Reviews

strange

Everything about this book was strange from the perspectives, guessing who’s the author, trying to figure out the mystery, and trying to decipher the language used. Not my thing

ostara13's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

anibedre's review against another edition

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3.0

A Rashomon style x Burari murders case like story. Engrossing till the end. I’m all for open endings but this had one too many loose ends.

therkive's review against another edition

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4.0

Wow... just wow. This is so markedly different from the Western crimes I am used to and it is a welcome change; the question is not on the whodunit -- each character has their own preconceptions and biases regarding this, after all, but a question of how each suspect could have pulled off what is, in essence, an intricate and elaborate mass murder. Through the format of a compilation - scenes of various characters revisiting the town of the crime, interviews, letters, book excerpts, flashbacks, and conversations - the reader is carefully let into a mousetrap, which is difficult to exit without your own preconceived notions. What you have is this: what occurred on the day of the crime, the identities of the suspected murderer, and what occurs 30-40 years after the murders. You are left with what can only be described as a set of loosely linked neighborhoods with no center and a flood of information to piece together the hows and whys. You don't get a solution - after all, the statute of limitations is up and too much time has passed for any accurate judgement of who the perpetrator is and their motivations - but rather a multilayered mystery of the events that occurred on the day of the Aosawa Murders.

In other words, this was a a great introduction to shin honkaku, as a subgenre within crime & mystery, and one that I will be further exploring in the future.

pruple13's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

lexcellent's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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