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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★. However, as the advertising says, there is a "plot twist". Or that was the idea of the writer, to include a final plot twist, in the usual sense of the term. Sadly, instead of a plot twist the author ended up just twisting it's own plot. In fact, the plot was twisted so badly that the ending can be confusing (I've read some Japanese reviewers being as confused as I was).
Yes, I get that when reading the book again you will certainly find clues here and there and bla bla bla, but the whole situation is just ridiculous, and I refuse to accept that the rest of the characters (or anyone) would even act so oblivious about it, much more so when being in such a stressful life-or-death situation.
So, given this, ¿what do I do with a 5★ book with a 1★ ending?
(5★+1★)/2 = 3★.