Specs
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(3.62/5)Content warnings: Murder, suicide
General plot: A group of people go to an island where it is prophesied that 6 people will die on a certain date.
Language learning: There is a LOT of dialectical speech in this book and also a pretty wide stretch of vocabulary. Perhaps if you, for some reason or another, are already quite familiar with the dialects in use, the rating will kick down a notch or two for you - but for the average learner who is mostly reading and hearing Tokyo Japanese
This book is advertised as immediately needing a second reading the moment you finish, and it is in fact true: the end will make you want to go back and find all the little hints you missed, and all the little hints you caught but dismissed. Unless you feel a bit cheated by the ending, like I did - which is why the book is 4 stars instead of 5.
Because otherwise it was a really good read. For the whole duration of the book, I wasn't sure whether it was a mystery or horror book I was reading, bu
方言の島 - A good book ruined by it's ending.
So, after reading the other reviews, I get why this book is not easy to rate. Let's start with the language. The book is probably a solid L34 vocabulary wise, but I certainly get why it is L37 at the time of writing this review. The Kansai dialect is omnipresent, and it can be confusing if you are not familiar with it.
Now, as for the content… well, I think the book was engaging almost from the start. In fact, if we exclude the last 30 pages or so, I would have given the book a generous 5★. Ho