an excellent example of this. With the Japanese background, it was nice to learn of the history and even the language types. I likely could not have followed the story without the explanations, but I also feel that the explanations made the book clearer and more enjoyable even if you were familiar with Japanese culture. Thank you to Anna Skrabacz from Summit Books for the ARC of this intellectual break from my normal TBR selections!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan is a first person multi-POV Japanese literary fiction. Sara Machina is in charge of designing the Sympathy Tokyo Tower, a state of the art prison that will not be called a prison. As she, Takt, and Miles consider the impact of language on Japanese people, they may not come up with any good answers, but maybe they help us understand language a little more.

To talk about this book, I kind of have to talk about the controversy surrounding it. Yes, the book was partially written with ChatGPT with the author estimating it taking about five percent of the book. If the only pieces written by an LLM are the ones clearly marked in the text as being from BuiltAI, then in a 177 page book, it might be closer to three percent. This is probably the only book partially written by an LLM that I will ever knowingly read because I trusted the Akutagawa Prize, an extremely prestigious award that has championed some of the most artistic and confronting Japanese books, to make a reasonable judgment on how AI was used and if it was used in a way that would be plagiarizing authors. If everything else was written by Rie Qudan, then she is extremely talented and deserved the award.

One of the best points of the book is how it talks about language. Japanese has three writing systems and for people who are not familiar with them, there is a rhyme and reason for why this is and how they are used. Sara struggles a lot with katakana partially because she finds it to be a very ugly writing form. Through her, we also see how Japanese words are actually being replaced by loan words in part because it doesn't carry the same baggage that the kanji that has a similar meaning does. While this is not an example used in the book, a kanji for slave highlights this as it has the radical for ‘woman’ in it and that is extremely uncomfortable for some Japanese speakers, both native and not. The evolution of language is also the evolution of culture and society and this book really shows that.

Another thing that is highlighted is the law around abortion in Japan, including for young women who are basically still children themselves . A lot of people don't know this, but there is technically a law that states you need the signature of the presumed father in order to get an abortion, it cannot simply be the mother’s choice. Apparently a lot of clinics will work around this in specific circumstances and Japan is not anti-abortion in the way some countries are, but that the law is even on the books and how it can limit the options for people who don't know how to word what they need in a way to get around the law is a problem and it's nice to see a nationally recognized book point that out.

Content warning for depictions of racism

I would recommend this to fans of hard-hitting Japanese literature and readers of grounded speculative fiction

I am clearly not the audience for this. While the premise of an architect designing a building for criminals might sound interesting, this really about language. And it uses AI for some of the dialogue, admittedly when the characters are using AI but still. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's one of those best sellers that makes me wonder if the buyers actually read them. Over to others.

Sympathy Tower Tokyo is a cerebral, ambitious novella that I found more impressive than enjoyable. I think it would have absolutely floored my English major self back in college. These days, though, I mostly read for fun, and I’ll admit it left me feeling more intrigued than enthralled.

What lingered with me was the novel’s attention to language: how meaning shifts when a word is written in kanji versus katakana, or how a name like Sympathy Tower encodes an entire worldview. It stirred memories of Lacan and post-structuralism — territory I once wandered in college but had almost forgotten I knew about it at all. And while I admired those conceptual layers, I struggled to connect emotionally with Sara or the narrative. This is a book of ideas more than characters, and at times it felt like reading a blueprint rather than a story (a critique that would probably cut Sara to her very marrow).

In the end, I’m at three stars: not because the book is lacking — far from it — but because I admired it more than I enjoyed it. If you’re in the mood for something heady and experimental, this is a fascinating read. But if, like me, you mostly want a good time with your books, you may find yourself appreciating Sympathy Tower Tokyo more in theory than in practice.

I was invited by the publisher to review this book. Set in a futuristic Japan, architect Sara is set to design a building to house the criminals; it will be part of the center city after a shift toward sympathy for this group. Being a victim of crime herself, Sara has a hard time getting behind the project. Her emotions toward her career start to interfere with her relationship, and she turns to an AI chatbot.

There is a lot to explore within these pages, and questions like how we treat others, including criminals, is center, but also other questions are posed, such as what really is the world that we live in - free or constricting like a prison? And what is the difference between sympathy and empathy? What is human connection? There are lots of other elements to ponder, so a reader looking for something categorically different should pick up this book, and explore the varied themes themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Summit Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn’t entirely what I expected, but that’s probably on me for not reading the synopsis close enough. I thought this would be a critique of the incarceration system and the way society views criminals, and it is, but it’s more about the power of language (and the sanitization thereof), the aspects of personhood and self definition, and the utility of AI and LMM chatbots.

I formerly rated this four stars, but have since found out that the author used ChatGPT in writing this book. I chose not to take down this review entirely because I believe she only used it to formulate the responses by the in-universe AI to the characters. I no longer feel comfortable giving this the full rating, but I don't condone AI usage at any stage of the book process due to the debilitating environmental impact as well as the issues with IP theft in LMM spaces, but I also don't feel this is the most egregious example of AI usage and thus don't want to decline feedback entirely, nor do I want to full out give it one star. I'll have to ponder my opinion about this book, which I believe is the mission of the work.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

What an interesting premise. What a sad use of AI.

Full disclosure--I did not know the author used ChatGPT to write parts of this book when I requested it, and I would not have if I'd known.

A meditation on language interspersed with exposition via AI chatbot in a way that feels clunky and unnecessary. It was an odd choice stylistically until I learned Qudan actually did use AI to write parts of this...at which point it made sense and just felt lazy. I understand she has reasoning you're all welcome to look up, but this is a deal-breaker for me and, honestly, makes me feel insulted as a reader. It's really hard for me to take the idea that she used it as an example in a critical way when she didn't actually declare she'd used ChatGPT until after she won an award for the book...

I really wish I could give this book a high rating because I think the conversations surrounding the prison system are things that need to be talked about and explored but I can’t support a book that uses generative ai. I feel like this is detrimental to the creative process. While the author seems to be critiquing ai to an extent in this book, you can’t fully be critical of something while using it. I would feel differently if the author wrote her own ai conversations but the direct use of ai is harmful in several ways.

A new architecture challenge brings a tall tower to Tokyo, which is also a prison (in some ways) for very dangerous criminals. Great concept for the novel because this will become one of the three tallest buildings in the city, always seen, always present. Would this be painful to the victims or cathartic?
Also points out how Japan has such a peculiar culture, based on appearances and perfection, beauty that expands to language itself in the three styles of alphabet: kandji, hiragana, and katakana. Not only can criminals live there, but a regular citizen can take a sympathy test to see if they are worthy of sympathy.
My favorite concept was that they associate corruption with language. Therefore, inside the tower, it becomes a utopia, and we are the ones living in a prison.
Complex but short under 100 pages

Sympathy Tower Tokyo starts off rough and keeps a heavy tone throughout its short length. We immediately dive into the main character's views on the Japanese language and its three various alphabets and the point of view is very...jarring. Getting into the main characters head is a trial and one that doesn't offer up a lot of reward. There is some sharp commentary on Japan and some of its traditions and stances, but a lot of the time it felt too direct and pointed for me to fully enjoy the messages.

This was a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars for me due to the fascinating premise and its play on both the future and the past. I loved how the author considered language and culture in the novel and imagine that in the original Japanese it would have been even better. Although the story takes place in an imagined near future, it forced me to read up on the recent past around Zaha Hadid's design for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium, which added to my experience of reading this as a whole.

This is the first book I've read by the author and I'll definitely look forward to reading more of the author's translated works in the future. It was a bit more literary than I was expecting so it was a bit of a slow start but overall a very interesting book.

This was an interesting read, but I wonder if some of the cultural aspects of the Japanese prison/criminal justice system were lost on me in a way. The description mentioned Chain-Gang All-Stars but that premise made more sense to me as an American. In this book a tower is constructed to house criminals (rebranded Homo miserabilis because they just had bad life circumstances…? The argument here was a little shaky, to me) and we switch between the perspective of the architect and the man she’s dating to learn more about the motivations for building it and the consequences.

The book mainly explores language, how it’s changing as technology evolves, and how AI can only ever hope to parrot back text without creating anything new.

3.25/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC!

As always, I want to start by saying thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the book. I was interested in this book based on the title, cover, and description. However, the book was not what I expected at all. It wasn't bad; it simply was not my normal genre.

I didn't like that the book on the Kindle format that I had was not split into chapters. At times, I found it confusing whose point of view the story was being told from. Once I got to the final couple of pages, it all started to make sense. I just wish that it had a better flow to get me there.

What I did like about the book was looking at the breakdown of words in the different languages and what they meant to the character. The concept of building a tower that will house criminals and allow them to live like human beings who were not allowed to leave was interesting. As well as the concept of what makes someone a criminal.

Overall, it wasn't a bad read, it just wasn't actually what I thought the story was going to be.

If this book had been any longer, I would not have finished it. It’s almost a doomed project from its conception; the entire book is supposedly a meditation on the Japanese language, which makes translating it a dubious task. It certainly doesn’t help that the translation turns what might be beautiful writing in Japanese into awkward, stilted English sentences that seem to be missing some context or meaning.

Even if the translation had been better, I don’t think I would have found much to enjoy about this book. The intriguing premise never materializes. It consists entirely of the self-absorbed, nonsensical inner ramblings of our characters. if they can be even referred to as such. Supposedly, the book meditates on morality, language, national identity, and artificial intelligence, but it could not have been more pretentiously inane. I remained baffled and frustrated throughout the reading experience despite some occasional glimpses of humor or insight.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.