baatik

Not the best introduction to Japanese mystery

My second completed novel after having passed the N1.

The vocabulary is sorely punishing, almost from start to finish, but definitely more so in some stories than others. The first story『切り裂きジャックを待ちながら』might contain the most difficult vocabulary. There's definitely a lot to be learned here. There were instances of thick dialect, specialized vocabulary about theatre, baseball, etc. and even unfamiliar syntax. It often felt twice or even thrice as difficult as the last novel I read.

Some words a

This was the first novel I read in full in Japanese, even though I'd already passed the N1 and was conversationally fluent. There were still some words I didn't know since I didn't have much experience with novels, but a lot of those words I learned went on to appear in the second novel I read (and elsewhere), so they're all very useful. I feel like this book helped me fill in a lot of the blind spots I had in my knowledge.

Some characters speak with a dialect, but it's easy enough to understan