I have finished 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ | L34 and did give it a 3. I expected to like it more, and I did like the start of the stories, but then I sort of felt they fizzled out instead of going somewhere? I likely expected something more brutal. I’m still curious to read more by the author though.
This sounds interesting. When you say “horror”?
Sorry to interrupt, and I’m sightly off the original post topic 
I never even thought about pfp being from book characters.
I’ve always been curious about your pfp on here. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your pfp from?
The central idea of the stories is a bit hard to describe without spoilers but I’ll try to put it into words:
Most people may have had an experience as a kid of seeing something a bit strange that they didn’t find unusual at the time due to their age. But, when they grow up and look back on it with more maturity and context, they see it in a different light and realize it was actually something inappropriate or scary. The “horror” in these stories deal with memories like that from childhood and how they change when the characters become adults and see things differently.
The first short story 「トイレの懺悔室」(can we just admire that name, though!) is one of the most memorable reading experiences I’ve ever had in Japanese. I read the entire thing in one sitting on an airplane and by the end of it I was like え？！え？！えーー？！ because it was truly scary and I had no idea the story would develop like that!! 
Hahaha
Love recommending it though, since it seems to not be so well known, despite being worth a read!
You convinced me 
Putting it on my list. Out of all the books of hers you read, is this the one you’d recommend the most?
Only slightly related to the topic, the movie I nominated for the WK Movie Club is based on her book 勝手にふるえてろ | L30??
It’s available on Viki: Tremble All You Want | Japan | Movie | Watch with English Subtitles & More ✔️
Not available in my region 
What’s wrong with my region? Nothing is available lately…
Most VPNs seem to work with Viki last I tried, unlike Netflix…
I hope you enjoy it when you get to it! I think I would recommend it the most actually, just because the stories are so creative and felt so fresh to me. I’ve also read 蹴りたい背中、インストール、and ひらいて and found all of them great but the special brand of insanity in 憤死 just really does it for me.
Back from vacation and I didn’t read much.
I read ももこのよりぬき絵日記 3 | L27 - one more volume to go. It’s always a bit melancholic to read memoirs/diary of a person you know is no longer alive. 
I also listened to a few of the volumes of the 四つ子ぐらし (series) | L23 while walking. Japan really likes its children’s books dark and by the covers you wouldn’t think it.
I now need to catch up with the 本好き bookclub and I have generally fallen behind on my TBR. 
My pfp is a side character from the manga SILVER DIAMOND 1巻 | L24??! (Incidentally, that manga is the reason I picked up Japanese; I desperately wanted to read it.) He’s an immortal bird made of stones and leaves, and his name is Ao Tsubaki! ^o^
What about you, CatDQ? What’s the inspiration behind yours?
Wow, cool 
I kinda want to go read that now.
Mine is just my bearded dragon drawn when she was younger.
I went ahead and just finished out the final short story in 嫌いなら呼ぶなよ. I indeed gave it a 3. It’s good, didn’t hate it, would read other books by the same author, but I don’t necessarily recommend it unless you haven something very specific you’re looking for that it has.
I also read a bit more of 私は幽霊を見ない | L30?? because frankly I’d forgotten about it It’s short essays, mildly amusing, nothing crazy exciting so honestly it’s the type of book that even in English I would pick up and put down and read idly rather than zooming through.
Anyways, not sure where else to do this so quick poll for interest:
This one: 痴人の愛 | L43
(I already asked omk3 previously but a few joiners would be fun!)
It’s highly ironic that this kid is annoyed by his little sister always saying everything is 関係ない after recently learning the word 関係, like, you know you use 大変 an average of nearly once a page, right? How about you stop doing that and maybe then you can talk.
Seriously, I never wanna see or hear the word 大変 again after this.
The only character in this I actually liked is Hamamoto-chan. I am very glad to have Penguin Highway behind me. I dunno if it’s just that I was tired of it by the end or not (and also pushed myself to read ch 3 and 4, 100 pg each, in their entirety in a single day each, which I definitely cannot do as comfortably in JP as EN yet even when I love the book), but I’m not so sure anymore I would have enjoyed it had I liked the MC.
I think the next one I start will be 僕たちの幕が上がる, which is by the same author as Jeweler Richard. Even though I did buy the 1st vol of Jeweler Richard (also the 10th, since it was the last CDJapan had in stock that came with the acrylic stand). …Or maybe おっさんだけど聖女です, which seems like it could be stupid or fun, or both. But then there’s also that edition of こころ with illustrations done by a BL mangaka… Souseki’s supposed to be relatively accessible, right. (I. might need to make a poll, actually.)
(I’m telling myself that just because I got 3 books out of rotation—2 finished, 1 dropped—that doesn’t mean I need to start 2 or 3 new ones. Two of those were book club books! But uh. We’ll see. I dunno how much would be working with my ADHD and how much would be, like, sabotaging myself.)
Since people were talking about pfps from books today, mine’s Ochi Mitsuomi, who was introduced in the second arc of 2.43 清陰高校男子バレー部. Which, granted, also has an anime, which is how I discovered the series in the first place, but I made my icon from official art for the side story novel. For that matter, my header image is official art for the fourth arc.
I just read this a few months ago or I would! Enjoy! That novel is… something else 谷崎潤一郎 is a master!
L43 scares me.
That’s really interesting - I liked that book, but never would have thought to recommend it for your prompt. I’m happy you found what you were looking for.
More on topic:
I’m mostly trying to diminish my currently reading pile when I can find the time while I’m traveling. Today that will be 女王蜂 | L38 !
I probably wouldn’t have thought to recommend it to myself either 
There’s nothing tangible about it that makes it horror, but it had that sort of vague feel. It was very satisfying.
Is it just me, or does the cover once again feel completely wrong for the contents? 
One of the Amazon reviews says the cover is a tie-in with the 文豪ストレイドッグス anime.
I voted ‘yes’ but it’s possible I may be overextending myself on the book club front, so I’ll see how it goes
(That would be 月の裏側, medium, 痴人の愛, Nausicaa manga, Fatal Twelve VN, plus maybe whatever the WK ABC picks next…)
It’s not as difficult as the level makes it seem! It’s mostly older vocab or kanji usage that increases the difficulty in the beginning but once you get into the flow it’s not bad at all. It’s surprisingly very modern!
If anyone is ever down to take on the challenge of reading 春琴抄 | L52?? together after 痴人の愛 though, I am down! 
