🕵️‍♀️ 推理小説読書会 📚 Mystery Novel Book Club 👮‍♂️ NOW VOTING!

I think it would be nice! I think I was the one who suggested this book, and I didn’t realize ahead of time, else I’dve marked it when nominating. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes

I have read some amazing (English) middle grade books in recent years. I don’t think that target audience necessarily makes for an uninteresting book, but mystery is a bit special in that regard since they will be simpler and less dark on principal. Though middle grade mysteries can be quite a fun romp. I struggle most with YA since they kinda try to be adult but are just not enough adult to be interesting to an actual adult. Middle grade just tries to be fun/interesting. :thinking:

6 Likes

I only knew 体育館の殺人 was meant for younger audiences having looked at reviews and such. Japan doesn’t seem to put things into a YA category as much so you’re more or less going with a gut feeling based on cover art, description, writing style, etc.

Looking at the current nomination list (I’m leery to edit / add things to the list until the Discourse issues are fixed, so just for clarity we have one spot remaining):
赤ずきんちゃん is maybe not intended for young but it’s definitely silly.
アンデッドガール is likely YA
ノッキングオン・ロックドドア is likely YA
名探偵は嘘をつかない is likely YA
私が大好きな小説家 is a straight up ラノベ iirc, but yes, YA.
透明人間 looks maaaaaybe YA but the reviews don’t suggest that so unsure. One review said this though which…

AB型っぽい。

wat :joy:

5 Likes

Thanks for doing all that work :slight_smile:
そして五人がいなくなる is 100% Middle Grade. I wonder why Japan doesn’t distinguish YA more. Or maybe the labels make it clear? (Books are often grouped by publisher rather than author in Japanese bookstores. Maybe ppl know that label XYZ from publisher XYZ is YA? :thinking:)

4 Likes

Yes, please! :pray:

I totally don’t doubt that there are good books for middle schoolers, it’s just that in the overwhelming majority of Japanese books I read for that age group you inevitably get to the “moralizing moments” because the author feels they need to teach the young readers something. And… that’s so… ugh… I’m sorry but I don’t need that any more.

I already found the title to be such a dead giveaway that I did not even look further :sweat_smile:

Oh, thanks for your classification! That helps a ton.

3 Likes

It’s time to vote!

Which One Choices GIF

As a reminder, :arrow_right: NOMINATIONS ARE HERE :arrow_left:

ebooks typically have previews (立ち読み) so if the book is unrated and you’re unsure, or you just want to scope out the writing style, please make use of it! Keep in mind that a good deal of books are entered at 30 by default and some of the books with only one or two ratings can have pretty unstable ratings.

As with last time, you will have 5 votes in this poll, and any books to receive no votes will go in the Nomination Graveyard :headstone: They can be renominated, but please wait at least two voting cycles before reintroducing them.

As a quick reminder, the schedule is as follows:

  • January 9th - voting opens

  • January 16th - voting closes and winner announced

  • January 30th - first weekly thread for the chosen book is opened!

Without further ado - the vote!

  • 黒い森の記憶 | L30??
  • グラスホッパー | L35
  • 柔らかな頬 上 | L30??
  • 赤ずきん、旅の途中で死体と出会う。 | L30??
  • アンデッドガール・マーダーファルス 1 | L30??
  • ノッキンオン・ロックドドア | L28??
  • 砂の家 | L30??
  • 変な家 | L27
  • 木洩れ日に泳ぐ魚 | L33??
  • 白光 | L30??
  • 模倣の殺意 | L30??
  • 名探偵は嘘をつかない | L38
  • 透明人間は密室に潜む | L30??
  • 私が大好きな小説家を殺すまで | L25??
  • 吹雪の山荘 リレーミステリ | L30??
  • テロリストのパラソル | L30??
  • 七回死んだ男 | L30??
  • 時空旅行者の砂時計 | 30??
  • そして五人がいなくなる | L25

0 voters

7 Likes

ゎ‹ゎ‹( ˶˙ᴗ˙˶ )ゎ‹ゎ‹
|ωΦ;))))ドキドキ…

1 Like

This looks like some sort of ritual and Cthulhu text, haha. Trying to summon an Old God to get your picks to win?

5 Likes

:rofl: I wish that would work. But alas, was just trying to show some excitement. Also, I just really like 顔文字. They are a lot of fun. 乁( ˙ ω˙乁)ウェーイ

3 Likes

I can “read” this one:
ゎ‹ゎ‹( ˶˙ᴗ˙˶ )ゎ‹ゎ‹
and this one:
乁( ˙ ω˙乁)ウェーイ
But this one is a complete mystery (ha! way to stay on topic!) to me:
|ωΦ;))))ドキドキ…
What is it supposed to be?

3 Likes

someone lurking around a corner (you only see 1 eye) with an excited heartbeat (ドキドキ) :smiling_face:

3 Likes

Seriously? I could just barely see a chick lying down with eggshell on its head (!) but an eye? I see no eye. :sweat_smile: :rofl:

2 Likes

Ah, I see it now! That one was confusing me as well.

|ωΦ;))))ドキドキ… → |ωΦ;)))) The eye is Φ, the ω is a mouth!

4 Likes

| ← wall
ω <-mouth
Φ ← eye
:rofl:

6 Likes

Aaaah, right! Thanks, both of you. I feel like I’m learning a new language right now :joy:

6 Likes

Sorry for being pedantic, but I was looking at the nominations a little more carefully in order to vote, and was surprised that a genre novel won the Akutagawa prize. It turns out it didn’t. It won the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award instead, which is awarded to unpublished mystery novels. :slight_smile:

6 Likes

Whoops, apparently I’ve had those mixed up for a while b/c in my head I thought 体育館の殺人 and 屍人荘の殺人 had also won the ‘Akutagawa’ prize :joy: Apologies if I falsely enticed anyone

5 Likes

Voting has closed!

Congrats to 七回死んだ男 | L35

And RIP to 吹雪の山荘 リレーミステリ , テロリストのパラソル, and 模倣の殺意 :hocho:
I actually waffled hard on voting for two of those so bit of a bummer…but I’ll just read them on my own time :smile:

As a reminder the first week for this book is January 30th to give people time to purchase physical copies if they’d like.

New home thread for 七回死んだ男

7 Likes

Oops, not as many voters in this poll as the last one…

Oh well, I’m glad the winner is a book I already own ^_~

4 Likes

I actually removed my vote for two of those at the last minute, because it was the only one, and it felt wrong to save my own nominations when no one else was interested. :sweat_smile: If I start reading any of them I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, I’ll probably sit the current pick out, so have fun everyone! :books:

5 Likes