We are following the below schedule (page counts may vary based on your medium):
Week
Up to
Approximate Pages
Percent
End page
Week 7 - Mar 11
Read through end of book (not inclusive of 解読)
66
97%
275
You can of course read the 解読 if your copy has it and you want to, but it’s not necessary to consider the book ‘done’
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 黒い森の記憶?
Yes, I’m planning to read along/am reading along this week
I already finished the book over the weekend and I must say, that was a wild ride!
I especially liked the multi-layer confusion around our old man being the doctor or not. That was really well-played, also by the daughter. And the final reveal that he killed his friend because he was his wife’s lover and so on.
Compared to あなたも殺人犯になれる the author fully redeemed himself as a serious author in my book There were only very few scenes that had a strong smell of slapstick (the first one being when he carried the dead girl into the forest, and the second one being when he was in the house, being threatened by the postman, when the doorbell rang, the shot went off, and the whole place burst into flames ), but the rest was pretty decent, I thought.
I was a bit lukewarm on the book before,
but really enjoyed the last chapter.
The standoff in the hut was hilarious.
Also that the avenger snuck into the futon the corpse was kept in was strange
Think I’d have liked it more if the mystery of if the doctor was the serial killer was left open.
Also I suspected the delivery guy in week 1, but its been so long I forgot why
Think it was because he was suspiciously unsuspicious
I do think 28 is a bit of a low difficulty rating for this book. It wasn’t really easier to read than the 37 I finished two days ago (though that one might just be rated too highly, also I lack “normal” vocab).
I especially had problems with the descriptive prose at the beginnings of chapters.
I agree with this. I can’t grade the book at the moment (see the infrastructure thread ) but to me this was more difficult than an average book by this author and he usually is somewhere in the 28-30 range so it being at the bottom of that range doesn’t feel right to me at all.
Gut feeling I’d place it about 34?
I also loved the way this wrapped up. It reminded me a lot of another book by the same author that I loved, おやすみ、夢なき子 | L30 which is similarly outrageous in terms of plot development. I think this one is probably the best I’ve seen him do true tension building though, and it honestly approached horror a few times! Overall a solid book, I’m really glad to have read it, and even more so with a club.
Also I think I said earlier on I suspected the brother and them to have swapped? But I never would have guessed the double swap
It was a fun read overall and it kept my interest throughout, but I’m not sure I liked how he kept all relevant information from us until the last part of the last chapter, where we suddenly learn all about the complex relationships of the characters in one go. The double bluff with the brother for example lasted for a really short time. If I hadn’t had the sudden inspiration that he may be the brother early on, I’d probably be impressed by the reveal for all of five minutes before it would be overturned again.
Something I may have missed (it’s a couple of weeks since I finished): why was the delivery man described as having no features on his face? Was that ever explained? Was it ever mentioned before he was revealed as the stalker? Or was it just a trick of the “camera”, like his face was blurred so that we wouldn’t recognize him if we saw him?
As for difficulty, the descriptive prose at the beginning of chapters may have been on the harder side, but it was also entirely skippable (minor quibble: the black, spooky forest could have played a larger role in the story. As it was, it just stood there doing nothing much, I felt). The rest of the book was very easy. I don’t have a very good feel for levels, but somewhere in the 28-32 range feels right to me.
I also finished the book and really liked it. The atmosphere, that eerie and yet humorous tone, descriptions and dialogues, liked them all. Some parts were too slow but overall it was an entertaining book.
That final conversation in the car was wild though .
Our old guy was like “you see? the one who killed him is me. Oh well I killed that other guy too. You guessed it, I killed my brother too.”
That was fun indeed, but I believe he didn’t mean he wasn’t actually her father, just that she should start treating him as her uncle so she could be convincing to the police. Or did I misunderstand?
I wasn’t so sure either But wasn’t that shortly before he killed himself anyway, so why would that matter?
My first understanding was that she was actually the daughter of the dude he killed (who had an affair with his wife) so I thought that was the plausible explanation, but the scene went past us a little bit too quickly for it to be a big reveal, and also probably the wife did not commit adultery already around the time the daughter was born, is what I think now
In short: I don’t really know what that was supposed to mean Anybody else?
It did matter, because if her own father was revealed as a murderer (of multiple people even), it would have a dire effect on her reputation, her family’s clinic, even her daughter’s future. Apparently having a criminal uncle is fine, but a criminal father is where society draws the line?
Law and Order 
and 
and so on.
There were only very few scenes that had a strong smell of slapstick (the first one being when he carried the dead girl into the forest, and the second one being when he was in the house, being threatened by the postman, when the doorbell rang, the shot went off, and the whole place burst into flames 
), but the rest was pretty decent, I thought.
) but to me this was more difficult than an average book by this author and he usually is somewhere in the 28-30 range so it being at the bottom of that range doesn’t feel right to me at all.
