Reviews - Death on Gokumon Island

542 reviews for:

Death on Gokumon Island

Seishi Yokomizo

3.75 AVERAGE

almondson's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

baffi's review against another edition

3.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

augustboxer's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

tarbear_16's review against another edition

2.5

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

softrosemint's review against another edition

3.5

I found the mystery very clever which made it fun to follow. That is about it.

librerin's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

I was looking to read a mystery novel not written by a US/European author and this one came up as a suggestion (I saw some reviews calling it loosely inspired by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, so it seemed like it would be a good fit for me). I'm glad to have read it, but I don't know if the motives for murder landed strongly for me since they were

so deeply tied to historic Japanese head vs branch family dynamics and maintaining paternal family lines

. And I don't feel like the

murders' loyalty to Kaemon

had enough build up for me to understand it. However, the book had some incredible theatricality, and I certainly didn't guess the ending! I'm also really impressed with the translators who worked on this book considering how they had to translate

the whole "out of reason" "out of season" thing

with enough context to make the story still work!