[Sometimes a book just doesn’t work for you, and it’s hard to tell why exactly. I mean, there are a couple of things I didn’t like in the novel, but I’ve never felt involved nor interested in the story, even right at the start. I don’t know, I guess it happens, characters don’t speak to you, or you were not in the right mood for this kind of story…
I think the main thing that bothered me is that, in my opinion, the novel has neither compelling characters nor a plot intriguing or complex enough. Some novels have both, which is fantastic, but I also love mystery novels that have a suspenseful plot even if it means characters are whatever. Similarly, I don’t mind uninspired plots if the characters are well written, have a lot of depth and complexity, and make the reader anxious about their fate.
In this novel, I found that the plot and the characters were both good, but to me they lack that something that would grab me. The plot is interesting, but very simple and straightforward, it just goes towards its resolution without any twist and the identity of the culprit is obvious, although hidden from the reader for a long time. It also feels very diluted, the plot is not very complex and it feels like the story is turning around it in circles for most of the time, with some parts that felt a bit repetitive.
The characters left me completely indifferent, it might just be me though… The narrative parts with Chiharu were the most interesting, because they are describing how the community works, but the fact that the narration is so detached, as if Chiharu was talking about someone else entirely, felt a bit strange to me.
Overall, the topic of peer pressure and the toxicity of the community were really interesting, but I would have loved the novel novel more if it had shown how the system affects characters, especially newcomers like the Kimoto were, the psychological pressure it puts on them and how it eventually changes their personality (the husband was a good example of this, but we don’t get to see the process or know what he thinks). This idea that some characters embrace the system, that some are reticent but passive and that some reject it was the most fascinating part of the novel, but I wish the novel had spent more time on the community.
I think the book is good overall, and it reads very easily too, it just didn’t work for me…