おばちゃんたちのいるところ 👻 (Intermediate Book Club) ・ Week 3

[enbyboiwonder]

With every page, I hated Tsuyuko and Yoneko more and more. After looking at the original story, some of the choices in this one make more sense, but within the actual story, it’s still… well, Tsuyuko comes off as a right piece of work. I did not like this story at all, but at least I understood more of it than the first lol

I put my thoughts/reactions to the last 11 pages, which I read yesterday, in my Read Every Day Challenge update, which I’m putting below the cut. I don’t think I had much to say about the story before then.

Is… Is Tsuyuko crying because she doesn’t like that Shinzaburou feels put off by her false—not to mention, touchy, when he doesn’t even know them—display of sympathy? I’d had an odd feeling about these two women from the beginning, like something was a little off about them (like they themselves are the supernatural element of the story, rather than—or along with—the titular peony-patterned lantern), but now I definitely don’t like them. I’ve been desensitized to crocodile tears by my mother, so any time I see them, my emotional center, particularly the sympathy/empathy, just completely shuts off. My emotional dysregulation usually means that I feel overmuch, but this is one of the few times where I feel absolutely nothing at all. And I hate anyone who tries to play the sympathy card with fake tears.

And now she’s acting all upset, not wanting Shinzaburou to give a present—like flowers, or a flower-patterned lantern—to any woman but her, even his wife? When he doesn’t even f*cking know her? Man, this woman is a right piece of work.

So Tsuyuko will die if he doesn’t buy the lantern? Good. Go die, then. Shinzaburou has a rotten heart for not wanting to buy something he doesn’t need from a pair of creepy, suspicious women? Uh huh, sure. With every page, I hate Tsuyuko and Yoneko more. Unfortunately, Tsuyuko doesn’t die when he continues to refuse, they just knock him out with magic and steal his money to have him buy four lanterns.

…Why is Shinzaburou happy to see them a year later? Even if he does keep out of their line of sight and doesn’t want to actually cross paths with them again. It makes zero sense.

Even though I’d predicted practically since meeting them that Tsuyuko and Yoneko were themselves the supernatural element of this story, rather than or in addition to the titular lantern, I was still somewhat surprised to find that the peony-patterned lantern really was just a regular ol’ lantern. Possibly mass-produced, if the two left him with four of them.

I’m really hoping that at least some of these stories have likable characters, because I haven’t liked a single one so far.