マスカレード・ホテル 🎭 Advanced Book Club 🏨

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Welcome to the マスカレード・ホテル Book Club!

View the nomination post here!

Where to purchase

This book does not have an ebook version and is print only.
See the natively page for links to your favorite provider!

Schedule

Week Start Date Chapter Page Numbers Page Count
Week 1 Aug 17 1 - 2 5 - 36 31
Week 2 Aug 24 3 - 4 37 - 83 45
Week 3 Aug 31 5 - 6 83 - 129 46
Week 4 Sep 7 7 - 10 129 - 179 50
Week 5 Sep 14 11 - 13 179 - 225 46
Week 6 Sep 21 14 - 16 225 - 270 45
Week 7 Sep 28 17 - 20 271 - 317 46
Week 8 Oct 5 21 - 23 318 - 366 48
Week 9 Oct 12 24 - 29 367 - 419 52
Week 10 Oct 19 30 - 33 420 - 463 43
Week 11 Oct 26 34 - END 463 - 515 52

Trigger Warnings

None known. It’s a criminal mystery dealing with a mass murder case, so people probably die

Discussion Guidelines

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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. 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!

Proper Nouns

Will be added to as new characters / places get introduced throughout the book.

Example:

Name Reading Notes
山岸 尚美 やまぎし なおみ Main character
新田 浩介 にった こうすけ Main character

Resources

The vocab sheet is a communal effort. Feel free to add to it and remember to keep the layout intact.

Membership

Will you be reading with us?
  • Yes
  • Yes, but I might start late
  • Maybe
  • No
0 voters
Which version will you be reading?
  • Paperback
  • Hardcover
0 voters

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to be notified when weekly threads get posted!

4 Likes

As is the norm with 東野圭吾 long form novels, there are no chapters but a lot of numbered sections. Section 1 starts on page 5 and there are 43 sections total.

These are the pages the numbered sections breaks are on

Start: 5, 29, 37, 58, 83, 107, 129, 143, 156, 172, 179, 185, 207, 225, 248, 259, 271, 287, 300, 311, 318, 341, 353, 367, 376, 383, 389, 402, 412, 420, 434, 442, 457, 463, 481, 487, 490, 494, 495, 498, 499, 503, 505, 510;- End: 515

Based on a 50 page average, I have come up with these possible schedules. (reading parts always including the last section)

10 week schedule (A), max 56 pages

wk1: 1-3 (53 pages)
wk2: 4-5 (49 pages)
wk3: 6-8 (49 pages)
wk4: 9-12 (51 pages)
wk5: 13-15 (52 pages)
wk6: 16-19 (52 pages)
wk7: 20-23 (56 pages)
wk8: 24-29 (53 pages)
wk9: 30-33 END (43 pages)
wk10: 34-43 END (52 pages)

This can be reduced to a 9 week schedule:

wk1: 1-3 (53 pages)
wk2: 4-5 (49 pages)
wk3: 6-8 (49 pages)
wk4: 9-12 (51 pages)
wk5: 13-15 (52 pages)
wk6: 16-19 (52 pages)
wk7: 20-23 (56 pages)
wk8: 24-30 (67 pages)
wk9: 31-END (81 pages)

11 week schedule, very slight ramp up, max 52 pages:

wk1: 1-2 (32)
wk2: 3-4 (45)
wk3: 5-6 (46)
wk4: 7-10 (50)
wk5: 11-13 (46)
wk6: 14-16 (46)
wk7: 17-20 (47)
wk8: 21-23 (49)
wk9: 24-29 (43)
wk10: 30-33 (43)
wk11: 34-END (52)

This again could be reduced by ramping up at the end if we chose to: 10 week schedule (B):

wk1: 1-2 (32)
wk2: 3-4 (45)
wk3: 5-6 (46)
wk4: 7-10 (50)
wk5: 11-13 (46)
wk6: 14-16 (46)
wk7: 17-20 (47)
wk8: 21-23 (49)
wk9: 24-30 (67)
wk10: 30-END (81)

So let’s poll~ :grin:

Which schedule would you prefer?
  • 9 week schedule, ramp up to 81
  • 10 week schedule (A), max 56
  • 10 week schedule (B), ramp up to 81
  • 11 week schedule, max 52
  • I’d like to go at a slower pace than these (please comment)
  • I’d like to go at a faster pace than these (please comment)
0 voters
3 Likes

I haven’t attempted to read a physical book before so I voted for the slowest option :slight_smile:

5 Likes

I like that trigger warning. Without having a clue myself: You will most probably be right. :grin:

5 Likes

For practical reasons more than anything else, a regular schedule fits me better. However, if we end up with a ramped up schedule, I can manage that too. So 11 week works for me too.

4 Likes

Feel free to also vote for ‘slower option please’ if you want. I don’t mind having another go at creating a slower schedule. ^^

3 Likes

I think it’s fine, if I find out that I can do 52 pages I can probably do 56 pages or a bit more :slight_smile: but if I find out that I can’t do even 20/30 pages, then I’ll just read at my own pace, so you guys don’t have to choose the schedule solely based on my answer :slight_smile:
The good news is that I got the book (yesterday!), tried to read the first page to see how bad it would be and it wasn’t bad at all :grin:

The first page

7 Likes

Oooh, I already like the opening :laughing:

It’s always nice to feel the tension build…

4 Likes

Thought you had already read it a bit in 2019? Or it’s too far away to remember?

2 Likes

No, I hadn’t read it yet… why do you think so?

(Funny thing is, when I read these first lines, I also thought I had started to read it at some point, but then I realized that what I had started to read was actually Michael Crichton’s “Nippon Connection” which also has to do with Japanese people and which also takes place in a hotel :crazy_face:)

4 Likes

Ah my bad, I had misread “I had just gotten into reading” in the ABC main thread and thought you had started the book and that’s why you got it as a gift!

4 Likes

Ah no, I was referring to reading as such (with Kiki and Kino and The Girl who leapt through Time, god bless their souls :grin:). Back then I was waaaay too scared to look at such a „serious“ book :woman_shrugging:

3 Likes

Haha the classic beginners, I have Kiki and Kino on my list but haven’t gotten to it yet, the “serious” stuff is fun!
Now I just need to fight the temptation to check if I can understand page 2, and page 3, and page 4, and … :eyes:

4 Likes

I‘m pretty convinced you‘ll be perfectly fine understanding them, but I‘m sure it‘d do no harm to double-check, just to make sure, you know… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

4 Likes

Managed to read and understand this page completely, despite it being an Advanced Book.
Then again, it’s just the first page; the rest would probably be too advanced for a small clumsy cat like me trunky_rolling

Still, if I meownage to purrchase it, I would give it a try trunky_rolling

8 Likes

This one’s just here because it’s so long, not because it’s very difficult. 東野圭吾 is very well known for ease of reading among all the (three :crazy_face:) Japanese people I’ve talked to about him!

If you can get your hands on a copy, happy to have you! Otherwise maybe check out some of his other books as well, we geeked out a bit about him in the advanced book club main thread, so you might be able to find some recs there. :laughing:

7 Likes

東野圭吾 is pretty readable in my experience too, so I definitely encourage everyone to give this book a shot if you can get ahold of it :slight_smile:.

5 Likes

That would be so much fun! Hope you can find a copy!

4 Likes

Hi all,

This is my first read along with a book club, so i’m super excited to give it a go. Hope I can keep up! Got super lucky and found a copy in Glasgow of all places :smiley:

In case anyone was curious about the movie adaptation, it looks like you can watch it on Netflix along with the sequel (Masquerade night) if you’re connected with a Japanese VPN. I’m going to hold off for now until I’ve read the book, but it might be fun to watch after the fact :slight_smile:

頑張りましょうね!

11 Likes

Welcome :slight_smile:

6 Likes