Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder
Overall Ranking 3) Consider Reading
Wait, this is fiction??
Yes, this is our first fiction book to be reviewed. Hurray!
It may surprise you to find a work of fiction amongst all the cookbooks, food history, and chef memoirs, but it is of utmost importance to read more than just non-fiction, even in the food space!
Memoirs and biographies of Anthony Bourdain, Alexander Lobrano, or Julia Child are fantastic viewpoints from which to gaze at the underbelly of cooking, restaurants, and critical reviews. But that isn't the only angle from which we can view this world.
Far too often with these types of books, you'll find yourself observing the author. An outsider watching someone else. Perhaps even shaking your head as you discover that one of the greatest food critics of Parisian cuisine got his start by saying, "I'll work for your magazine known for its articles on fashion as a fashion writer," knowing full well that he knew zilch about fashion, who can then seemingly derails and say, "Actually, I'm going to write about restaurants and food now," and the publisher goes, "Sure?"
In those moments, we are spectators in the gallery, watching a fascinating life unfold from the safety of our reading chairs. We'll find ourselves thinking things like, "well that could never happen in today's cutthroat literary/culinary world". But fiction? Fiction doesn’t let you sit back in the stands and compare then to now.
The best way I can put is that a memoir/biography invites you to watch a chef work while a novel forces you to feel the heat of the line on your own skin. It stops being a story about their hustle and starts being an exploration of your hunger. You aren’t witnessing the service. You are holding the knife.
What is the book about?
Butter follows an investigative reporter vying for the attention of Manako Kajii, one of the most enigmatic and talked-about women in Japan. Kajii stands accused of a chilling specialty: luring men in with her gourmet cooking, bleeding them dry financially, and then—once their bank accounts are empty—cutting them out of her life. Permanently. (That’s a polite way of saying she murdered them. Allegedly of course.)
Accessing the most famous woman in Japan, however, requires more than just a press pass. It requires a certain level of devotion. When the interview finally happens, the questions shift from the legal to the visceral. Behind the prison glass, the reporter searches for a killer, but finds only softness. It begs the question: Is Kajii’s cooking truly so intoxicating that it could manipulate men into surrendering their fortunes? Can a meal really be so good that it becomes a death sentence?"
Would I recommend reading it?
If you are looking for a beach read to devour in an afternoon, Butter might not be your first choice. Instead, approach this novel like a multi-course tasting menu: it is a story meant to be savored, sitting heavy and rich in your mind long after the final page.
The heart of the novel is an exploration of female liberation and the complex, often blurred lines of friendship. The characters aren't always "likable" in the traditional sense, but they are masterfully realistic. We have Manako Kajii, the murderess, whose backstory offers a chillingly logical explanation for how she became a monster. Then we have Rika, our investigative reporter, whom we watch "come out of her shell" as her relationship with Kajii deepens.
The writer brilliantly demonstrates how easily we can lose ourselves in someone else’s psyche when chasing a goal. It is a beautiful and at times unsettling look at how social attitudes shape us, and how female friendship can oscillate between genuine support and expert manipulation.
In this world, the liberation comes from the plate. Yuzuki explores the razor-thin line between the sensual and the sexual, using food as the bridge between the two. In these pages, eating is rarely just a biological necessity; it is a visceral, often erotic experience used to reclaim power and overcome the stifling misogyny of the characters' surroundings.
Butter in my mind is ultimately a story about the weight of expectations and the freedom found in indulgence. It is a hauntingly beautiful examination of how we feed our bodies, and our souls.
You may enjoy it; you may find it slow. But the one thing we will all take away from this book is a lingering, magnetic pull toward the dairy aisle.
You’ll find yourself staring longer than usual at the grocery store shelves. Slabs of golden cream with price tags you would have laughed at a month ago will suddenly begin to whisper to you. They will call to you. You’ll feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you ask yourself: Is this artisanal butter really that good? Is there that big of a difference between this and the cheap stuff I regularly buy?
The only answer will be the sharp beep of the barcode scanner, the soft sizzle of a waiting pan, and the blissful darkness behind your eyelids as you finally let those melted milk solids coat your tongue.
Tell Me More About the Author
Not so much about the author, but worth noting, while a work of fiction, this story was loosely based on an actual series of suspicious deaths of middle-aged men that led to murder convictions and a death sentence for the infamous 'Konkatsu Killer’ Kanae Kijima.
Originally written in 2017 butter was translated into English by Polly Barton and published in 2024. This is Yuzuki's first book to be published in English. It was named Waterstones Book of the Year in 2024.
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