We are following the below schedule (page counts may vary based on your medium):
Week
Up to
Approximate Pages
Percent
End page
Week 12 - Dec 25
English sentence containing āScarfā
52
76%
420
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 donāt need to hide details that were revealed in previous chapters.
Questions on vocab, grammar, nuance, and the like are both welcome and encouraged. If youāre not sure if itās 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 peoplesā wild guesses
Even if you donāt 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 12 of Medium?
Yes, Iām planning to read along/am reading along this week
Iām reading, but not at the same pace as the club
When Iād first started reading this book my mind was so fixed on the cover that I ignored all the clues showing Kougetsu is a guy, and I imagined him as a woman (the one on the cover) for a few pages until I finally realized my mistake. I talked about how biased my brain can be and that I have to be more careful about my judgments with my brother (who hasnāt read this book). I showed him the cover and he immediately said:" of course not! The story is not from her point of view, she is just the femme fatale of the story, this is one of those āwritten by menā books, youāll see!"
And I canāt believe heās been almost right from the beginning!
Well I did not expect this twist at all. I havenāt still finished this weekās pages, Iām halfway through āiced coffeeā and I have mixed feelings. Some of the clues like the water drops being ice were interesting. Specially since I remember some of you mentioning why it hasnāt evaporated if it is tears or whatever.
But some other parts were not convincing at all. Like guessing Yuikaās job based on how she walks and talks. Or using hidden microphones and such tricks. If you take into account that I, as a reader donāt have access to such information (I canāt see how they are walking!) This twist is even less satisfactory.
Unless I have missed sth, because I have to admit I was busy and didnāt read this part properly, only skimmed through it.
Iām not completely done yet with this weeks reading (and will probably finish the rest of the book this week) but
I canāt really stay focused through her lengthy explanations. I was already bored by his deductions how the crimes happened, hers bore me the same or even more since I feel like itās even more extensive. I think the twist was interesting, but I donāt like how it evolves. Iād rather learn more about her and why she chose to deceive if sheās rich and doesnāt need money and why she went with a serial killer to a remote place? And why did she even want to catch him.
I have to admit at this point I am only skimming so could be that this was established and I missed it.
I would blur the part about the unreliable narrator.
tbf, a supernatural element would have made this book betterā¦ but personally, I donāt like it in mystery books. (However, I am also not a fan of unreliable narrators. I think it makes for lazy writingā¦ but with this book, anything was better than continuing along the lines we wereā¦ )
I thought the author was a little heavy handed with the bits about āa detective fiction author should totally write a story where there are two ways to get to the right answer and the in-book detective only uses one of them, that would be super clever!ā.
I guess this book might appeal more to the kind of reader who likes the puzzle-based type of mystery? That sort of reader probably was looking more closely at the clues at the time and might also have found it fun to go back and recheck for āhow could you figure out the answer if you completely ignore anything Hisui said?ā, before reading on. Thatās not me, though, and in Japanese itās much more effort to flip back in the book and recheck anything, so I almost never do it.
I see that Hisui has got Kongetsu to untie her arms and is now ostentatiously gesturing with her hands all the time. I suspect this is misdirection and sheās doing something else she doesnāt want Kongetsu to notice. Also probably buying time.
I wonder what form the sequel books take, given that for those readers will know from the start sheās a fake medium?
I am almost certainly going to read next weekās section this week sometime, so as to finish the book by the end of the year.
No, sorry. I havenāt read enough Japanese mystery. The only thing, that I have noticed is that Japanese Horror seems to be more a mystery/thriller kinda thing with a supernatural part.
thatās a good thought. As far as I have seen so far, Japanese generally seem to hold those types of mysteries in high esteem. Much more so than the current generation of Western readers seem to do. (But thatās entirely anecdotal based on what I noticed becoming bestsellers here, i.e. lots of unreliable narrators, twists that you could not see coming because you didnāt get the information, etc.)
Yes, the English Wikipedia article on Japanese detective fiction summarises it as a ę¬ę ¼ę“¾ / ē¤¾ä¼ę“¾ / ę°ę¬ę ¼ę“¾ progression, with some illustrative quotes from authors about what they think is important in detective fiction.
If you want a detective story of the āsocially realisticā type, I liked ē¬ćč¦å® | L30?? ā police procedural set in a Hokkaido police department with a corruption problem.
Iām curious about this as well. You could do a prequel-type book where sheās working on making herself stand out in the field and eventually settles on āmediumā.
The č§£čŖ¬ at the end also talks about it, saying you canāt use the same trick twice. It ends by saying something like āso what did the author do in the next volume? Youāll have to read to find out, but I can tell you that if you loved this book youāll love it tooā.
Well, č§£čŖ¬ guy, you just activated my trap card; I didnāt like it at all.
Well, we read äøåę»ćć ē·, which had a supernatural elementā¦ I wouldnāt recommend it, but itās there.
éē¼ć®å½ć®ę®ŗäŗŗ has (self-proclaimed) fortune-tellers, but definitely read the first book in the series (å±äŗŗčć®ę®ŗäŗŗ) first.
Havenāt read it yet but é¬éč”åø«ć®åÆ室 has FMA-style alchemy.
ę£®å·ęŗåās äøéå· series arenāt mysteries, but involve the characters using mystery-like logic to accomplish goals around supernatural elements. (For instance, the second book is a Snow White pastiche where the Evil Queen is trying to kill Snow White, but they each have a magic mirror that will answer any question.)
ē½äŗęŗä¹ās books often have a fantastic element or tweak the rules of reality a bit, but they are very ćØćć°ć (and ć°ć in particular)
I havenāt read any of her books, but ę¹äøč²“ęµ has supernatural works in her books as well.
If video games on outdated consoles are okay, Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright is literally about witch trials.
Law and Order 
)
nvm.
