Reminder that we’re following the new schedule as voted on in the home thread
Week
Start Date
Chapter
Percentage
文庫ページ
Week 5
Feb 28
stop when you see 明瞭で淀みのない調子で店内を流れていく 32%
192
Week 6
Mar 7
stop when you see chapter 7
37%
224
Week 8
Mar 14
stop when you see chapter 8
43%
261
Week 9
Mar 28
stop when you see chapter 9
50%
300
Week 10
Apr 4
stop when you see chapter 10
56%
334
Week 11
Apr 11
stop at the section beginning with 2月２４日
62%
371
Week 12
Apr 18
stop when you see chapter 12
69%
413
Week 13
Apr 25
stop when you see chapter 13
75%
446
Week 14
May 2
stop when you see chapter 14
80%
479
Week 15
May 9
stop at line break ending 再び汽笛が鳴った
86%
512
Week 16
May 16
stop at the end of the book, not including 解説
98%
584
Discussion Rules
Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
When asking for help, please mention things like chapter, page number, part of audio track, etc. Mentioning what version of the book you are reading may also help people locate the section
Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun!
Readership stats
I’m reading along with the club
I’ve already read this and I’m here for the discussion
I had no intentions of reading the book, but I desire to click a poll
I like the new schedule. I had a lot of stuff to do last week, and the speed run club was also ongoing, but I still managed to read the week 5 portion. I know some later weeks will go back up to around 7%, but that is still manageable. It’ll also allow me to participate in the mystery book club soon. from me.
For my thoughts on week 5 I didn’t write down as much. It felt more like a retreading of familiar ground and didn’t give me deep thought moments like some previous weeks:
Thoughts
Looks like Ryousuke is the problem, so I recalled it correctly in week 3. What an unpleasant development. It feels like all the relationships in the book are currently deteriorating at an amazing pace. I hope at least 篠井 stays cool throughout the book. In my opinion, all the other Japanese men are painted in a pretty bad light in this book.
A little said that as a consequence of her stopping to go to the gyno the two girls don’t seem to have their regular lunch breaks again :(.
I do like the cooking class suggestion. I think it would help them bond on a deeper level again, and it will be fun for the both of them for sure. I didn’t like that the class she was thinking of visiting was connected to 梶井 again…
I have not that much to say about the part where she completes 梶井s challenge. Maybe the only interesting tidbit to me was that she seems to realize she isn’t exactly like 梶井 when she muses about “who would choose to go out to eat ramen instead of staying in the warm room with the person you like”. It was also decently interesting to hear more of what she wants out of the relationship with 誠. I don’t exactly see why he is this much more closed of compared to the beginning of their relationship. I’m holding out for more information and development there.
I do like Rika’s 先輩 (name forgotten already). Seems like a cool person. I do feel like she puts on too much responsibility for her past actions though. “I should have asked for more help instead of enduring it on my own to make a better future for other young women”. I can see where the sentiment comes from, but I also think she’s taking too much responsibility here. As far as I understood she already pushed the system forward by actually taking 育休 instead of just 産休 so she already did good in my eyes.
The Senpai could be a one of character though. I don’t see how she connects to the bigger narrative, other than giving another woman’s perspective at this point.
This book is still a pleasant challenge for me. Although I do feel it now is easier to follow the slightly convoluted sentences compared to the beginning.
I am yet again belated caught up and I agree, this week was actually a faster read due to not much new information really.
I feel like the relationship with Makoto is really unbalanced. I think she views this as a relationship that will go somewhere, whereas to him it’s more of a FWB/situationship type set up.
Also boooo Ryousuke. Poor girl feeling like she has to ‘make a baby by herself’. I wonder if she’ll kill him This murder book has too few murders so far, so it would be an interesting development if the seemingly more balanced and cheery friend of MC turns a dark turn
I still don’t get what’s so great about going to have buttery ramen after sex. That whole scene was just ??? to me in terms of what I was supposed to be feeling.
Also interested to see if the new sempai will come up again or if she’s just here for another view of modern women’s struggles in Japanese society. I would love for her to be more part of the story, but I also feel like that’s not how this book will end up being written
I’m really glad that the schedule slowed down, I’ve been busy and just barely finished this week’s reading in time, but then went on vacation and stopped reading the past few days
Besides the shorter length, I found this week’s reading easier to get to but I also don’t have much for comments.
from me.
This murder book has too few murders so far, so it would be an interesting development if the seemingly more balanced and cheery friend of MC turns a dark turn 
