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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
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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.
I found it oddly exhausting to read an entire chapter of 高安’s voice memos.
I wasn’t convinced by “the electric power is still working but the internet is down”; it’s all electricity, in the end…
Looks like we’re going to be down to three people now; I wonder if we’ll lose one per chapter?
It looks like the little start of chapter first person sections only went up to chapter ten; I was kind of hoping for them to continue, but I guess once we got into the more action-ish phase they would have messed up the pacing.
Also, finally this book asks a question I can answer:
I too found chapter 12 oddly exhausting for some reason. It’s also starting to feel a lot like a zombie movie. Empty city, things barely working, whatever people there are bear no relation to their former selves. At least they’re not after brains, as far as we know. Well, it looks like our journalist has been a little foolish. I wonder what kind of protection rubber boots are supposed to offer. Shouldn’t people in cars have been saved too?
Chapter 13 was so good! And I think the book could very well end right here, with a classic Riku Onda open ending. But apparently we’re getting answers since there are two more chapters left?
So funny, I kept wanting to shout at them that they could just cut off a finger if they were so curious, then Tamon answered this by saying he’d rather be abducted and regenerated than suffer some pain?
I wonder how it’s all supposed to work though. Do the changelings have blood and bones and organs? Do they show up correctly in an x-ray? Do they bleed when they cut themselves? Do they get ill? Is it only after death that they disintegrate differenly?
And why would all the changelings be hiding, waiting for the second coming?
I also finished 12 just now (will start on 13 today) and agree it was very tiring to read all those voice memos. It felt less zombie movie and more Blair Witch Project to me. I admit I’m a little happy that the reporter will (presumably) soon be gone, he didn’t really fit the vibe as he was a complete outsider to the other three who have long history.
I also really enjoyed chapter 13. I’m itching to start the next chapters (I’m absolutely finishing this book before the end of the year, sorry all! But I’ll save my thoughts for when the thread is posted) and find out what happens to them. Poor Aiko seems ready for everything to just be over, and the professor doubting Tamon so much during the start of the chapter and then being like “ok, I’ll take my boots off with you” at the end
Also, hopefully not really spoilery, but some songs are mentioned and I looked them up: 越路吹雪 - 愛の賛歌 井上陽水 - 氷の世界 佐良直美 - 世界は二人のために
and ちあきなおみ was mentioned without a specific song but I enjoyed this one
I thought it was fun to play them while listening to where they were mentioned to set the scene more since they’re all unfamiliar artists to me.
I suspect many of us will read ahead at this point
Only one week till the end, after all.
And I’ll post the final thread a little early anyway, because of the holidays
I’ve already reached my book target for this year (by finishing Medium a little early) so I will probably stick to schedule and let this one go into next year’s book total – I have some other stuff to read too. But as you say, it’s only a week.
Yes, this seems a bit odd. On the one hand it does make more sense if the group consciousness has just made all the preexisting changelings stay dormant in their houses, rather than reabsorbing and recreating them. On the other hand if Tamon and company believe that then they should know that they themselves are definitely not changelings, because they’re still wandering around, not lying in bed for the week…
If changelings lie waiting, they’re either remotely “deactivated” by their creator against their will, or they are aware of their true nature and are consciously waiting for the “second coming”. In either of those cases we can assume that the trio of survivors have not been already abducted, as they are neither deactivated nor conscious of their non-human nature. It has been hinted that the changelings are like parts of the same larger organism. Is it possible to not be aware of that? Maybe. Big philosophical question I suppose.
Yeah, I finished it this week because we had a few public holidays around christmas and since my husband was sick we didn’t do any family gatherings either, so I had lots of time on my hand anyway But I will keep my impressions to me until everyone caught up next week
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But I will keep my impressions to me until everyone caught up next week 
