Reviews with content warning for Murder - ユージニア [Yūjinia]

The Aosawa murders was a dark and gruesome read. The ending is very ambiguous, adding to the feel of the book. The pacing felt very slow in the middle and could get confusing at times. The culprit is pretty obvious.

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lilifane's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There seem to be two kinds of Japanese novels for me. Either I love them from the first to the last page... or I love them until about 85% of the book and then the endings disappoints me. This one falls under the second category, I fear.
I really enjoyed it for the most part. Spent the whole day reading and couldn't put it down because I was so intrigued by the story and the way it was told. Loved the atmosphere. The characters and plot were fascinating. I enjoyed the writing style and the themes. But then the ending... ah, I felt let down. Or maybe I just didn't understand it. Which would also be disappointing.

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berodatheelf's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

3.0

It took a little bit of time to get into the style but once cracked I was intrigued by the plot . I enjoyed the multiple POVs and it was interesting to see how they were all somehow connected. I did get a little confused by the ending.

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j_squaredd's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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tiemzahra's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

In 1960s, 17 people died of cyanide poisoning in Aosawa house party, leaving the blind daughter, Hisako as the only survivor. The police was convinced that Hisako was the culprit, despite her very young age when the tragedy happened, even by the author of the bestselling book of the murder who was Hisako’s childhood friend. The mystery was narrated through testimonies of different people; family members, witnesses, neighbours, investigators, and Hisako herself.

This book is cryptic, and the mystery is fascinating, but I think this book is strictly not for me due to the ambiguous ending. I also needed an exceptional focus to read this book, and by the end of reading this, I was exhausted. It’s another thing that this book has a confusing ending, it’s another when the whole process left me baffling. As I own a physical copy, I feel obligated to finish reading, but any other situation, I probably have DNF-ed it.

This book suits readers who love mysterious and dark fiction with different approach in thriller.

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sp0ka's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I don’t think this is a particularly good translation and I bet it reads better in the original language.

The book needing a significant amount of magically acquired knowledge to conclude was kind of disappointing. It felt like the author had a lot of good ideas that just weren’t fully developed.

The writing does read well for the most part despite translation nitpicks, and I enjoyed it up until the last 20 pages or so.

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nish_'s review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

Very VERY slow read. Not super interesting in the end.

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