Week 1: 容疑者Xの献身 - The Devotion of Suspect X 🌹

[NicoleRauch]

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容疑者Xの献身 - The Devotion of Suspect X Home Thread

Week 1

Start Date: Jan 23rd
Next Part: Week 2

Reading:

Week	Start Date	End Chapter	End Page	Page Count
Week 1	Jan 23rd	[End Chapter 1]	28	23

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 the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
• 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!

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

• I’m reading along
• I have finished this part
• I’m planning to catch up later
• I’m skipping this book

Proper Noun Readings

Name	Reading	Notes	Proof
石神	いしがみ
新大橋	しんおおはし
隅田川	すみだがわ
清洲橋	きよすばし
靖子	やすこ
米沢	よねざわ
小代子	さよこ
金子	かねこ
錦糸町	きんしちょう
美里	みさと
富樫 慎二	とがし しんじ
赤坂	あかさか

[daines]

This is my first attempt to read in a while, so we’ll see how it goes. It has already provided me with a handful of kanji and vocabulary to resurrect when I come across them and forget pronunciation or meaning.

Some questions so far:

In the middle of page 12, and the end of a paragraph …
「小代子は亭主と顔を見合わせてにやにやした。」
… I was going to ask about やにやす, but then as I wrote this up, realized it is にやにや … d’oh.

On page 19 in the first full paragraph …
「どうか復緑を検討してくれないか、」
… I was thrown off by this 復緑. Is it 復 and 緑を検討して? That’s assuming that 復 is meant to be 又 (same reading). Or, is there something else about this phrasing?

That’s all for now. So far, pages 7 and 18 were the most brutal from a comprehension point of view.

[Myria]

I think you misread a kanji there; it’s 縁, not 緑.
復縁 means reconciliation.
„Would you maybe consider getting back together?“ (I hope this matches the context, I didn’t check )

[daines]

@Myria

復縁 means reconciliation

Perfect, thank you. That’s it.

(I haven’t been reading because of eye surgery, and this small font is rough when the strokes are dense.)

[uchunchu]

Finished the chapter. A couple weird furigana’d kanji I’d never seen before in the early parts following Sekigami around. The only part that really threw for a loop was the page where the author switches to following Yasuko and jumps into her backstory. 小代子 is supposed to be her friend/co-worker from the club right?

[miwuc]

Yeah 小代子 was the manager (雇われママ as explained here) of the club where Yasuko she worked.

I just finished the chapter as well. Not too hard so far, but I was also thrown off by the change of perspective from Ishigami to Yasuko. And I wish they had furigana on all people/place names. Here’s list of those in case it helps:

石神 いしがみ
新大橋 しんおおはし
隅田川 すみだがわ
清洲橋 きよすばし
靖子 やすこ
米沢 よねざわ
小代子 さよこ
金子 かねこ
錦糸町 きんしちょう
美里 みさと
富樫慎二 とがししんじ
赤坂 あかさか

[rokuban]

Reading along. I had a paper copy, love the pocket format but the type is quite small. I ended up getting a kindle version, cranked up the font size, much better. And easier to look up words without big disruptions. Good choice of a novel!

By the way, 石神 is read いしがみ, not せきがみ, I should think？

[NicoleRauch]

I was wondering whether it’s いしかみ or いしがみ actually

But according to this website, it should clearly be いしがみ:

姓「石神」の読み方・読み確率 - すごい名前生成器

[uchunchu]

I don’t have my copy on me right now, but when Yasuko is talking with her friend about Ishigami, I remember they described him as looking like he’s middle aged despite being younger. Did they have anything positive to say after that?

[rokuban]

Not really. He looks like he is in his 50’s but is probably younger, heavy set, with a very round face and slit eyes as thin as a thread. When he knocks on Yasuko’s door later on the same description of features is repeated.

This is the description when Yasuko remembers Ishigami after Yonezawa and his wife tease her about him ずんぐり し た 体型 で、 顔 も 丸く、 大きい。 その くせ 目 は 糸 の よう に 細い。 頭髪 は 短く て 薄く、 その せい で 五十 歳 近く に 見える が、 実際 は もっと 若い の かも しれ ない。

[uchunchu]

Ah poor guy

[uchunchu]

I’m gonna 読んでおく I hope that’s OK

[Myria]

Done with the first week. A really nice and smooth read, the author really kept me interested in the story, and I didn’t feel like there were many unnecessarily detailed descriptions. The conversations and characters all feel very real and like everyday people. It’s really easy to imagine the scenes and everything. And the ending, wow! Really makes me want to continue reading… Of course we don’t know much about 美里’s character yet, so it felt really sudden… I assume she gets some more development in the next chapter, to make her reasoning for her actions clearer.

[morteASD]

I’m still reading, but boy this feels easy coming from Re:ゼロ .

[Sylph]

Just finished! I read it much faster than I expected, since the first few pages were tough and I wasn’t sure who was relevant and what was just to show the setting, but soon after the perspective change it became easier to read and it quickly got interesting, so I sped up.

And that ending! Did not expect that. The guy was horrible, though.

The following weeks seem to have a lot more pages, so I hope I can keep up.

All the names without furigana were a nightmare, so the list @miwuc provided was very useful!

[Shandapanda]

Whew! First time managing to join a book club. Reading along I was wondering
which of them would do the act (if both would do it, just the mom or just the daughter).

@Sylph

And that ending! Did not expect that. The guy was horrible, though.

Quite sad that it went down that route for that person’s sake

@yukinet

for one a moment i believed when he said he didn’t want money

Lol but then he claimed that she is the one who gave it (like she was forcing it on him)??? lol. I suspected it wasn’t true after he decided to make himself at home

[valkow]

Going to try to catch up with this club! I’ve read it before, and after a chapter I’m already really enjoying it again. (It’s less difficult a few years of reading practice later, phew.) In my reading today, I meant to stop at the end of the chapter, but was unable to do so–the end of chapter 1 is quite the hook.

[NicoleRauch]

Yay, glad to have you on board!

[Naphthalene]

Ha! Nice timing. I finished catching up with the Re:Zero book club yesterday and decided to go with this one. I read most of the first week already, but I’m mostly going to start reading tonight.

[valkow]

Nice! I hope you like it. I’ll wave to you here before you get way ahead of me.