Group Read July 2018 - The Dark Maidens by Rikako Akiyoshi

jburman

Finished reading but not interesting though probably not my style. Would be reading any other detective novel.

Mousetrap

I have mixed feelings about this book, though I liked it. It gets full points for being engrossing, of course. I read it in a few hours, wanting to know how it ends. The whole set-up and the mysterious aura about the club is excellently done. Loved how the story progressed with each girl narrating her own version of events, about their opinion of Itsumi and also the surprise about who Itsumi's real lover was.

There were a lot of things that were too weird. I mean, a mysterious one pot meal sounds damn fun, until you learn that the girls can put inedible objects in it. I mean, a watch, in a pot of cooking meal?? Are the girls batshit crazy or what?

Then the club itself - sure, it's a luxurious place and probably gave access to a lot of books and facilities, but it doesn't sound tempting to me at all. I tried to imagine myself being a student in the school and I couldn't find myself wanting to be a part of the club. Maybe a schoolgirl would think differently.

The other unsettling thing about the story is how, after every girl's story, only Sayuri's reaction is available for the readers. When each girl blames someone else, you'll never get to know how the accused reacts. I don't know about others, but it felt very unsatisfactory to me. The other girls are reduced to lifeless puppets in the actual situation and are alive only in their narrations. Weird, and probably intended to be this way, but didn't work for me.  

The ending was also unbelievable - of the actual escapade, fake blood and everything after that. I think everything was explained and winded up too quickly. It could have been a few pages longer and the suspense revealed slowly for building up the mystery.

On the whole, though, I did enjoy this book. Well-written. It's unique and I'd definitely check out more books by this author.

In a nutshell, it's interesting and surreal, but lacks the finesse of, say, an Agatha Christie mystery.

jhsurti

Agree with most of what @Mousetrap said.
I started to read this with expectation. True, it is in sort of Rashomon-style mystery. It is interesting in parts. The author has done a good job of making sure that the style of narrative changes with each character's story. That must have been hard. As adults we might think some things are quite childish but that is what the characters are. They are school-going girls and the jealousy/envy in that age group is understandable. But there are are parts where it could get a bit boring or you feel you can skip a few pages. The ending left me with some dissatisfaction.
I would rate it as 3/5.

cynic

I don't generally go for the genre and was wondering if that was the reason I did not like the book much. The characters were shallow, and overall the book was too "dark" for me. Perhaps I am not the target audience.

What I did like about the book was the writing and narration style. Full marks to the author for that.

pgalmora

I liked the book but didn't like the climax. The climax, according to me, was unbelievable. The narration and the way the story has been presented was very good.

viksorion

Disappointed.....................
Had a lot of expectations the way ppl have voted for it. Uncooked story, disjointed narrative like the pot. And totally listless unacceptable climax or rather anticlimax.... Pls spare us these things in the future.
This is my opinion of this books