It’s the whole “If he teases you, he likes you” trope. May it die a not so peaceful death. Many generations of children growing up with the idea that if someone mistreats you but they like you, it’s OK. 
Never heard it put that way, but I love the image. 
And this is how I learnt that that phrase is a Britishism 
Finished chapter 4.
Ahem. 
That… would indeed make for a very good movie, I’m sure. But otherwise 
It was clear to me from the start that Mikako would go and set the room on fire at some point, but I had not expected Shuu to be stupid enough to go in and try to rescue the manual from a fire that was already hot enough to make the window glass burst. Especially a manual that must exist on the teacher’s computer anyway
Well, I mean, at least it served the purpose of letting Sayoko fully realize how much he means to her. I bet he didn’t mind going up in flames in exchange 
I finished reading 春の章 during my lunch break.
I enjoyed Sayoko (?) going all Cathy Winshaw on poor old Kato, rattling his window frames. Although as someone who is currently struggling with some lung issues/potential asthma, I now feel honour-bound to defend Kato and pray for his speedy recovery.
It’s an interesting book. I have to admit my eyes glaze over slightly whenever Onda goes into the specifics of the game but I also like the slow and subtle sense of growing dread. I feel a bit like a frog boiling in water - in a good way!
I like the exploration of the passage of time, how the students are sleepwalking their way to adulthood through the rhythtlms of school ritual, how an event that happened not that long ago - only fifteen years! - is treated like ancient, vaguely-remembered history that has spawned
legends passed down “through the ages”. Is it sort of like the school is a microcosm of society where time is really condensed? Sorry that sounds arsey - I’m pretty dumb when it comes to book themes.
If Sayoko is back and is actually a ghost and there’s not some sort of Scooby Doo scientific explanations for all the shenanigans - Kato getting a heart attack from fear makes me think maybe it was all in his head - her being frozen in amber and eternally 17 years old will bring an interesting dynamic to the mix.
Edit - oh gosh sorry I don’t know why my spoiler tags aren’t working
Edit 2 - ok i think I’ve worked it out. V sorry thanks for bearing with me!
Finished the book yesterday! 
(and graded it, and it came out L. 28 which basically matches my expectation)
Compared to the action of the previous chapter, this one felt very calm and very composed. Almost like a fluffy cloud of nice feelings 
Maybe a bit too much Happy End for my taste.
On the other hand, of course the teacher has the manual, of course he also has enough keys, and of course it all starts over again…
Overall, I found it quite predictable and thus boring in the beginning, excellent in the middle part and quite shallow at the end. I guess I should stop reading books for teenagers… sigh
End of chapter 4
Yeah, ever since 沙世子 suggested it to 美香子 I knew it had to happen at some point. It does make me wonder how 美香子 would have reacted without her influence though.
Not his brightest moment. To be fair, I probably wouldn’t be able to make rationale decisions in a situation like that either. And with the maybe supernatural, maybe not stuff happening around him I could understand if he thought there was something inherently other to that manual. Still not worth dying for, but he probably underestimated the danger.
I’m still a bit confused by who did what and why, but did I get it right that 沙世子 wrote the script for the play? And 黒川 essentially just likes some variation in his once every three years entertainment?
Spoilers up to 84%
I’m really not, haha. Slight horror elements not withstanding I’m enjoying the book. You can already see 恩田陸’s writing style, which I think is really cool. Afaik this is her debut, so I was honestly expecting something less refined.
I have finished. Everyone else seems to be enjoying this a lot more than me. I might just not be vibing with the writing style of the author. (Like, to me, there was 0 personality for any of the characters. They are all the same grey blob in my head.) I also think the current 28 is too low of a level but that might be because I struggled keeping characters apart (the aforementioned ‘grey blob’) which made the whole thing really confusing at times. I am not sure if I should give the author another try or put them on my “better not” list. 
I know I have at least 1 other book by them.
Yes, I thought so too! The writing is excellent, and her style also shines through. That’s really cool indeed.
What exactly do you mean by “personality”? For me, they all had quite different characters, but they were all good at heart - do you mean that? So there was no “clearly evil” one in there. I think that’s because it’s a teenagers’ book though?
Also, one of the author’s stories is in X’mas Stories: 一年でいちばん奇跡が起きる日 | L32 and you gave that story 4 stars in your review, so maybe it’s not directly related to the author anyway 
Do you have an example of a book where the characters were very clearly defined in your head?
I also finished! Spoilers for everything ahead!
Decidedly less horror than I expected going in, but that’s a good thing in my books. According to the afterword, the book was first published in something called “fantasy series” or something like that, so it might not have been intended as classic horror.
There were definitely some horror elements in there, such as the school mystery, the dead student etc. In the end it remained unclear why these things happened and if there’s some force controlling things and people (the teacher as well?). I like that though, it fits the vibe. We saw one year out of many, and the cycle repeats. That imagery was called up multiple times over the course of the book too. 
While I didn’t feel bored reading, I agree with the rest. Definitely feels like a youth or young adult novel so I’m not surprised you didn’t enjoy it as much.
Spoilers until chapter 4 only
Maybe - either her or the teacher himself. O don’t think it was mentioned explicitly.
they weren’t for me. I could not tell you anything about anyone that is not also true for every other character. They all talked the same. They all thought the same. They all acted the same. I literally could not tell what the difference between any of the girls was apart from names and I am really bad at remembering names. My brain just didn’t find anything to latch onto to keep them apart. For quite some time I wasn’t even sure what gender 秋 was supposed to be. But it’s very possibly a me problem rather than a general book problem. Sometimes a book just absolutely doesn’t work for someone. Objectively, I should have liked the story - there is nothing wrong with it but subjectively I’d have skipped to the end after the first 10% if it hadn’t been the BC pick. 
Maybe their short stories work better for me. (I am trying to remember that story, but drawing a blank right now.)
Edit: I checked the story. It was amusing and an interesting idea. Set in the future. Very different from this book, though.
Oh, I‘m not trying to blame you at all! Nor am I trying to tell you what you should like or not. - Sorry if I came across like that.
I just think your opinion is very interesting as I‘ve probably never looked at a book like that, and so I was curious as to how you perceived the characters and in how far this book differed to others for you. In a nutshell: How can I also get a glimpse of what you’re seeing (or not) in this book?
Sorry if this was intrusive!
No worries. I am not good at explaining things because I can’t pinpoint what exactly works or doesn’t work for me. In my almost 40 years, I still have not been able to work that out. 
But I always feel envious of people who enjoy things I don’t enjoy. I think it’s much nicer on the joyful side of life. 
Then I guess we are closer than you might think 
I’ve finished Chapter 1, so spoilers up to there.
Coming into it with no real expectations, I’m enjoying it!
Feels very light summer horror read. Obviously very different, but the vibe reminds me a little bit of the first Scream film.
@みりりん I’m in the same boat as you, in that I’ve fairly glossed over the mechanics of the game, and just gone in for the ride as twists and turns happen.
I think that kinda means I’m not really tryna guess what’s coming up.
Although I did assume the gravestone for 小夜子 was gonna match up to our transfer student 小夜子 fairly early on.
Will finish Summer section this weekend so will give another update then!
Finished chapters 2 & 3 !
So spoilers for below
As everyone, enjoyed 秋’s dad tagging along.
I felt like the build up for the school festival stuff dragged on too looooong.
But once we got the the play that was great fun. Suspending the disbelief that so many kids would get their lines out and not mess about, it was a fun device for building up the tension. Felt like everything whizzed by.
Kinda silly bits at the end of chapter 3 though,
why wouldn’t you talk more about 小夜子 disappearing at the end of the play?
And whatever 秋’s picture selling thing was seemed quite unnecessary to add in. I can’t see a way it’ll advance the plot.
Aaaaand I’ve finished too.
spoilers for the last two chapters
溝口 for class president - organising both the karaoke cafe and the 忘年会.
I enjoyed the panic/chaos that set in with the fire - I think the switching of narratives, and just the authors style works well for those dramatic bits.
Also enjoyed the passing on of the ‘torch’ with サヨコ tradition seemingly continuing on.
There was a handful of things I didn’t like as much in here too, I’m somewhere between 3-4 ★, maybe leaning towards 3★.
Not sure if I’m phrasing it well, but I’d say the plot didn’t feel smooth enough. Some things dragged on a little, and sometimes the characters around for 1 chapter felt a little bit forced in.
Man, I wanted to read this book in August, but the month is quickly slipping away. I might have to be fashionably late and read in September…
I am just being very slow so I guess we can be fashionably late buddies 
Update: I am nearly at the end
Thoughts so far: this felt very light on horror elements to me? I got distracted trying to work out how the Sawako key was passed on and doing the mental maths on years. I’m not too fond of books introducing key characters later on. I seem to remember Onda Roku wrote this in a couple of weeks, so maybe that’s why the focus seems a little off. I would have preferred a tighter focus on a few core characters, and maybe sticking with one POV? But that is all my preference! I will update when I finally get to the end…
Ok so now I have finished!
Uhh… That was an odd read. Sayoko is a bizarre girl, not sure if I wasn’t getting the whole picture but her personality seems all over the place, but a bit unpleasant. Shuu is absolutely daft for charging into a fire for the sake of a manual 
Masako and Yukio are sweet enough but completely uninteresting.
Also am I missing something or did a Christmas tree get set on fire at the 忘年会and Sayoko and Shuu just kept talking?! Everything’s behaviour around the school fire was odd to me too - and the way the teachers are just chatting and smoking once it’s all died down, not even a little bit edgy?
While there were elements I liked, and the concept was fun, the book overall didn’t quite live up to my hopes for it
