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 ９?
Yes, I’m planning to read along/am reading along this week
I’m reading, but not at the same pace as the club
I had no intentions of reading the book, but I desire to click a poll
Having just reached the end of chapter 20 (another classic Onda cliffhanger!) I am so glad we are doubling the speed now I can’t wait to read the next bit on my commute home!
Finished this week’s section in one go. I too agree that stopping at two chapters now would have been unbearable.
I still want more information on how on earth they arrived at the conclusion that they’re siblings in the first place. Just based on the fact that she has the right name and age and has been adopted? Surely that’s not enough? There’s obviously been no DNA test, nor any meeting with the birth mother, and there are no common memories. So how were they so sure up to now, exactly? (I had a thought: maybe her adoptive parents told her all about her original family at some point?)
I wonder if the current conclusion is the true one. A girl with the name of their cousin (whose existence they didn’t know at all, then Hiro thought he may have heard something implied about a dead child and assumed it was a stillbirth, then all of a sudden he knew who would have taken care of that suddenly very much existing child while her mother was in hospital - what?), anyway, a girl with the name of their cousin was found dead, and because Aki has a vague memory of living above a dry cleaner’s (is that really enough of a description?), she jumps to the conclusion that she is in fact the cousin, and that Aki is dead. That’s based on even less than the father going looking for DNA though, or am I missing something?
And talking about jumping to conclusions, that’s a nice theory about the man’s wife, but it’s based on, well, nothing at all? It may or may not be true, but surely they have no way of knowing? Not tonight, in that room, at least. For all they know he was being chased by the mafia or aliens and his death had nothing at all to do with them.
With 4 more chapters to go, I wonder if there will be more twists and revelations, or whether we’ll focus on their reactions and the changing nature of their relationship. Maybe they’ll kill each other after all? Maybe they’ll have sex after all? Maybe they don’t need to decide anything tonight after all? Who knows.
This book could definitely be summed up as a mix of tragedy and wild assumptions I’m not really buying the logic of the deductions, they mostly feel quite far-fetched. I’m prepared to accept the
cousin theory (certainly not the cigarette DNA one though!). However I find it pretty unbelievable that both sisters would be willing to give up their daughters, no matter their personal circumstances. One I could maybe accept, but both? Unless Chihiro’s mother blackmailed her sister, it just feels like a stretch.
I keep wondering if they’re going to kill each other, Chihiro has an explosive temper and seems a bit psychotic with his emotions, while Chiaki has got the knife but seems pretty fine with the idea she might get killed. That probably means Chihiro is the one who gets killed since it seems set up largely the other way.
Also, it’s more than a bit screwed up that Chiaki loses interest in Chihiro once she decides he’s not her brother. Errrr… what?
Nah, I get it. He was forbidden fruit before, tantalising. The problem of incest loomed so large that it hid any other negative. Once that was out if the way, she could appraise him more coolly, and there are definitely sides to his character that leave her cold.
I’m surprised that it’s not considered incest if it’s first cousins though. Still seems a pretty close relation to me.
I actually looked it up after writing my comment, and it seems it’s perfectly legal and acceptable in many countries. At the same time, in my mind any kind of family relation, even if it’s distant or a relative by marriage only, is to be naturally considered off-limits. I know for example a couple of friends, married now, who share the same surname and their families come from the same area. They investigated quite deeply to make sure they weren’t related, even though they would definitely be only very distant relatives if at all.
Not that this is amazing evidence or anything, but it all does tie in really well with her sandbox dream, which I think is what helped her put all the pieces together. It seemed to answer the questions they had about their diverging memories too. I actually thought the cousin theory a lot more convincing than some of the other speculations our two leads have made so far, but maybe that’s just because I was wondering about a similar interpretation of her dream.
Wow, what a wild sequence of events thoughts! I also think the cousin theory is quite plausible given the memory of the noise and everything.
In the Japanese culture I get the impression that the individual is much less important than the achievement of the “greater good”, so I do think it might be plausible.
I agree with @omk3 that he was the “forbidden fruit” and now he is just a normal guy. But let’s see how the final chapters unfold!
If this book is anything like Eugenia, I don’t expect us to get the full reveal any earlier than the last chapter. (Also, the last chapter is quite a bit longer than the others, I noticed.) So I am fully expecting more twists and surprises, and I wouldn’t even mind one of them killing the other
I suspect we’re going to end and nothing will be known for sure, but I hope they have the SENSE to ask the aunt (maybe not the mom in the hospital…) and settle this. Or literally any other adult response. But I doubt it, where’s the fun in that?
But…what are you suggesting? Talk? Openly? About something that troubles them and could easily be resolved in a two minute honest conversation? NEVER! In fact, according to the latest theory, the father died precisely because he didn’t want anyone talking to each other, didn’t he?
Real life got busy, so it took me a while to finish this weeks reading. On the bright side, I don’t have to wait for a week before I get to continue the story.
While reading the last 2 chapters I was just constantly screaming “Where is your proof for any of this?” in my head, because I sure don’t trust her memories. I hope that they at least try to confirm their cousin theory, but that’s probably way too reasonable for those two.
Absolutely me too. I did feel like it cheats the two people in a closed room, slowly piecing things together vibe. If the internet’s also included, you can pretty much find anything out. (Although this was mid 2000s - so maybe less so )
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Law and Order 
I can’t wait to read the next bit on my commute home!
I’m not really buying the logic of the deductions, they mostly feel quite far-fetched. I’m prepared to accept the 
imagine that makes life harder for all the Kim, Park and Lee surnames!
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