Good day ネーティブリー, I hope you are all having another sublime day 読書している.
I just finished 人外サーカス | L33. It took me a while, but I guess that was due to a combination of it being longer than the books I have previously read and LIFE. Honestly, it’s pretty disappointing… The description (yes, I actually read the Amazon description this time) called it a “サバイバル・ミステリ” but it really didn’t have much survival or mystery at all. It feels more like an 中二病 action battle novel, but with an endless amount of gore. I didn’t expect anything too deep from “Vampires vs the circus” but holy shit the fight scenes are so drawn out. Actually, I’m pretty sure the fight scenes were the majority of the book.
It’s also the kind of book that makes it really hard for you to give a shit about anyone. There’s a million characters and none of them are really that interesting. At least, they don’t seem interesting because the author never really spent too much time describing any of them. I’m pretty sure the magician guy is supposed to be the main character, but you can barely tell because he’s left out for large chunks of the book (by that I obviously mean the fights he’s not present in.)
I’m honestly not really sure what the mystery was supposed to be. Most of the novel is just circus members facing off with 吸血鬼 (but the circus members win nearly every time, simply because the 吸血鬼 are stupid and arrogant.) I felt there was so much wasted potential with this one. If only the book was funny. I WISH it was funny. If it was, I could at least say it was “funny bad” and give it 2 stars like 恋する・ヴァンパイア | L31, but it’s painfully dry. To make things worse, in the end, the “bad guy” basically goes “I did it for fun lol” as if this is some bad 少年 kid’s anime. Yeah, not my kind of book. Recommended to no one.
Please write this as a review! It’s a solid one but I saw you didn’t leave it on the book page itself I find it super helpful to read why someone gave something 1 or 5 (or however many) stars. Maybe I really want some mindless fighting - the book is perfect for me!
It’s kind of like how I rate some kinda trashy books 5 stars because I just love fast paced pulp. Other people might hate it so I contextualize my rating
Seconding @cat’s comment. I noticed earlier today you’d finished the book and rated it one star, but was a little sad to see no review to see why you thought it was so bad.
There have been occasions where I felt reluctant to add a review for a book when I found it meh (or worse) but someone had already left a glowing review Same for the opposite scenario (someone said the book was bad but I loved it). I guess it would give a more nuanced view of such books, but I also feel like I am picking a fight by doing that Just adding stars feels less personal.
I wonder if I am just overthinking it.
Edit: there’s also the fact that those books aren’t aimed at my demographic. I feel like a lot of my problems are often tied to that, which makes me feel like it’s a bit silly to complain about it.
I honestly forgot that reviews were a thing. I guess I’ve gotten into the habit of just sharing my thoughts in this thread. Maybe I’ll just switch up a few words and copy them over to the main site sometime.
I’d say that’s perfectly fine. A review’s a review, right? Your replies here will eventually be buried and forgotten anyway, while reviews on the book page themselves have a bit more lasting power imo.
I’d also say not to worry about it too much. Unless you’re like, directly calling out other reviewers or something, it’s inevitable opinions will clash. And like you said, you end up with a more nuanced look at the book, even if that look is “this is god’s gift to humanity” and “this is a trash fire”.
More reviews in the future should help to balance things out, especially if you add context. Could be someone reads your glowing one star review and decides to read the book because they’re okay with all the stuff you had issues with, and they find their new favorite read. It’s happened to me before, at least.
Started reading medium 霊媒探偵城塚翡翠 | L30?? over the weekend. Was worried after coming off of 十角館の殺人 | L34(which was incredibly well written), but so far so good?
The main character seems like a good guy and not a creep (all too common in modern novels), and his reactions to events feel realistic. The only thing is how often the heroine’s eyes are mentioned XD Like, yes, she has eyes, don’t need to mention it every other sentence.
Looking forward to reading the rest of this novel though.
I’m about halfway through 人間失格 | L39 this week. This is definitely a heavy read, content-wise, and is teaching me words like 淫売婦 and 自殺幇助 that I’ll hopefully never need to know again. It’s going to be hard to rate this one because it’s obviously not ‘enjoyable’ to read, but it is engaging somehow. I also started 神様の御用人 | L36 (partially to balance out the mood of 人間失格) which I’m trying to treat as a more casual read. I was originally aiming to read 神様の御用人 with no dictionary at all, but there’s a lot of Shinto terms I wanted to look up so I’m just googling things when I want to, and taking what I can get from context the rest of the time. Also read the manga サイレント・ウィッチ 沈黙の魔女の隠しごと I | L29 and らんま1/2 5 | L23.
I’ve seen 自殺幇助 a couple times but since I mostly read about crime that’s not shocking. I suspect you can safely avoid it for a long time if you mostly read outside that sphere
淫売婦 feels very old fashioned to me. I know I’ve seen it, but usually 風俗嬢 or 性労働者 (I think that’s the term) are what I come across. I want to say the latter is the least casual and/or pejorative term as well.
I feel like that fits for old fashioned Fwiw I did a quick google and 淫売婦 mostly gets hits from Aozora Bunko and dictionary sites. The other words bring up rather different results
RIP my search history, but I was googling info on cyanide the other day so really this isn’t that bad, right?
I’ve been able to read 邪神ちゃんドロップキック volumes in less than an hour lately, and currently in Volume 7.
I’ll try to finish 世にも奇妙な商品カタログ 6 today, as I’m struggling with the last chapter.
Also have ながされて藍蘭島 38 out for delivery, so that will be a for-today read depending on the time it arrives.
Edit: DHL failed to deliver the book today, so no ながされて藍蘭島 38 today.
I don’t think I’ll write a review about this one, because I was almost finished and it got lost in the sea of tabs I had open, and I don’t think I can muster the strength to redo it, at least right now, but I’ll share some quick thoughts.
@brandon Maybe we can get a review draft saving feature
This volume felt harder than the rest. Probably because I picked it in very irregular intervals due to matching with the busiest time of the year for me.
Also the last chapter, which is a long backstory of the main characters, was kinda hard to follow. Although I think I got a quick grasp of what was explained, I’m pretty sure I lost some details along the way. Might catch them later on another book if it goes back to explain it, or if I ever do a re-read of it.
I rated it lower, because it felt that the last chapter could have been divided to keep more proportional to the rest of the series and the book itself. For context, usually a chapter will last around 30 pages, in this case the last chapter lasted almost 70 pages.
I hope I’ll be able to pick up the path again with the next volume.
Oh, I didn’t know we can link reviews directly!
Anyway, I read the free “extended preview” of a BL book yesterday and then decided to just take the plunge and bought the full book.
It’s a BL isekai harem. ‘nuf said, I guess
The actual plot is pretty similar to 聖女の魔力は万能です カドカワBOOKS | L29, so read that if you prefer plot in a more heterosexual setting
I need to make some time next year for reads like this; just fluffy stuff. I thought the cover looked familiar; it’s been on my Amazon wishlist for a while now.
Fluffy stuff is nice too!
I am extra aware of that fact now that I have read (yesterday actually) the opposite of something fluffy. Just some variations of a battle royal, pitting everyone against everyone else. Back to fluffy I guess.
I just bought my 体育館の殺人 copy today. I tried to look for an used copy just to filing out the Bookoff I went to was no longer in business. I got a new copy then.
Unlike
I find it super helpful to read why someone gave something 1 or 5 (or however many) stars. Maybe I really want some mindless fighting - the book is perfect for me!
so I contextualize my rating
Same for the opposite scenario (someone said the book was bad but I loved it). I guess it would give a more nuanced view of such books, but I also feel like I am picking a fight by doing that 
Just adding stars feels less personal.
The book was written in the early 2000s, though.
Fwiw I did a quick google and 淫売婦 mostly gets hits from Aozora Bunko and dictionary sites. The other words bring up rather different results 
