We are following the below schedule (page counts may vary based on your medium):
Week
Up to
Approximate Pages
Approx. Percent
Paperback page
Week 7 - July 22
Read through end of book (not inclusive of 著者紹介 and 奥付)
45
98%
335 (文庫本)
I will generally copy this information over thread to thread each week for ease of finding - you can always expect the schedule at the top of any weekly thread
Law and Order
Any reveals, for the current chapters must be behind spoilers or detail curtains. When we get further in you don’t need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
Questions on vocab, grammar, nuance, and the like are both welcome and encouraged. If you’re not sure if it’s a spoiler, assume it is and use one of the above options to hide the text.
You are encouraged to speculate and guess wildly
Be kind about other peoples’ wild guesses
Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post in the thread for that reading once you have finished it. I advise not reading ahead in the threads as you may see spoilers.
To gauge participation - a poll!
Are you reading the final week of シャドウ ?
Yes, I’m planning to read along/am reading along this week
The ending was a bit disappointing. At least the scene with the kids. It felt pretty unrealistic to me. Osuke suddenly becomes a master detective and Aki would rather be homeless than rely on Yoichiro for help because he knows she started her period? I also had difficulties believing that the blood stain was from Aki. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by Yoichiro. I didn’t expect him to only pretend to be mentally unwell. And I’m glad that Mizushiro got better as well, this is a happier ending than anticipated. While I liked the book overall, I feel like I enjoyed the journey more than the destination.
My impressions haven’t quite settled yet, but I think I agree with that.
I’m glad things didn’t end worse than they did (I did grow to like these characters!) and that 洋一郎 was not the one who molested 亜紀.
I don’t know if anyone else reads the 解説, but I pretty much always do. Aside from name-dropping some other titles I recognized and some I’ve read -thats always fun! - 容疑者X, 八つ墓村, 十各館の殺人 - it was a whole bunch of some person I don’t know talking about 道尾秀介 as an author and how he writes mystery because it’s a genre that’s well suited to writing about human emotions and relations, and not because he wants to write necessarily mysteries.
I thought that aspect was interesting! I can definitely see it. The book reads much more than a human drama than a mystery for the most part. I think that’s why the ‘reveal’ at the end felt so out of place for me.
that was so weird. Like… Yoichiro had a wife who gave birth… he has seen stuff. Knowing someone has her period should not bother an adult man… surely…
I agree with everyone else so far: The ending was a bit disappointing, but overall I enjoyed reading the book and I would read more by the author. He was easy to read.
I’m sure it wouldn’t. A girl fresh on her first period on the other hand it might bother. I can understand just, though I personally wouldn’t find homelessness the better option.
I don’t recall that it was a disgusted face, just an uncomfortable one. I’d have to find the section again to make sure though … I suppose it’s one thing when it’s your wife and another when it’s your friend’s child you didn’t know had her period before? Or he thought she’d be uncomfortable about it or. Or Japanese men aren’t usually confronted with this?
I don’t know, people can be weird about different things.
Finished, thought the book was overall pretty disappointing. There was no clear mystery, just vaguely odd stuff, and then it came together in an odd way, as everyone else has commented.
On top of Ousuke and Aki, the book in general just felt contrived, and a lot of motivations are bizarre. I really don’t know how or why ANYONE would connect Aki’s missing headband with her mother’s suicide. And Aki can think about connecting printed paper to the printer and computer but not remember the recycle bin? (Also “Think about how bad it’d look if they found out the suicide note was printed from my printer! …So I used yours.”) Youichirou relapsing around everyone should have gotten him put under medical care waaaaay sooner. And, like, I guess a happy ending is nice, but all these people are kinda awful (maybe not as awful as the cast of 七回死んだ男) with deep-seated issues, and all of them just instantly resolving at the end felt pretty cheap.
I’m late to finishing this one, but I overall agree with the sentiment that the journey was more fun than the destination here. I enjoy human drama but god Ousuke cannot be both innocent child AND 名探偵! Also I’m guessing Youichirou left Aki alone/made a face because he thought he’d be making her feel awkward? Like they thought she left because she was sick, as soon as he saw the period products he was probably like ‘oh not my place’ and left? I dunno. But her being so embarrassed that she was unwilling to see him again is plausibly pre-teen embarrassment driven.
Glad I’m not the only one who noticed that I started laughing when she explained that although it was supposed to be so serious…
It’s hard to beat incest and high school/adult relationships that are blandly approved of by the entire cast
edit: also @bungakushoujo and @omk3 this is my chance to bug you both to share your thoughts that you spoilered in discord after finishing early and I had to refrain from reading
I didn’t even think about that. That is pretty funny. But I guess it fits in with all the other questionable decisions.
On one hand yes, that is the sort of thing a pre-teen girl gets embarrassed about. But for me it’s just not on the same level as homelessness. She complained a lot less when they were talking about her staying with her rapist. To me it just felt like she reacted that way specifically in order to mislead the reader, instead of it being a reasonable reaction to the situation.
Hi! Sorry for taking so long to reply, I was away and typing on my phone is not pleasant at all. I’ll try to remember what I had written, because I think I deleted my comments and it’s been a long time.
My thoughts on the book
I was very impressed by the misdirection, I remember that much. It’s a very rare book that throws me completely off track like this. I had been suspecting Taji from the very first time he was mentioned, but I never knew of what, so I can’t say I can count it
I will agree there was a lot of overexplaning (as is typical in Japanese mystery books, sadly), and the kids were suddenly transformed from oblivious to little geniuses, but none of it bothered me as much as it would if I were reading instead of listening.
I appreciated some of the “mysteries” having mundane or illogical explanations, this is realistic and very atypical of mystery novels, where every detail is significant™ and fits neatly into the larger picture . People behaved illogically too (Aki preferring being homeless to staying with Yoichiro, the mother thinking a double suicide was an appropriate solution to her daughter having been abused, etc), but again, people will do that. I didn’t mind any of that. There were clues to almost everything, but not everything was guessable. But that’s okay. All in all I was very satisfied with the book because it kept my interest throughout and managed to fool me completely.
Law and Order 
- 容疑者X, 八つ墓村, 十各館の殺人 - it was a whole bunch of some person I don’t know talking about 道尾秀介 as an author and how he writes mystery because it’s a genre that’s well suited to writing about human emotions and relations, and not because he wants to write necessarily mysteries.
Ah now it works… 
I started laughing when she explained that although it was supposed to be so serious…
