A really really beautiful read. I think it was a little rough around the edges in some ways, so you could tell it was Beagle's first novel, but it really painted a vivid picture of New York from within the confines of a cemetery.
The romance in both aspects was deeply compelling for me, and I like the way Beagle depicts death in this world: a time after living where you try to hold onto life and all of its memories as tightly as you can before it disappears like a mist. I also like that it wasn't but about death, but not being afraid to live- I felt a lot of myself in Rebeck's character. I, too, have thought of abandoning everything and running off to hide in some abandoned place for years. The way he develops from a living ghost to finding reasons to be comfortable in the real world really spoke to my heart.
Graphic: Colonisation, Gun violence, Murder, Sexism, Xenophobia, War, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Physical abuse, Suicide, Misogyny, and Alcoholism
Yukito Ayatsuji has crafted another gripping mystery novel and like the first of the "Mansion Murder" series, he plays with two different settings. While in The Decagon House Murders it was switching between the island and the mainland, we play with the element of the present and the past in The Mill House Murders. I was expecting this book to be stronger in the character-writing department and although it was in some respects, it still fell flat.
Despite the shortcomings of the character writing, the mystery itself was well-laid out and I hate to admit that Ayatsuji outsmarted me here. It was very fairplay, so I can't be completely mad about it. I give this book a 4/5 only because I think there was a bit too much delving into supernatural elements and my issues with the character writing. I gave The Decagon House Murders a 5/5 because the characters were really means to an end, while in this book they were set up as something more than that...only to end up being quite flat and boring.
Spoilers regarding a certain character arc below: My gripes are specifically with Yurie's character development. Much of her arc seemed to revolve around her agency, or lack thereof. I expected her to grow out of the "sad, ghostlike girl that walks around the mansion" from the beginning, but there's really no proper resolution for her, when she's been clearly groomed and manipulated.
I wasn't able to add a CW for grooming, so I left it as pedophilia, but Yurie has been groomed by Kiichi and is his wife. Additionally she is leered at by essentially every other man in the novel besides Kiyoshi.