Basic Reason for Beginning: One day I was in the book store and I thought "Let's not just try to branch out of fantasy, but also predominantly western reading!" and I wound up thinking this book sounded interesting. Bought it, then promptly didn't get to it until yesterday where I wanted something slimmish for the train ride.
Basic Reason for Finishing: Mostly the structure actually. It's a fascinating, intricate little thing in ways that I can sort of feel, but not word properly. And the story is pretty interesting too. Like watching a trainwreck in progress.
Texture: Different for each person, but do remember the trainwreck analogy up there.

Full review here

Author Rereadability: I'm not sure. I think I wouldn't say 'no' if another book was ever pushed into my path, but I won't be seeking them out either.
Recommendation: If you like dark, realistic books or a look into a darker side of Tokyo society. Me? I'm still not quite sure why the book doesn't really work for me, so I can't really help. ( )

This book was described as Japanese Feminist Noir, which I imagine is fairly small genre. I’m not too sure about the feminist angle although there were four major female characters, but it was certainly dark enough to qualify as noir.

There was a murder central to the story, but this was not a whodunit as we find this very early in the book. A teenage boy, given the nickname of “The Worm” by the girl who lives next door, kills his mother. The girl next door sees him minutes later and because of this the fate of her and three of her friends becomes entangled with his.

The book moves perspective with each chapter so we see the story parts of the story from each of the four girls and the teenage murderer. Each of the girls has a distinctive personality and their monologues discuss not only the events unfolding, but their personalities and relationships with each other. The parts from the point of view of “The Worm” (a name he bizarrely adopts for himself) are less convincing, perhaps unsurprisingly from a female author.

The overall picture is one of alienated youth, detached not only from older generations but also unable to fully connect with each other. It may be intentional then that I never felt emotionally engaged with any of the characters. I was interested in finding out what happened next, but I never really cared about any of them. ( )

This is the first book I've read by Kirino, but I have Out on my shelf and Grotesque on my wishlist, and I'm really looking forward to reading both.

I wasn't sure what style of book this was when I picked it up (in fact, I didn't even read the cover blurb). The cover looks like it could be horror, and I see people have tagged it as a thriller, but I wouldn't call it either (definitely not horror). It's a book about five teenagers, four girls who are all good friends, and a boy who lives next door to one of them. One day the boy kills his mother and goes on the run, and although none of the girls have ever spoken to him before, they all end up getting involved with his escape in some way. But even though there's a murder and someone's on the run from the cops, it's not a thriller or an adventure. It's more...character studies, almost. Kind of typical literary fiction, really. I really liked it a lot.

I read this in translation, and I'm happy to say that it reads really well in English. (I'm always kind of hesitant because the popularity of all things Japanese these days means a lot of shoddy translation, not just in manga (though that's probably where it's worst), but in novels as well. I tried to read The Ring in English out of curiosity and it was horrible.) ( )

http://absorbedinwords.blogspot.com/2... ( )

Whoa! What a dark and sharp book this is. The translation is brilliant, achieving just the right amount of creepiness so that it's like a car accident- bad, but you just can't help sneaking one look...and another... and another...

Toshi is preparing for cram school one hot summer's day when she hears odd noises from next door. On leaving the house, she sees Worm from next door acting strangely. The next thing she knows is her bike and mobile phone are both gone, her neighbour is dead and Worm is calling all her friends. Somehow they all become involved with the murderer...

This is short (just over 200 pages) but brilliant, getting into the minds of each of the characters. The final chapter will leave you gasping for the next Natsuo Kirino translation! ( )