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Hehe, me too. Lying to Emi was such a dick move. We’ll see how that turns out for him.
That would sure fit her style.
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Burn, baby burn…
I think (though I could be a day out) that we are up to Chapter 13 燃える夜
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We permanently lost a day last weekend, but I don’t mind. I’m ready to get this over with.
Chapter 13
Whelp, this chapter was bad. Everybody was so weird, and most of them don’t even have the ghost girl as an excuse. I had already suspected that Ai and Saeda would end up in bed soon and that he would lie about this to Emi, because the author seemed really keen to force the story in that direction from the moment Ai was introduced. But everyone else’s POV held further disappointments. Kyouko hitting on her old fart boss two sentences after he told her he was married? Dude, just…why?. And the way Touno putting pressuring Minako to get her to sleep with him was handled was just so ugh.
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Chapter 13
I agree.
The only good thing that happened in this chapter was 恭子 throwing beer over 野口. (He ran away surprisingly quickly, but I don’t think we will have seen the last of him).
But yes, the rest of the chapter was full of bad decisions and annoying behaviour. Come back ghost girl, all is forgiven…
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The last couple of chapters are kind of an awkhard split. I just managed to read today’s chapter at work while waiting for a delayed meeting to start, because it was only 9 pages that felt half-empty because there was so much fast-paced dialogue.
Chapter 14
Not much happening except for characters reflecting on the crappy choices they made last chapter. Still can’t get over how normalized it is in this story for women to sleep with their boss for job favors.
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Thanks,
So that means we are up to Chapter 14 使命
I’ve started, and may finish tomorrow
It is the shortest chapter in the book, so perhaps we will move on on Saturday if all are ready.
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No, this seems like the calm before the storm.
There has been a lot of setup. Think things are going to get messy…
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Well it might have only been 4 days, but I think we are ready for
drumroll
the penultimate chapter…
Chapter 15 正義
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Chapter 15
I can’t say that I felt very sorry for 北崎さん
He had gone from being an honourable saviour for 恭子 to being yet another sleazy man in a position of power.
But the sudden arrival of 野口 bearing a 包丁 seemed like a case of deja vu. Although it didn’t seem like he would need much persuasion, I suspect that ghost girl had something to do with this.
I did find bleakly humorous the image of 恭子 holding the door closed while 北崎 feebly pleaded to be let in and slid bloodily down on the other side.
I’d expected a bit more from this chapter - there is a lot of resolving still to happen and only one (long) chapter to go
Still no idea who ghost girl is or what is motivating her.
Is 恭子 really going to get away with just running away from the scene of 野口’s stabbing spree? Seems unlikely.
Will 栄田 actually twig that ghost girl is playing puppeteer before he finds himself on the receiving end of a 刃? And would anyone (apart from the besotted and one dimensional 愛) care if he didn’t?
My wish list (people who I’d quite like ghost girl to kill off before deus ex machina somehow stops her killing spree):
香川 (obviously)
平山 (I think he might survive, but hopefully will end up in a cell)
泰江? (she hasn’t done a lot in the story to deserve this, but I’m guessing she might not make it to the end of the book)
東野 (obviously, and hopefully in a way that is unpleasant)
People who I suspect might not make it to the end
美奈子
久保?
愛?
I imagine that 栄田 will survive, but it might be a nice bit of poetic justice if he doesn’t
that’s quite a lot of casualties. Shall we hold a sweepstakes for the number of fatalities before the end? (ie in chapter 16)
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- more than 7
0
voters
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Chapter 15
Finally another casualty. Still hoping for a blood bath at the end. Most of these characters are so annoying, I want to see them fall like flower petals at 花見 time. But I voted for 5, best not to get my hopes up too high.
Not sure what to make of him, tbh. Was the receptionist’s look supposed to tell us that he doesn’t usually cheat with young job applicants and it might have been his first time? That would make his death a little more tragic, but yeah, I also found it morbidly funny. And Kyouko’s reaction to it makes her more unlikeable, so she goes on my wish list.
I’m probably going to start reading the last chapter today…the ABC I joined this week is kinda hard, so I’m finding it hard and confusing to switch back and forth between it and other books.
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So guys, we made it out alive! It’s the day of final reconning!
Final book impressions
Even though it didn’t meet my death count expectations, I found the ending surprisingly satisfying and effective. I loved the plot twist leading to Kagawa’s death. I’d half expected Hirayama to turn on him, but somehow didn’t think of Tomoyo. I also liked that this last chapter had more creepy scenes with the shinigami girl, like the elevator scene. It reminded me of the beginning, where it felt more like a ghost story.
The only thing I really didn’t like was that Minako’s plot thread didn’t have a conclusion, so the whole drama about her sleeping with the shady boss who might or might not have gotten the other actress into drugs seemed somewhat pointless in retrospect. I half-expected her to be crushed under the gondola instead of Kyouko, but we never found out for sure. But Saeda’s ending makes even that not as bad as it could be. Since he stays entangled with the shinigami, the implication that something horrible is going to happen even to the people who have survived this round is very strong. Constellations like Minako and her colleagues or Saeda with his forced marriage and murderous in-laws look like powder kegs the shinigami could explode any time, so I’m fine with an open ending.
All in all, this will remain in my memory as a book with a deeply flawed mid-section, but a satisfying ending.
And from a learning perspective, this has been pure cocaine for my motivation because of how easy it felt. I started this almost exactly one year after reading あなたも殺人犯になれる, my first Akagawa book and my first IBC. Sometimes I struggle with a book and feel like I hardly made any progress at all during that year, but having this direct comparison between two books so similar in style…it was like day and night, and convinced me that I haven’t wasted my time after all.
So, @Domjcw , thanks for organizing!
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Concluded with fun, but
Fun all along, but mixed feelings in some ways. I might like Machine gun or Murderer writer better.
Anyway, I have exceeded 50 highlights on Bookwalker for a while, so deleted some for more funny highlights…
Difficulty-wise – short sentences, and colorful paragraphs. But yeah, irregular Kanji forms, just like other works of this author. Relatively easy and light read in the end, even if I might not really understand everything.
Not sure what to make out of AI. Little girl wasn’t wrong on the comment.
I wonder if I have seen little girl’s real power level yet. Maybe not just changing victim, but also increase, like 1 => 5. (I have lost count, though.) 栄田 didn’t save the world by saving sis, I’m sure.
Tomoyo is as good as mysterious, not bad.
Hoping more of Minako. like 3- or 4- timer
ofc, Thanks @Domjcw for organizing, and having everyone’s discussion to the end 
I’ll be another couple of days before I’ve caught up, but
一人目
恵美 wasn’t on my list.
I was glad that she didn’t end up pushing 愛 under a bus. Thought she might have a last minute change of heart, but instead ghost girl seemed to have engineered a kind of 事故自殺. Ouch (even if it was 即死)
RIP 恵美. I wasn’t sure about her deciding to sleep with Sakaeda after knowing that he had betrayed her - just to test the ghost girl’s claim about his fickle male shallowness. But I didn’t think she deserved this ending.
Hope someone on my list is next…
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二人目
This one was less of a surprise. We really didn’t get to know much about 泰江 at all, and I thought she was probably being set up to be a casualty.
I thought it was interesting that ghost girl made an appearance after the bubbles in the bathtub had ceased. She seemed to be claiming this for her tally. But we haven’t had any inclination that she is behind this death. Has she been whispering her solicitous murderous thoughts to 香川 and even 平山? If so, should we judge them less harshly?
I’m not sure about the murder plot here. Their idea is that 友代 has killed 泰江 out of jealous rage. But how is her quiet drowning going to fit with that? Is 友代 supposed to have slipped her a Mickey Finn and enticed her to have a bath?? (How would that work?) Are the police supposed not to find the barbiturates in her bloodstream and assume that 友代 just stumbled on 泰江 in the bath and drowned her. (But that would surely end up much messier with signs of struggle and water everywhere??)
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#1 and #2
Mine neither. As a matter of fact, she was one of the last characters I still found somewhat likeable. She’d never have ended up in this mess if it weren’t for outside supernatural intervention. But I still liked her death scene, mostly because it shed some more light on how the shinigami’s power to influence people’s minds works and where it’s limitations are. Other than the small clues we got from the scenes with Emi and the Fat Cop™, the magic system is rather vague.
As far as I remember, Hirayama claims at some point that the low amount they used to drug her can’t be detected. Kagawa believes him, and it doesn’t matter if it’s true, because as far as Hirayama is concerned, it suits him just fine if the police believe that Kagawa drugged and drowned his mistress and then committed suicide by overdosing his prescription meds.
I feel like this was left completely open. It’s also possible that she just feels personally responsible for every death within her jurisdiction.
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3人目、4人目、5人目？
Well, I made it to the end and I think (at least with a bit of generous accounting), my guess for the casualty number was correct, even if I was definitely off on who was on the list.
#3
No sadness at 香川 ending up on the ghost girl’s tally. Though him quietly drifting off on the couch seems to be a rather nice way to go compared to some of the much more gory deaths in this book.
I was completely surprised by the twist with 友代 and 平山 ending up together. Nicely done 次郎さん.
#4
I’m counting this as a death even if she did come back to life.
Another one I didn’t expect.
But this one seemed more of a jolt, and a bit convenient for the story.
Nice that 恭子 was rescued, (but we still don’t know what will happen with the police)
#5
Admittedly, this death is a substitute for 恭子, but I’m going to count as it conveniently brings the tally up to 5 as predicted.
We don’t know who ended up as the substitute.
I might have mentioned previously, but I’d quite like it to be 東野
But given 赤川’s tendency to kill off even nice characters, it could be 美奈子
I’m going to re-read the last chapter to make sure I understood it all. Might have some more general comments. But as others have mentioned, this seems to have ended with a lot of loose threads.
Not sure if he wanted to leave it open for a sequel?
Thanks @Boodil and @polv for joining for the 巡回…
That takes my 赤川 tally to 4. Might read someone else before I come back to him. But very readable and light.
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Final impressions
Some final thoughts after re-reading the last chapter.
Thanks @Boodil and @polv for joining me on this informal club.
I thought that this was a fun and engaging read - though I think I agree that the other Akagawa’s we have read were perhaps more interesting.
It isn’t clear if he has planned a sequel (I can’t see one, but this is one of his more recent books, so it is still possible), but maybe he was just leaving it open to one.
This was a pretty easy read, and made a nice change of pace for me (though I am looking forward to something with more substance). It was great to find how quickly it was possible to read this.
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