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(4.67/5)This book is easier than others in the series
Student teacher Hirose is doing a session of practice teaching at his former high school, under the guidance of his former chemistry teacher. There is a strange student, Takasato, who is ostracized by his fellow students because he is rumored to have the power to curse people. Takasato was “spirited away”（神隠し） for a year during childhood and since his return, people who harmed him have been mysteriously injured, or even died. Hirose, who has struggled with feelings of alienation himself, comes to feel a kinship with this strange boy Takasato. But the mysterious occurrences are continuing to escalate in frequency and severity.
This story is very different from the others in the series. Apparently it was written first, as a horror/mystery novel and released by a different publisher than the others. Some of the concepts and a major character were included when the rest of the series was written.
I saw comments about whether to read this before or after book 2, 風の海 迷宮の岸。I read it before book 2, but I think it’s also worth asking if this should be read before book 1, 月の影 影の海 (vol 1). Since I had already read book 1, I had some spoilers for things that were probably meant to be mysterious. And I think I read it with the wrong perspective; the character who will appear later in the series is not the protagonist of this book, and I think I paid too much attention to him instead of focusing on the experiences and mental state of the actual main character here. In that sense, this book might have been more enjoyable if I’d read it as the very first. However, I generally like fantasy more than horror and modern settings, so 月の影 影の海 was probably more effective at drawing me into the series as a whole.
It's easier than others in the series. The main reason is the setting. Since this story is set in a 1990s high school, the core vocabulary has a lot of overlap with the school-setting words we learn in textbooks, JLPT materials, and the children’s books most of us start reading with. The range of topics and settings is lower than the other volumes, and there are very few specialty fantasy words or names to get used to. I don’t think there’s a significant difference in the writing style from grammar and use of synonyms for variety, but the modern school setting definitely made this feel easier to read. I'd estimate this book feels about 2 or 3 grading levels easier than volume 1, 月の影 影の海.
Kept me glued to Audible for two days; I'm a bit traumatized but loved it
I'll preface this by saying that I watched the anime many years ago and I really didn't expect the prologue "episode 0" kind of book to answer the question that stayed with me for years after.
Why audiobook
I don't read physical books and there is no digital version so I've picked this as audiobook to listen to while I'm sick and boy did I stay glued to it for two days until I finished it.
Language
The poem narrated in the beginning begged a google lookup as couldn't parse it at all, but otherwise the vocabulary is relatively common (school-related) and the main character is not familiar with the fantasy terms from the rest of the series so whatever comes up is chewed on and dissected for meaning, which helps a lot. I had to look up some vocabulary anyway (some phrases for emotion expression and some more complicated terms from the association game), so the level is probably accurate.
Audiobook as a great way to misunderstand together with the characters
Listening to it made some things even better - when a certain someone in the books says "Do you know ki?" and despite knowing the main story plot I still internally went "Do you know tree 木?" - I could really see how any why a verbal conversation about something you're not familiar with would be extra hard in Japanese.
Plot (and what's good about it)
The story follows a student teacher coming to a school where a kid (second year of high school) that is rumored to be cursed is trying to live a quiet peaceful life as detached from the world as he possibly can. The world is not kind enough to let him. The entire book feels like a 3rd person POV that you'd love to get a glimpse of while reading any book.
It had the best parts of other Ono Fuyumi series called "Ghost Hunt" in that regard: you've got a character that doesn't have the information needed to know what's going on, but he observes and comes to conclusions from what he sees. As the story progresses, his theories and conclusions get closer and closer to the actual state of things, making it a worthwhile journey.
It is also similar in the way the tension in the book keeps growing and things escalate in response. Thanks to that it really managed to keep me on the edge of the seat asking myself "what now?!" and "but.. what now??" in circles.