Were you there/in the convo when I mentioned my friend’s theory on why content creators seem to love All The Books? She said that basically like, because booktubers are generally showing their faces, they don’t want to risk getting hate from either a) fans of the book or b) people who work at the place that published the book. Identity being tied into things you like (idols, authors, etc) is stronger in Japan than in the West (where it is also definitely present) – but also because it’s still pretty normal for people to work for the same company for years and years it’s common for your company to become part of your identity. So she was like, if you trash talk a book their company published, the employees could get mad at you / cause you problems.
This honestly tracks with the more intense negative opinions I’ve seen about books online being totally anonymous.
I guess if I want to rely on Booktubers I need to focus on finding ones who have the same taste as me based on books they specifically highlight as being favorites rather than a list of like ‘here’s all the 本屋大賞 winners and why they’re great!’
Very interesting, I was not present for that conversation. Makes a lot of sense to me; if the product you’re selling is yourself, you may not necessarily want to isolate yourself from potential corners of your market at least too easily.
you speak the truth. I have literally nothing to add.
I was sooooo bored having to go through all the cases again.
Tbf, a few people caught onto Hisui and Kougetsu (from what I’ve seen in the weekly threads) but I never read mysteries trying to solve them. I just want a nice surprise at the end and while I enjoyed the twists, the ending was like someone dying on stage and continuing a death monologue for like 30 minutes.
I was going to hold off writing my thoughts on the book until the club finished, but since we apparently started discussing it…
Spoilers within, do not open unless you finished
The trick of the narrator actually being the baddie has been done many times before, so it’s not really such a clever trick as the author seems to think. To be done effectively, the narration should ideally be in the first person. While we were aware we were seeing things from Kougetsu’s point of view, it wasn’t clear that all descriptions were his. I’m still unsure to what extent those nauseating descriptions (skin like cake, her green eyes, her long eyelashes, blah blah) were Kougetsu rather than the author himself.
On top of that, Kougetsu was so much an empty shell, that he could be filled by anything, from an angel to a serial killer. Surely the author should have tried to establish some sort of personality for the trick to work effectively?
As Kougetsu was a blank, Hisui was a caricature, in both her versions. First she is the oh-so-innocent, naive even, and oh-so-sensitive child-like beautiful woman who despite her talents obviously needs constant protection and guidance. Then she is the super-intelligent mastermind and manipulator who solves crimes at a glance, and is not even fazed by being tied to a chair by a weapon wielding maniac, that’s all child’s play to her. Uh-huh. Then the author, possibly realizing that his characters lack any kind of depth, added that last scene where we see that there was in fact some truth to the side Kougetsu was seeing, and she might in fact have had feelings for him too
All in all, this was a very badly executed book. It basically made the readers sit through pages upon pages of unexciting plot with no substance so as to surprise them at the end with the “big reveal”. But big reveals are worth nothing if the setup itself is worthless. I had sort of predicted/hoped for this twist back at the start of the book, when I still had some interest in it. By the end of it though, I just didn’t care at all.
There was a slight rise in interest when the twist was revealed - will we finally get to see actual people behind these caricatures? But no, one stereotype was replaced with another, and then we had to go over the tedious parts of the book again, in an even more tedious way, so that we could now admire Hisui’s extraordinary intellect and laugh at Kougetsu’s shock and humiliation. Right.
I had such high hopes for the reveal; I was legitimately interested in seeing what the author would do next. But yeah…
Hopefully it’s just bad luck on our part that we’ve had two books in the mystery club so far accused of over-explaining; this one and 七回死んだ男. It’s not the worst of sins, granted. Probably part of it too is aggravated by us being language learners.
I dropped this book after the first case, since it took a ton of effort to read for an absolute snoozefest of an outcome and tedious narration. Figured I’d see what folks have to say just in case it gets better so I can make a note to come back to it in the future. “Maybe the later cases are stronger, maybe later it make it more than one page without mentioning eyes or eyelashes.” Looks like that didn’t happen though, lol.
I agree with everyone else in this thread basically. I think what made me particularly mad is that it had so many elements of things I love. Disgusting, dehumanizing villians. Unreliable narrators. Two people shown as separate who end up being the same. Whip lash twist at the end. 名探偵 (sorry, I love that trope). Female 名探偵 even! And then…just…terrible execution.
I’m still left with the feeling that the author was the one objectifying Hisui. I still feel like I have no fucking clue who this self-insert Gary Sue is.
Even the police barging in at the end, I love nonsensical dramatic things like that! If…it matches the mood of the book as being over the top and action packed. Here it just felt out of place.
So much disappointment. I want to like so many parts of it but it’s just so clunky and awkward.
As a side note, this is a controversial ratings book on Natively! Currently at 3 5s, 3 3s, and 2 2s. Well, 3 2s after I rate
edit: @omk3 I just read your official review and I adore it. One of the few times recently where I’m holding back from writing my own because I feel everything that needs to be said has been said!
I have to say it is not super fun to be reading along at the club pace and have this enormous pile of discussion about the whole book appear already Couldn’t you all have waited so the rest of us could participate? It’s only a few weeks more…
Honestly, I’ll gladly comment about it again when another round of people are done.
That doesn’t really solve your annoyance of seeing the wall of blurred text, but at least rest assured we’ll be able to make more of it in time.
Considering the amount of incrusted subtitles I see on Japanese videos, I don’t think you’ll miss much.
Couldn’t you all have waited so the rest of us could participate? It’s only a few weeks more…
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts, though, and look forward to the good discussion!
