I'm writing a blurb. To do so, I'm using my favorite novels as examples. Here's one:
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.
Kafka on the Shore follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghostlike pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since WWII. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle.
A once a classic quest, Kafka on the Shore is also a bold exploration of mythic and contemporary taboos, of patricide, of mother-love, of sister-love. Above all it is a bewitching and wildly inventive novel from a master stylist.
I noticed some elements. They ...
... introduce the main character/s: Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy...
... introduce the secondary characters/events: Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghostlike pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since WWII.
... summarize the style/main themes: ... a bold exploration of mythic and contemporary taboos, of patricide, of mother-love, of sister-love.
This is mine:
Li-Mei is a typical university student, with a typical family, a typical dating life---and a typical suicidal wish. Yes, she wants to end it all. But after learning about a bizarre event, she decides to postpone her death to dive in into the world of animal suicide. In it she meets peculiar animals: starving cats, stranding whales, cliff-jumping cows, bridge-leaping dogs. Peculiar humans: an alcoholic visual kei, the founder of a controversial university club, and a conservationist with a unnatural childhood obsession. And finally a peculiar kind of love.
Driven by romance and dark humor, Animal Suicide is an exploration into relationships, passion, death, suicide, and the final meaning of our lives.
I wrote it by based of these elements. Are they the essential for a good blurb? If not, why? Are there others elements that I'm missing?