Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Participation
Have you reached this part?
Yes
0voters
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!
I really like the title. Super mysterious. And I have to say, these low stakes hotel side mysteries are really nice! The double fake out with the author was great. I started suspecting it pretty early on, but I’d thought the publishing company was in on it too.
The second company suddenly showing up was fishy, rightly so. I was surprised Naomi didn’t just end the call by, you know, pushing down on the phone stand thing. I don"t actually know the name for it. Buuut, it was necessary for her too make the connection and visit the author in her room so… I can forgive some deus ex machina. ^^
Speaking of! Naomi did it again! For all her talk of protecting people’s masks, she’s quick to try to look underneath the underneath. I guess that rule’s just for outsiders - it’s more: what happens in the hotel, stays in the hotel.
I think I’ll give it a day or two before I start the title story, as I’ve been doing so far as well. Won’t leave it too long though as I’d like to finish the book this month.
Oh! Did you guys notice a mention of the timeline here? I didn’t but thinking about it, we have to have moved closer to where the previous book started. Kuga has been promoted, and Naomi felt much more confident in her position.
That would be awesome, I would love that too, with the ABC starting this weekend! I don’t think I’ll make it though, but should be fine to read parallel.
Can’t read the rest of your comments yet, I’ll come back to them when I’ve read the story (definitely intrigued!)
You’re both setting the bar high ! I’m torn between having something fun and not too difficult to read on the side, and not having to spread my attention between too many books !
The eternal dilemma! The good thing with these short stories is that they’re very self-contained. Easy to both read on the side and not have to keep them in mind when you’re taking a break from them. So please don’t feel rushed.
You seem to be a bit ahead already with 黒死館 already, at least.
I know how you feel!
Part of me wants to rush and finish it but I managed to be reasonable today and caught up on my other book clubs instead of starting the new story.
I saw the reference thread, that looks amazing, that’s a lot of work! I’m looking forward to being able to read that book one day
Agreed, I think this chapter made me realise I like the smaller hotel-themed ones a lot more than the external murder-type police stuff. And yeah, the fake fake author was nice. I didn’t really start considering it until 尚美 mentioned again that it didn’t seem like the kind of book an old man would write, carrying on from someone saying something similar earlier.
I wasn’t sure who else would end up being in the room, maybe a lover smuggled in or something, in retrospect it’s probably pretty obvious that it would end up being the daughter.
I thought initially it was another publishing company attempting to poach the author or something like that
She does keep playing detective! Maybe she’s more like 新田 than she thinks…
Oh, small and random but I forgot until seeing something random earlier:
I know using fake names for companies etc. is common, but I really liked 灸英社! And of course, as expected it’s published by 集英社… makes you wonder why they don’t just use the actual name
In this sentence:
ほんの軽い気持ちで読み始めたところ、刺激的なストーリー展開や目がくらむような官能美の世界にすっかり翻弄され、頁をめくる手が止まらなくなってしまったのだった。
what is 官能美? I get from machine translation that it’s “sensuality”, but can’t find it in Jisho
I can find a couple vague references to it online but yeah no dictionary entries. It seems like it’s just 官能 + 美, so yeah, my guess is just sensuality, stimulating beauty, something like that
I did notice the jumps around in the timeline in general between the stories. Story 1, can’t remember if we had any time / season indication. Story 2, middle of March, and story 3, middle of October. Also I like how it was mentioned at the beginning that it was a 3 day weekend because of Sport Day, and by the end of the story I had completely forgotten about that, even though it turned out to be relevant for the reveal.
I also thought about a lover at first but then remembered the daughter.
Nobody mentions it in the end but I found the group of 5 men quite creepy, good luck to her in the future :o
Now let’s see how long it takes me to get through my Book Club assignments’, with the ABC starting now, either I’ll chip away at the last story slowly or I’ll pause until the ABC is done (but I think most likely the former)
I would have never noticed this one, didn’t know the real name, but thanks to you bringing it up and thanks to the book I just started, here’s another one:
玉村薫 → fake author in this book
北村薫 → real author
Japanese physical bookstores’ novel sections are usually sorted by publisher and then author alphabetically, so I’ve had to suffer the ignominy of standing in people’s way frantically looking up publisher names and then finding the publisher’s section in the shop far too many times to forget them😅
Based on how the names seem to be in the new book, I think there’ll probably be several like this in that one
Ah I see, you had to learn to survive
Yep probably for the names. Maybe need to do a search in Japanese for the references (but after I’ve finished the book, to avoid spoilers)(could also be wiser to do it only after finishing the series?)
Fun fact : My local japanese bookstore in Paris works the same…. probably so that the japanese expats feel at home. While I go around and around (it’s not that big actually), frantically looking up on Amazon the publisher’s name and then trying to locate the right shelves. And since japanese authors seem to change publisher with every new book or so….
Finally caught up too ! and this story was great fun. At times, it almost felt more like a spy story than an actual mystery.
I figured about halfway through that the real author was the daughter, though I guessed she was in the room at about the same time 尚美 did. The fake publisher episode was a dead giveaway… though considering the whole secrecy around タチバナサクラ/玉村薫, I was surprised that 尚美 just picked up the phone to call the room without checking with 望月 first. I didn’t believed the microphone-in-the-enveloppe story at all, and was relieved with the much better idea of the tracker in the enveloppe. Also, I was happy to read the full explanation from the father, and how at first he didn’t want his daughter to accept the prize. While I like the idea of the middle age man posing as a young woman author, having a teenage girl writing erotic stories for older men and every body being fine about that was gross. And the father double-crossing the editor, so too speak, was a nice touch. Also, I had a lot of hypothesis on where 玉村 might go during the day, but nothing as mundane as simply going to work !
I did spot the 集英社/灸英社, though I was too lazy to check the real publisher of the real book. Nice one about the author !
Part 3: 仮面と覆面
And I have to say, these 
Buuut, it was necessary for her too make the connection and visit the author in her room so… I can forgive some deus ex machina. ^^
