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(2.25/5)The only thing stopping me from giving this a one star rating is that I only give that to truly horrible things. That said, this book was tedious and annoying if if I hadn't been reading it with the book club I would have dropped it long before the end.
Difficulty wise it has some old fashioned kanji variants, some unusual names, and the dialogue is awful. My biggest trouble getting through this book was not the difficulty of the language but how much of a drag it was to read. I simply stopped caring at some point. The protagonist repeatedly explains everything to you. Obvious things. Things he has explained before. There is an art to leaving things unsaid which is dearly missed here.
Minor call outs for incest (cousins) and questionable treatment of a relationship between a minor (16ish) and an adult (25ish). It doesn't go deep into these relationships at all, but they definitely raised eyebrows in the book club, especially given how they were handled by surrounding characters.
A Time Loop Mystery
七回死んだ男's protagonist can, occasionally, relive a single day 9 times. This comes in handy when, while celebrating New Years with his extended family, his grandfather is found dead. The motives are abundant: grandpa was rich and had no heir, and the family's dysfunctional. The suspects are numerous: grandpa had three daughters, two of which had families. Toss in household servants and business employees, and you have quite a few names to keep in mind. (Thankfully, due to the repeating structure of the narrative, you'll have plenty of exposure to those names as the day progresses (and progresses, and progresses).) Can our hero figure out who keeps killing grandpa before his time loops run out?
Unfortunately, I didn't feel that this book quite lived up to its potential, mainly because I wasn't impressed with how the author wrote the book and executed some of his plot points. He also has a tendency to be rather long-winded, repeating facts over and over that we covered in previous chapters or, in many cases, the same chapter. This is a pretty decent set-up for learners who may need to lean on the repeats while they sort everything out, but for a reader with some experience under their belt, it can quickly become tedious.
Character conversations tend be quite casual, while the narrator tends to be overly formal, leading to a strange mish-mash of speaking styles that can be a bit jarring. There were a few times when I just couldn't follow how the character was responding to another's thoughts, and just moved on. Thankfully, you're not likely going to miss anything if this happens, mainly due to the repetitive writing style.
Vocabulary and grammar weren't anything special; grammar in particular probably didn't dip much into N2. There were some kanji variants used instead of what you might typically see, but once you got them down they were pretty predictable.
This book felt like a decent one for mystery newbies who like the concept of the book and don't mind a sometimes dragged-out narrative. The family dynamics may not be everyone's cup of tea (there's quite a few kissing cousins here), and the mystery isn't the most tightly-plotted it could have been, so ultimately your enjoyment will hinge on how well you tolerate the author's writing style.