This is the thread for chapter 4, 第一部：八月, a part of the かがみの孤城 book club.
As this is a read at your own pace club, please be sure to have your discussions in the correct thread, and don’t discuss anything that has not occurred by the of the chapter in this thread. As always, please also be considerate about spoilers and put anything that feels like a spoiler behind spoiler tags or in a drop down.
I’m a bit ahead of this chapter but this is where the thread ends for now so I am chosing to post my general opinions here. No spoilers just general thoughts
I like the setting and the relatively low stakes interpersonal drama. I feel like the large cast managed to differentiate itself enough in my mind which is something I was worried about. Though I wouldn’t necessarily say I like any of them.
I hope there will be more focus on the castles mechanics moving forward.
I do not like the writing style. It is extremely repetitive the same thoughts will be repeated ad infinitum. I understand this is partially Kokoro’s mindset but I think it goes beyond what can be justified with this. I really feel like the novel could be half it’s length right now.
While I don’t think it’s handled badly if I knew this was largely a story about bullying, I’d probably not have picked this up. I am really tired of reading this topic.
This might sound more on the negative side all in all but I am still enjoying it & intrigued by it , and the repetitiveness is not necessarily a bad thing from a language learning perspective.
I recommend skipping the author’s other works unless someone can vouch for the contents then because the three other books I’ve read by her all focus on this topic as well to varying degrees
傲慢と善良 | L34 isn’t about that, but as I noted in my review:
The only other thing I have read by this author was かがみの孤城 and while I think 傲慢と善良 is a better book, I see many of the things I disliked about かがみの孤城 in 傲慢と善良 as well. Mostly that it moves very slowly and that I thought a lot of it could be cut out and was pointless.
If you’re not very fond of how drawn out and repetitive かがみの孤城 is, then it won’t be better with this book. I personally have given up on this author, I think her work is really not for me.
Oh I’ll make more threads today when I have a chance…I didn’t see anyone post past chapter 2 so it hasn’t been on my radar 
Part 1 finished!
This was an eventful chapter. I liked seeing Kokoro’s trip to the convenience store (I want her to overcome her fears!), and actually felt very heartwarmed when フウカ was happy with the present and Kokoro was glad she went to the convenience store after all. I think I’m liking フウカ the best so far. My guess is that she’s got crazy strict parents or something because she asked Kokoro about the chocolate and hadn’t eaten it before 
I was also interested in the confrontation with mom, was wondering when there would be consequences for going to the castle all day.
I have to say that I didn’t really feel any sympathy for ウレシノ at the end there. Yeah, everyone was annoyed by him and thought he was dumb… but he was harassing the girls. Kind of hard to be like ‘poor guy.’ At least he’s going to school again I guess. The レオン revelation kinda cracked me up, it seems like Japanese stuff mentions Hawaii so often!! I feel like I see Hawaii in more Japanese media than American media.
Yeah same. It was pretty clear that no one was liking the attention..I don’t care how socially awkward you are, it was clearly bothersome to all of them.
Thank you! 
The fact you both think this makes me feel so vindicated. I remember being really frustrated and thinking the exact same the first time I read this book.
