I’ve read about 57%, up to section 16 in what is I guess chapter 7 (putting where you are to hide spoilers in this book is hard ), and here are some of my general thoughts so far.
The cop chapters are very chatty, but there is also some meta-ness going on? Lots of talk about bias and finding the criminal and profiling and what not, and I feel like it’s directed at me as the reader as I try to figure out what is going on here. The profile produced as to who the killer could be fits the narrator well, but then on the other hand I’m not sure if I should doubt it or not. I’m trying to be open for all possibilities still.
The structure is interesting so far, because we will get the narrators pov on something and then the cops pov and they’re usually at odds. The narrator does seem like an unreliable psycho, though, so I tend to believe the cops pov more. Also feels like the narrator is just playing pretend detective and investigating. Sometimes I think he was the one who actually committed the crime and this is all a wild goose chase? Not sure yet!
They are? I haven’t spotted any striking differences other than what you would expect from seeing things from someone’s subjective point of view (like the mc mistaking the detectives for funeral workers, say).
That said, I have a strong suspicion (beware, wild speculation) that the mc is not who the police think of as the 発見者. Just something about the way the author carefully avoids mentioning some things.
For example, narrator looks at Ayako at the funeral and thinks that she doesn’t appear sad, but in the chapter with the detectives they remark that she appears the saddest of all and the senior detective gives the advice to look at things besides people’s face, such as the whiteness of their knuckles for clues as to how they feel. The cops also had the added info that the victims family was a patchwork one with a step-father/brother, which shades their pov. The narrator assumed they were a happy family not knowing that info. My takeaway is that these chapters play with bias and how your view changes based on what you think and know.
I agree it’s something like that. Someone isn’t who we think.
Speculation on my side, but I wonder if (speaking from my pov at 60% read) the brother has something to do with it? He acted weird at the funeral and his name is Kenzaburo, right? That also starts with K…. I can imagine having a step sister that close in age who seems to have issues may make for a weird dynamic.
Both the step brother and step father have a K initial. And I agree on the weird dynamic (they only became a family three years ago if I remember correctly?), but I’d find it very hard to believe that some random person faked a scissor man murder on the same victim and on the same day as the actual scissor man. We also have no idea what the MC’s name is, do we?
I’m focusing on hopefully finishing ハンチバック today, but I’m very much looking forward to continuing this tomorrow.
I think we did get the narrators name at some point when he was at his workplace??? I can’t remember since the cast is somewhat big and a lot of names have been thrown out… I also wonder if the narrator is the same person as someone else who has been mentioned. A lot of どんでん返し books I’ve read have an ending where the narrator isn’t who you assumed they were. Hmmmmmm
I’m actually convinced (beware, wild speculation) that the MC is not even a “he”. The only point were it was made “clear” it’s a man was when the police officer described the 発見者 as an awkward chubby young man who kept staring at the blue tarpaulin. There was also a woman though, whom another police officer was consoling. She has never been mentioned again.
About an hour of reading left. Imma finishing tonight.
@catdid you see any of this coming? omk3 has basically figured it out. I am impressed. I guess it might be a common trope? I haven’t read many どんでん返し yet.
I almost got it pretty early on, but then the later writing had me convinced I was wrong so I disregarded it. I figured omk might get it (they’re very good at sussing out twists) and part of why I encouraged fast reading is because it’s not the most artfully hidden twist… But it was super fun because I had to suddenly reorder the book in my head. And I liked the character types not being at all what I expected
Edit and yes, a pretty common trope to have someone not be who they appear to me. The fun bit is figuring that out and figuring out who they are.
This was fun.
Now I am looking forward to everyone catching up.
In English literature it’s more common to have an unreliable narrator which, imo, is similar but not the same. And while I hate unreliable narrators, being let astray by my own biased assumptions is fun. False information vs. false interpretation of information
Kudos to omk for figuring out the twist! After they said who the narrator might be, I started looking for clues that they were a woman and noticed a few (i.e., Isobe staring at her chest when he went to her apartment…) so I kind of saw that part coming, but the red herring with Hidaka threw me off. In hindsight, Horinouchi was a bit suspicious, but my “bias” of not suspecting a member of the police force to be the culprit got me.
That was a fun read, all in all though. I’m not a huge mystery fan/reader and this book was maybe a tad heavy on the police procedural side for my preferences, but the narrator’s psychopath chapters were enjoyable. The ending was also an interesting outcome, to say the least. Didn’t see any of that coming!!
The only thing that I noticed early on but disregarded was the use of わたし but at least I was sus of the police. So, I say, together we would have solved the case.
This keeps happening with such regularity that I’m convinced that every copy of this book is divided differently just to troll us. I finished 20 and opened your spoiler, only to be equally confused because I didn’t remember seeing the quote anywhere. Turns out, it’s at the start of 22 for me. What’s going on???
I know I’m last and everyone else has finished already, but I’m mentioning it in case more people decide to read the book later on and are as confused about the random spoilers as I am.
Paused just before 24 to get my bearings. The following is just me thinking “aloud”:
The twist so far wasn’t a twist for me, because I had noticed that the author carefully avoided to confirm (for 400 pages!) that the narrator was a man. Everything seemed to be suspiciously carefully phrased to avoid giving it away. And the comments on how the narrator dressed seemed more likely to be directed to a woman. Not to mention that the woman at the crime scene never got another mention, as if she didn’t exist. Anyway, very cool, but what’s going on now? I had been thinking throughout that it’s unthinkable that one person could be targeted at the exact same time by a serial killer and someone pretending to be said serial killer. That’s just too much of a coincidence even for fiction. But if this man who appeared in 23 really is the pretend scissor man, how was he surprised about the scissor man’s real identity? I always thought that it would be someone who was actually onto the scissor man and was following her - someone from the company, more likely. But this person isn’t from the company, or she’d know him. So who else is there? I’m thinking it might be someone from the police. Now she’s seen Muraki and Isobe, so it’s not them. She’s also seen the other officers who were at the crime scene, surely. Which leaves…the profiler? I still don’t see how he could arrive at the same victim without already knowing and following the real scissor man. Say he understood the selection process - a girl with outstanding grades. Surely there’s many of them? Say he got to know this girl by chance (how was she meeting all these older men?), and then decided she’d make a good candidate? But again, how and why on the same day? I’m missing something I’m sure.
Edit (after reading 24):
Ahh, but the huge coincidence was not really addressed? Just that coincidences happen? That’s disappointing. I mean, this may be one of my favourite quote ever:
“Million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.”
― Terry Pratchett
But still. The fact that it’s not only the same girl, but also the same day and time is really a tiny bit farfetched, isn’t it?
Still, very good fun. Quite a bit of book left still, so I wonder what else is in store?
25:
「セーターに血がつかなければいいが、とわたしはぼんやり思った。」
I loved this because a second before reading this sentence I was thinking to myself that all the trouble she took to not leave fingerprints or dirty her clothes were in vain.
I actually almost guessed the twist with the narrator, quite early on, but was thrown off by the later chapters using 俺 and direct 3rd party references to a man and so wrote it off as more split personality stuff. I did however guess early on that the profiler was the other killer, which I’m a bit surprised wasn’t picked up by anyone in the club when you got the one which threw me The profiler was a 3rd party introduced to the area and the unit, charismatic, knew everything about the murderer, had an implicit high level of trust…it’s a very common trope
Discussion of the darker scenes in the book:
I also, maybe because I’m terrible, loved the suicide scenes. They were so dark, but also darkly humorous because of the different methods, failure, and ‘oh well I’ll try again next time I have a day off’. Can’t miss work! And I loved how the doctor in her mind was probably her dad, but I don’t think that was ever confirmed? So we get this weird hinting that she’s killing girls who were the type her dad wished she had been. And now her father just lives in her mind, tormenting her.
), and here are some of my general thoughts so far.
I’m trying to be open for all possibilities still. 
After they said who the narrator might be, I started looking for clues that they were a woman and noticed a few (i.e., Isobe staring at her chest when he went to her apartment…) so I kind of saw that part coming, but the red herring with Hidaka threw me off. In hindsight, Horinouchi was a bit suspicious, but my “bias” of not suspecting a member of the police force to be the culprit got me. 
I’m not a huge mystery fan/reader and this book was maybe a tad heavy on the police procedural side for my preferences, but the narrator’s psychopath chapters were enjoyable. The ending was also an interesting outcome, to say the least. Didn’t see any of that coming!!
I will do my best to not let this happen again. 
You’ve all finished so I can talk about it!
