I’m back and still no bingo!
I finished 이중 하나는 거짓말 (니트 에디션) | L30?? and it was OK. I kind of expected some hard-hitting suspense and it ended up being a dreamlike coming of age YA story. I could put it in “genre I don’t usually read” because I don’t really like YA and I never read this specific kind, but I’ve chosen favorite cover color for now because it has my favorite cover out of anything I’ve read so far, and I read it for the cover, even though my favorite color is not green.
Also, I decided that I liked 백야행. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I still don’t think I would recommend it unless you have a lot of patience or are a fast reader.
It looks like if I read 천 개의 파랑 I can get a bingo. I read 25% of it in Feb and dropped LOL. We’ll see…
I’ll probably read 한여름의 방정식 or 세상의 마지막 기차역 next but also I keep picking random books to read next so who knows. Also, I still have not read an English book this year (normally I read 100), but I really have to now because I have one that is super overdue.
I really enjoy the unexpected surprise of those books: you finish, you’re like, “whatever”, but then realize that you keep thinking back on the book like an itch. Usually those end up becoming favorites of mine after I’ve reread them a few times and really absorbed it all. (Sometimes it’s just an annoying book that had promise though, haha.)
Well, after reading 500 pages I thought it was a boring book. After reading 900 pages I thought it was an appalling book(s) and I was considering not reading anything else from the author (even though this was my 4th and 5th book by him) because of certain content that I found excessive and appalling and made it really hard to sympathize with the two main characters. I know you don’t have to sympathize with the main characters, but I just hated them and still do.
Still, the more I thought about it, I found a kind of ironic tragedy in the arcs of the two characters’ lives, found the ending that recalls 용의자 X의 헌신 to linger with me, and recalled a lot of careful foreshadowing and Easter eggs throughout the books, including the boring (or extreme slow burn) part 1. The narrative structure is unique and almost requires the reader to go back and reinforce their mental map of the events of the story after reading the ending. It’s a story of ambiguity and space purposely left blank, truly embodying the expression 여백의 미 (the beauty of blank space) to me. If I were a Korean native speaker I probably would have immediately gone back and skimmed the two books from the beginning. I did in fact use kimchi reader to search for certain passages within the books and reread them. There are two impactful passages, each coming near the end of each book, about living and walking in the sunlight, directly referencing the title “백야행” (translated in English as “(journey) under the midnight sun”). That passage in the first book alone and the hard-to-pin-down emotions it evoked made the first book worth reading for me.
The more I thought about this book, I realized there are a lot of thematic ideas to discuss from a literature perspective, and I really appreciate that. As I looked back on what I had read, I found myself more and more impressed with Higashino Keigo’s craft, the way he structured the narrative, the way he showed so little but it was somehow enough.
Good news for Japanese readers is it is originally a Japanese book. I welcome anyone to try it and say I recommended it. Don’t hate me if you hate it at first – maybe you’ll change your mind.
For some reason, in all the reviews I read, no one else had a problem with or even mentioned the scene that I found so disgusting :// (maybe I’m overly sensitive?)
I mean I would give a few serious content warnings for the book tbh. Beyond the usual “death”
I’m looking through your posts and not seeing it. What scene was disgusting and why? Feel free to spoiler it, I won’t be reading it anytime soon but I’m curious what it is as I don’t know Higashino Keigo to be one for graphic murder scenes
Joining late and shamelessly stealing @shiver’s template (thanks!), but modified for my dark-themed heart. I’m going to try to complete this using only books in my TBR pile, although that may be a challenge for some of them.
Ah, thank you for reminding me @catbus; I’ve wanted to pretty up my bingo card for a while now. Thank you to @shiver for providing the template (and to catbus for the lovely dark theme)!
Quick question: I’ve got powerpoint on the computer I used to set this up, but does anyone know if it causes any issues to edit the template in LibreOffice instead? Since that computer is my more normal one.
Hi! Well, unfortunately, the reason I was so disgusted is related to something crucial to the plot, so I’ll give you a few different spoilers of different levels.
General trigger warnings: multiple rapes of children on and off page, child prostitution, necrophilia (off-page)
One scene early on in book 1 that bothered me: high school boy is prostituted to middle aged woman by his friend, somewhat detailed NSFW scene probably justified by the boy “liking it”
THE scene that disgusted me, late in book 2 (described vaguely): a character employs another character to rape a child, shown on-page although sparse in detail, for the express purposes of breaking her spirit
THE scene, described in more detail why I hate it (more spoilers): a female character has a male character rape her teenage stepdaughter because the stepdaughter is being uppity and doesn’t like the female character, and then is the first to discover her and comforts her, getting the stepdaughter to trust and rely on her
I actually managed to describe it without spoiling the entire book, but I would recommend not reading the last spoiler unless you think you will be able to forget it before you eventually read the book, if you do. Hopefully the 3rd or 4th spoiler should be enough to explain my disgust. However, there are additional reasons I found that scene disgusting and excessive that would require me spoiling the entire plot of the book to explain, which I won’t do.
I want to add that by the end it is clear that the author is not glorifying this content (except maybe he is excusing it in the second spoiler I mentioned) and he probably wasn’t using it for shock value either. I might even argue that every bit of this content was necessary to show or allude to. However, that didn’t make it any easier for me to read in the moment, and that scene still makes me upset to think about (mostly because of what it says about a certain character).
With that said, I was so worked up and affected after the ending that I completely spoiled one of my friends on the entire plot and all the scenes that bothered me, and he said he really wanted to read it. Take that as you will. I have thought endlessly about this book and I think I just have to call it a masterpiece. But mind the content warnings.
I understand why that content would be upsetting! For me personally, none of those are actually unusual for the types of books I read (the specific situations vary of course, but I read a lot of dark crime books) and so long as it’s not glorifying the content (I recently read a rape scene that seemed to “justify” it because the victim had an orgasm? The whole thing felt porn-y and awful rather than a meaningful scene… ) I’m generally down for anything excluding animal death and/or torture . I lean away from graphic torture scenes although they’re not an automatic no if the rest of the book is good.
I appreciate you explaining what they were. Everyone has different things they can and cannot tolerate so knowing details is helpful for deciding
While the content itself was a bit upsetting, I was more upset by what it implied about the characters involved in the content and how it fit into the overall arc of the story. You’ll probably understand what I mean if you read it. I would love to discuss it if you do!
Also, I took a peek at your profile and noticed you seem to like Japanese mystery books a lot. I think I do too! I can’t stop reading them, especially Higashino Keigo, and I was never one for mysteries in English. I’d love some recommendations. You can probably see what I’ve read in Korean this year on my card (maybe you’ll recognize some covers) but here is a bigger list. Hopefully my bad translations of the Korean titles are enough for you to recognize the book if you’ve read it.
Out (read in English)
All She Was Worth 화차 (read in English)
A lot of Higashino Keigo (suspect X, salvation of a saint, under the midnight sun, miracle at namiya whatever it’s called, murder in the mountain mansion with a mask on it)
십각관의 살인 murder at the decagonal house ???
Strange pictures 이상한 그림 (idk how I forgot this)
On my list:
Lots of other Higashino Keigo books (murder mystery writer mystery, newcomer, malice, after school…)
벚꽃 지는 계절에 그대를 그리워하네 (I miss you when the cherry blossoms fall ???)
Ooh I know several of those titles! I’m at work right now but I will get back to you this evening with some recommendations. I actually prefer Higashino Keigo’s short stories (素敵な日本人 was great) over his long form content from what I’ve read thus far, but he has a giant catalog of books so I’m sure there are some that will impress me.
Leaving my notes of what I believe these books are except for the grouped Higashino Keigo ones
So if you liked Decagon House Murders you might enjoy 月光ゲーム―Yの悲劇'88 | L36 - also a 1980s closed circle murder mystery involving college students, but with more of a ‘Sherlock and Watson’ dynamic.
If you like hard hitting slow burn mysteries 怒り 上 | L34 was phenomenal. It’s a ‘kick you in the feels’ book
シャドウ | L31 is good if you like the kind of ‘what what’s going on?’ feeling. Definitely some dark elements.
ハサミ男 | L31 is one of my favorite Japanese mystery books but it’s hard to explain without ruining the fun. It’s a bit dark, but not anywhere near the level you just described.
告白 | L34 is an absolute classic and I highly recommend if you haven’t read it yet. It’s definitely dark, but the writing is excellent and it pulls together beautifully.
半落ち | L38 along with 64 | L39 by the same author were both amazing in terms of character development, but you must enjoy police procedurals otherwise they’re probably a bit exhausting to read
ユージニア | L36 doesn’t have the most satisfying/tidy ending, but it was great atmospheric writing and the mystery of what happened that day was fun to chew on
Set outside of Japan - 狼と香辛料 3 - setting is a parallel world medieval Europe like country.
Difficulty: 7.8 look-ups/page, 0.6 % zero-look-up pages, currently L36. So, compared to last year‘s read of volume #2, look-ups/page went down by 3.0, which means about 900 look-ups less for the whole book, and is way more reduction than I expected.
As this is my benchmark series, it seems I have to get used to the fact that my reading got better within the last year
…and I will start one indigo level, non-bingo book later this week to relax a bit:
恐怖のむかし遊び キレイになりたい | L24 , which is the last volume of the 恐怖のむかし遊び series. I thought I should finish at least some of the many started series, for a change; or better, in exchange for the new series I might start after it.
Character with a disability - 妃は船を沈める (光文社文庫 あ 42-6) | L31
I had no idea going in, but a main character in this walks with a cane/crutch and later is wheelchair bound.
A couple of linked murder mysteries, with the background of a cursed monkey’s paw, but together with a crime writer and a crime professor, the mysteries get unravelled.
Sequel - 気になってる人が男じゃなかった VOL.2 | L25
Full of the same energy of the first one. And the introduction of a few side characters avoided it feeling like a repetition of the first.
Deserves it’s popularity!
Basically 90% of the cast are working adults, including the two main characters
Main characters feel multidimensional, complex, real human beings.
The struggle to balance work life, personal objectives and relationships while figuring out their feelings felt real
Satisfying ending
Cons:
Characters have some childish moments
There’s this character that seems to get an unrealistic number of confessions.
A bit of the drama seems to drag on more than what it seems reasonable.
Dialect Hell
Dialect is the bane of my existence but this manga is just…
One of the main characters speaks in 博多弁 (Hakata-ben), another character speak in 京言葉 (Kyoto Dialect). Sometimes these two characters talk one to each other and it was terribly confusing how they use the same suffixes in different ways. In one of the Atogaki’s the author mentions they started getting very confused about that too. If a native is having trouble, what chance does a learner like me have… sigh
!
