We are following the below schedule (page counts may vary based on your medium):
Week
Up to
Approximate Pages
Approx. Percent
Paperback page
Week 1 - June 10
Read up to sentence ending 頼ったたほうがいいんだ
25
11%
40 (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 week 1 of シャドウ ?
Yes, I’m planning to read along/am reading along this week
So I read this section a smidge early so I wouldn’t get behind (hopefully) with all the traveling I’m doing.
I’m so intrigued! What is he seeing when he bumps into the family friend? Is it a flashback to seeing this lady and his dad? Repressed memories? Does this book have magical elements? I feel like this first section set us up with interesting characters and threads to follow and I want to know what’s next
Just to make sure, because I’m listening to the audiobook, does this week’s section end when the son finds his dad about to take a sleeping pill?
If so, it’s at the 9:06 mark of track 4 in the audiobook.jp audiobook.
I first got the audiobook from audible, but I had to return it because the recording volume was incredibly low. Even at home I had to turn it all the way up to be able to clearly make it out, and it was totally hopeless to try and hear anything while walking. The audiobook.jp version is also a better production, with multiple voice actors rather than one.
As for the contents, I’m also intrigued. I like the writing so far. I doubt there are magical elements, so I’m also thinking repressed memory. What is dad doing purchasing the Scream the week after his wife dies? What a strange choice. And this Taji person, doesn’t he get mentioned an awful lot?
It’s been a while. My private life has finally calmed down a bit, so I can (hopefully) participate in book clubs again.
Maybe? There are some strange things going on, but as you said they could easily have more mundane explanations, so for the time being I’m leaning towards no.
It’s interesting that the fathers, mothers and children were/are all classmates. Seems like a recipe for some potentially complicated relationships. Normally that would make me suspect foul play, but in this case I don’t see how that could have been the case? Unless there really is a magical element at play here that let’s people commit murder through illness, but I don’t think that’s the case.
I liked the bento scene. It’s nice to have some light-hearted family moments.
The story is pretty intriguing so far. I have no idea which direction it will take from here.
I have no idea if the bones being reduced to nothing after cremation is a clue of any kind, but I find it interesting that obscure syndromes keep being mentioned. Like the one where you feel dead while still alive, or the one where you are sure that people or things around you have been replaced with fakes I’m sure these must be subtle clues at the very least. Is someone not who they appear to be?
I finished reading this week’s section! What an interesting book so far! I wouldn’t say the events so far are the interesting part, but rather the set up? It’s very foreboding for no good reason so far. I think we will get some psychological elements for sure due to the father’s profession, so I am excited for that. I also wonder how the family friends will come into play? I’ve read one other book by this author before that I also really enjoyed, so if this one is anything like the other then I think I will end up becoming a 道尾俊介 fan!
Hello everyone! This is my first book club and first Japanese mystery novel.
Question about the 映像 and this line
目の前におかしな映像が浮かんだのだった。 まるで透明なスクリーンにいきなり映画が映し出されたように。
As I understood this, what he sees is like a movie playing on or in front of 恵’s face, rather than something cover’s his whole field of vision. Or maybe I’m taking the metaphor too literally? At first I though it was a flashback or repressed memory; maybe it was a hallucination? I don’t know what those are like, but the way its described didn’t seem like a memory.
I took it as being rather like how I see things when I imagine them vividly, which admittedly not everyone in the population has the same level of vividness for their “mind’s eye” (with some having none at all). Due to that I’d expect it to block out his entire field of vision, although in a see-through manner (透明なスクリーン). I don’t think we’ve been given enough information yet to know if it was a repressed memory, a flashback, or a hallucination. It feels similar to the writing of 恩田陸 in a way, where we’re given just enough information to be interested but not enough to know anything for sure.
I have finally started this and so far am enjoying it quite a bit… but there’s a lot of characters and the dad and son both having similar -suke names is not helping…
At the moment I am kinda confused how this is a mystery because the setup feels like a emo version of SOL.
It’s funny you say that, because for me it was kind of the opposite. I felt there was this undercurrent of “something’s not right” going on throughout. Like for example when the dad got The Scream I instantly figured it was due to some nefarious reasons. Now I’m wondering how much of my suspicions is actually based on facts, or if the vibes I got were completely due to my own paranoia
I don’t think I am there yet. I am still quite at the beginning boy just met Akki‘s mum (the lady with the video in her eyes) while out on a walk to get out of the house
2 Likes
As an Amazon Associate, Natively earns from qualifying purchases through any Amazon links on the site.
Law and Order 
