Riku Onda

In the 1960s 17 people die of cyanide poisoning at a large party at the Aosawas, owners of a prominent clinic in an ancient castle city on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The only survivor is their teenage daughter Hisako, blind, beautiful, admired by all, but soon suspected of masterminding the crime.

The Aosawa Murders

Eva Ströberg

I find Japanese literature is very interesting and this book is no exception.

The main story about this book is about the Aosawa murders, where a (nearly) whole family wiped out in death by poisoning at a birthday party. But who did it? Was it the housekeeper who survived the poisoning because she only sipped her drink because the phone was ringing? Was it the blind teenage daughter who enchanted the community with her voice and the beauty, because she simply didn't touch the drink? Was it really the guy who delivered the poisoned sake and the soda pretending that they were gifts from the family friends?

This book is about perspective. Every chapter is about a different witness/person involved in the murder case, who was interviewed by someone (presumably the author). They experienced the incident in different perspectives as it's like in real life.

In the end, I'm still not sure who did it, because everyone has their own version, and that's what I like/dislike about this book. We might never know about the world's mysteries, isn't it always like that, and at the same time, I would like to have a closure with an ending I could live with :)

jess

Initially, it began and ended with chills down my spines. However, after a prolong thought about this, the sense of lackness in quality and description annoys me. Then I come to a conclusion that the lack of proper details are what makes it engrossing yet horrifying. The story, brilliantly translated by Watts, is patched together from scraps of rambling, deeply personal interviews, excerpts from a novel about the crimes, a confessional letter and crisp newspaper reports. We get close to a dozen different perspectives on the crimes, from the faintly resentful reminiscences of the Aosawa housekeeper’s daughter, to the lyrical musings of one of Hisako’s childhood acquaintances who was obsessed with the enigmatic girl and later wrote a fictional account of the case. Early in the novel, she tells her unnamed interlocutor: “Walking around the city, as we are now, is like a synaptic experience — it’s all connected but separate. There’s no center anywhere, only a series of loosely linked neighborhoods. You could walk and walk and never feel like there’s any end to it.” There is no better way to describe this strange, engrossing novel. Ms. Onda, Riku’s novel—part psychological thriller, part murder mystery—is audacious in conception and brilliant in execution. Maybe my interests incline to plot twists and shocking declaration, like Keigo Higashino's. Nevertheless, it did put me in toes when reading it, so it is OK i guess.

marisa calegari

** spoiler alert **
           This book will leave you still looking for answers and clues by the end, but is still a fun read. 

SPOILERS 

Thoughts:
-I wish that if there were more significance to the mother’s prayer room or her relationship with her daughter -as it seems to be implied at the ending- that it were mentioned more throughout the novel. I felt a bit like that came out of nowhere but maybe that’s the point.

-My interpretation of the “third eye” was that the young man saw himself as Hisako’s literal “third eye”, since her two eyes could not see.

-I’m still confused about the fireworks part, I thought the implication was Hisako egged the children on into setting the bookstore on fire, but the timelines don’t seem to match up.

Amy Maddess

shellybn

It took me a couple of chapters to get used to the narrative style. The story is told as a series of conversations with people who were witnesses or involved with the original investigation of the poisoning of a family and several guests at a party. Each chapter, which is a discussion with another person, reveals more information and clues to the background story. Through it all, the hot humid weather is almost a character itself. The resolution is interesting, and I'm not sure I grasped all of the subtleties. I will be thinking about this book for quite awhile.

Amber Laha

Interesting way of telling the mystery but dragged and was boring. Also, the who done it was pretty obvious but the why never was made clear and made all the tedious work of reading this completely pointless

Beck Krystal

On a stormy summer day the Aosawas, owners of a prominent local hospital, host a large birthday party. The occasion turns into tragedy when 17 people die from cyanide in their drinks. The only surviving links to what might have happened are a cryptic verse that could be the killer's, and the physician's bewitching blind daughter, Hisako, the only person spared injury. But the youth who emerges as the prime suspect commits suicide that October, effectively sealing his guilt while consigning his motives to mystery. The police are convinced that Hisako had a role in the crime, as are many in the town, including the author of a bestselling book about the murders written a decade after the incident, who was herself a childhood friend of Hisako’ and witness to the discovery of the murders. The truth is revealed through a skilful juggling of testimony by different voices: family members, witnesses and neighbours, police investigators and of course the mesmerizing Hisako herself.

The Aosawa Murders

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