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A review by readivine
Death on Gokumon Island by Seishi Yokomizo
4.0
First of all, I have to commend Louise Heal Kawai for doing an exemplary and thoughtful job in translating this brilliant book. I assume it must have been difficult to translate certain parts that depended on Japanese wordplay but still have their meaning intact in English.
Death on Gokumon Island is fraught with family drama and surprisingly, comedy as well. One thing I really loved is how Yokomizo leads the readers with just enough crumbs to craft theories along the way and then debunk them with ease on the next page. My reading experience was really fun! It creeped me out, made me laugh, made me curious, made me furious, and made me cry. Death on Gokumon Island is an incredible tale, and while it may have been better plotted (some parts needed more exposition and would have been more plausible if certain things were just mentioned in passing) it was still kind of fair play.
Kindaichi is an interesting detective as well. Here we see him as a quirky (but not too eccentric like Poirot can be), empathetic, and modest man who is driven not just by his curiosity but also by his sense of duty to the truth.
I'll have to write a more lengthy review for this book, especially on how it handled violence against women, and how the Japanese perception of patriarchy as well as ethnocentrism kind of played in the whole murder mystery.
Thank you so much for Pushkin Vertigo for the advanced copy, and I'm honored to FINALLY have read this! Buddy read with my partner :>
Death on Gokumon Island is fraught with family drama and surprisingly, comedy as well. One thing I really loved is how Yokomizo leads the readers with just enough crumbs to craft theories along the way and then debunk them with ease on the next page. My reading experience was really fun! It creeped me out, made me laugh, made me curious, made me furious, and made me cry. Death on Gokumon Island is an incredible tale, and while it may have been better plotted (some parts needed more exposition and would have been more plausible if certain things were just mentioned in passing) it was still kind of fair play.
Kindaichi is an interesting detective as well. Here we see him as a quirky (but not too eccentric like Poirot can be), empathetic, and modest man who is driven not just by his curiosity but also by his sense of duty to the truth.
I'll have to write a more lengthy review for this book, especially on how it handled violence against women, and how the Japanese perception of patriarchy as well as ethnocentrism kind of played in the whole murder mystery.
Thank you so much for Pushkin Vertigo for the advanced copy, and I'm honored to FINALLY have read this! Buddy read with my partner :>