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Done! The last chapter was so good too!!
I was about to say that it’s the longest book I read in Chinese, but then I remembered 網內人 which is about the same length (and there’s the Gu Long novel too, but this one read so easily it didn’t really feel that long).
The book was good overall, but I felt like it had a tendency to drag on in the second half. Stil very entertaining!

It’s crazy that I actually need to buy three new books today, one in each language . Funny that I finished all three more or less at the same time.

NamuWiki says that the 한국추리문학상 is the only Mystery Award in Korea, and looking at the list of winners, there are a lot of years in the 2000s where the award hasn’t been given. Last year without winner is 2023.

I find this strange because I do think that mystery fiction has a lively and active scene in Korea, I constantly see new publications of thrillers and mystery novels, there’s more coming out that I can keep up with. I find it strange that there aren’t other prizes, but seeing that the only one existing has so many missed years is quite depressing.
I’ll probably have to find the list of nominees somewhere just to have more books to choose from.

I chose my next Korean book: 교통사고 전문 삼비 탐정 by 윤자영. I’m going to go through the list of the winners of 한국추리문학상, at least the most recent ones, and in no particular order
I already read two of the winners, one I loved and the other not so much.
I chose 교통사고 전문 삼비 탐정 because I already read one novel and at least a couple of short stories by 윤자영 and loved them all.

Finished chapter 27, just one more to go!

失われた貌 by 櫻田智也 ranked first on first on three of the biggest Japanese rankings for mystery novels last year! So I guess it’s good?
It’s decided, this will be my next read!
I haven’t read a lot in Japanese lately (since I started reading in Chinese), and I’ve lost touched with newer publications. Time to go back to it!

I don’t know what my next Japanese book will be. Part of me is tempted to just continue reading Otsuichi, but given that I brought the lists of rankings and prize winners to the website, I also want to start reading those…

I loved both 夏と花火と私の死体 and the short story 優子 that is featured in the book. 夏と花火と私の死体 was really good, especially for a debut novel and given that Otsuichi was so young when it was published. The way it’s narrated was very interested, very detached given the circumstances, very factual and descriptive too, which contrasted with the tension inherent to the plot.
And 優子 was a really good mystery, there’s both a good twist at the end, and a constant sadness and feeling of loneliness in the story.

I finished 優子, it was really good! It has a very good, surprising end, but it’s quite sad too.

Today I’m going to try and finish 暗黑者2, I wonder if it’s going to end on some kind of resolution or leave things open. I don’t want to start volume 3 right away, I would rather read other things, I’m not even sure I’ll read volume 3 this year. That’s the reason why I wrote down summaries for every chapter, it won’t be a problem to go back into the story when I decide to.

I will also continue reading 優子, the short story in 夏と花火と私の死体, which I might also finish given that the book is rather short. And I still haven’t bought nor started a Korean book, so it would be the first time since I started this challenge where I have no book at all for a day, so I probably should buy the Korean book before finishing the other two (I don’t want the currently reading section to stay empty).

There are actually two stories in 夏と花火と私の死体, first the short novel of the same name, that I finished, and a short story: 優子 that I just began,
I loved 夏と花火と私の死体 very much, there was such an emotional detachment in the narration, it was a really interesting reading experience. The story was great, not my favourite one, but impressive for a book published at what, 18 or something like that?

I finished Lohen’s SQ, so great!! I loved it, makes me feel like I know the character better, it was not too long which I really appreciate, and there was good pacing and action. No cutscene though, exactly like the event… really hoping this is not a trend.

Finished chapter 26! This one was long for nothing, the author is taking so much precautions to explain something obvious and simple as if it was a super complex and new idea that most readers wouldn’t understand.
I also think there are a lot of problems surrounding Ding Ke, that made the whole thing really painful to read. The fact that he covered for Yuan Zhibang twice, and then for his son, is described like something perfectly okay. The character of Ding Ke is unbearable. It would be interesting to make him ambiguous or despicable in some ways, but the problem is that the novel never stops to praise him, this is so annoying.
This chapter could have been so much shorter, I’m feeling more and more that the novel is dragging on.

Finally finished Lohen SQ which gave me the last materials to build him! Artifacts are very bad. Durin has the best pieces which were not even that good to begin with… but it’s fine, I don’t really care about his damage.
Given that Xiao is using Ineffa’s weapon, I gave Lohen PJWS which I believe is really good on him.
And artifact passive and cryo resonance give 35% CR, but maybe I should adjust his build if I decide to not play him with granny.