天使の囀り

by Yusuke Kishi, 貴志 祐介, 酒井 和男 (Illustrator)

北島早苗は、終末期医療に携わる精神科医。恋人の高梨は、病的な死恐怖症（タナトフォビア）だったが、新聞社主催のアマゾン調査隊に参加してからは、人格が異様な変容を見せ、あれほど怖れていた『死』に魅せられたように自殺してしまう。さらに、調査隊の他のメンバーも、次々と異常な方法で自殺を遂げていることがわかる。アマゾンでいったい何が起きたのか？　高梨が死の直前に残した「天使の囀りが聞こえる」という言葉は、何を意味するのか？　前人未踏の恐怖が、あなたを襲う。

Genres: Japanese Literature

530 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2000

About the author

He graduated from Kyoto University with a degree in Economics. After working for a life insurance company for several years, Kishi started his writing career as a freelancer. He has twice won the Japan Horror Novel Award, and boasts bestselling status in Japan with multiple works adapted to the screen. The Crimson Labyrinth marks his American debut.

Awards given to his works:
Japan Horror Novel Award 1997 (Black House), Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel 2005 (Glass Hammer), Japan SF Taisho Award 2008 (From the New World), Yamada Futaro Award 2010 (Lesson of the Evil), [Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!] Best Japanese Crime Fiction of the Year 2011 (Lesson of the Evil).

Reviews

[Vel · Rating 4 out of 5]

So. Uh. I usually don't really write reviews but I feel like I should at least do this much after deliberately spamming my friends' feeds with my nonsensical updates for nearly two months straight.

天使の囀り (The Angels' Chirping) by Yusuke Kishi, huh. This sure was a book. It had pages and those pages even had text on them. Without a doubt a work of literature.

This is a read I'm honestly fairly conflicted on. I personally liked this book and had a good time with nearly all of it. However, I'd have a hard time recommending it to people. I have several reasons for that.

One of the most major reasons is the amounts of dry exposition the reader is forced through. This book is obviously the product of some very serious research in several fields of study, and that is very obvious from the get-go. It doesn't shy away from showering the reader with complex lingo and diving into fairly detailed descriptions and explanations of the topic at hand. All of it is written very well and despite the difficulty of the content itself, it is pleasantly and understandably told. However, I found that to work in its detriment as a work of fiction. Despite the information itself being interesting to read, there were chunks of this book where the plot would be COMPLETELY sidelined by expansive sections of exposition which aren't even always *that* relevant to the story or characters. The main reason I kept reading it for so long isn't because it's a chore to read per se, but because the amount of exposition took away a lot of the urgency to find out what's going to happen next, at least for me.

All of that being said, it makes a lot of interesting smaller observations and includes some pretty scathing critique of the political environment it was originally written in as well. The information may be dense and it may break up the plot, but it never felt uninteresting to me. In fact, I found it fairly intriguing more often than not.

The other two reasons why I'd have a hard time recommending it kind of flow into each other. It's a very dark AND a very gross read. The plot starts out bleak, keeps getting bleaker, and when you think you've finally solved the central riddle causing all of the weird events(tm) and believe things couldn't possibly get worse, you're hit with THE most viscerally unpleasant scene in a whole book full of depressing topics and heavy, unsettling imagery. I'm a horror fan and picked this book up for that exact reason, but even with my relatively strong stomach, I found myself feeling kind of sick.

However, I can't help but also feel respect for the way the atmosphere of the story is built up, as well as how the cause behind the events at hand functions. It is clever, it is nasty, it is fascinating, I hate it, thanks!

I'd rather not dive into summarizing what the plot is about as I believe that it's a book best left unspoiled despite how it can be a bit predictable, fundamentally speaking. I think that I'll probably be too scared of Yusuke Kishi's pure INFORMATION POWER to pick up another work of his anytime soon, but even this book alone helped me with getting a decent idea of why he's such a highly-regarded author. I'll probably stick to some lighter reading (in terms of themes, topics of discussion and overall presentation, at least) for some time now, simply because MAN. This book was HEAVY in a lot of ways.

I cannot say I regret spending my time reading 天使の囀り. However, I also cannot say I'm not relieved I finally finished reading it.

[F Gato · Rating 3 out of 5]

科普向的恐怖故事果然最恶心。

[Emi · Rating 4 out of 5]

結構長めの話だけどおもしろくて止まらずあっという間に読んでしまった。
蜘蛛のくだり読んでる時の私の心境→😨😱🤢🤮笑

この本は初読みのはずだから以前似たような話を読んだことある気がするんだけど思い出せなくてモヤモヤしてる。

[Arcanum Canis · Rating 4 out of 5]

ホラーというよりも気持ち悪い！フィクションだが実際の医学知識、実例の社会問題、医療問題も絡めて物語が進行する。そのため不気味なくらい現実味を帯びていて、ジワジワくる。登場人物である高梨の言葉使いがどこか無機質的でそのそっけない文調も不気味さを引き立てている。
天使の正体が判明した物語後半から一気に展開のスピードが上がり、無我夢中で読める。

[Angel 一匹狼 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yusuke Kishi is on of the best horror/mystery writers that you can read nowadays, one of the best that has come from the 90s/00s Japanese generation. After "黒い家" (The Black House), I got another another one of his books, "天使の囀り"(Chirping of Angels), and, oh, was I in for a ride.

It starts quite relaxing. There is this writer, who was quite popular, but not anymore, who has decided to join a group that is going to the Amazon for some kind of research. He then sends mails to his girlfriend, Sanae, who is a psychiatrist working on a hospital in Japan, with terminal patients of AIDS. One of the last mails makes some reference to some problems with the natives and then, suddenly, he is back to Japan. But he doesn't seem to be the same person who left...

The best writers, in my opinion, are not the ones that use the most beautiful words or construct the best sentences, but those who can read human minds, who understand what makes us tick and how we interact with each other, and what our desires (specially the hidden ones) are. And Kishi is very good at that. His characters are well fleshed out, their motivations clear, and they are not perfect heroes, but people with their inner problems. He has a grip on what makes us be what we are, and he plays wonderfully with our fears.

Here he does it again, but changing to a female protagonist, from the male centered ones from him that I have read before. He does an amazing job again, and Sanae is a wonderful partner on our descent to madness, fear, and danger. The only other character that has his own space, in the middle section of the novel, is interesting too, and shows how a part of the Japanese young males see the world in these modern times. Shinichi could, probably, be taken out and the novel wouldn't suffer, but we don't regret his apparition.

The beginning of the novel, after Sanae's boyfriend comes back to Japan is the best part. Sanae knows something is wrong, but she doesn't know what can be, and why. She starts getting news from the other members of the expedition, and her fear and suspicion grows. All so while the boyfriend seems oblivious to any problem in him.

This wonderful start is difficult to keep and the pace and fun goes down a notch as the novel advances, around the middle. That doesn't mean it becomes boring, just that the amazing start couldn't be kept by Kishi throughout the novel. It still allows him for some nice twists, gruesome moments, and armchair gripping moments.

Another very interesting and thrilling read by Yusuke Kishi. Totally recommended.

7

[Meow Meow · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story starts off with an expedition to the Amazon rainforest but after the members return to Japan, they started hearing chirping from angels and eventually committed suicide one by one in various strange ways. The story reminds me of works by Michael Crichton, bending real science to the extreme, but Crichton had a way better control of tempo. This book is way way way too long with a lot of unnecessary passages and boring lulls. Sometimes, it even goes into diatribe against the incompetence of the Japanese government or Japanese social mores. The book clearly shows that the author did a lot of research and didn’t want to waste any of that so any interesting findings got stuffed into it but a lot of those tidbits are not really relevant to the story.

Some of the key moments in the plot also don’t make any sense. For example, the expedition team didn’t take any indigenous people with them in one of their field trips even though there were indigenous guide at the base camp! Had there been indigenous guide accompanying them, the rest of the book would not happen. At another point, the MC took a bottle of nail polish remover out of her Hermes handbag! Who would regularly carry a bottle of solvent around that can damage a fucking HERMES?! Or like why would a doctor and a parasite expert would go near and even touch heavily infected bodies without any gloves or protective gears? The main culprit is basically a parasite that makes primates happy and drawn toward what they fear the most, which basically Is similar to the common parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, in cats and mice, with the same species interaction, which the book, of course, does not mention 🙄 and somehow the parasite expert uses another obscure example instead to explain inter-species interaction with parasites and the only saving grace is that this book says the parasite works by affecting the host’s brain, which is also how Toxoplasma gondii works on mice, but in a more visually grotesque way, but that discovery wasn’t published until 2013, 10 years after this book was published. Overall, I think this book’s premise is interesting but the execution was just poorly done. I really don’t understand why this book has got so many positive reviews at all. By the last 150 pages, I eventually started just scanning the pages to get the key points, and only slowed down when there is actual plot going on.

[Guts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts off pretty slow and it keeps you guessing on which direction it's going to go between occult-based or science-based. I'm glad it went with the latter. The parasite aspect, though I'm not sure how accurate the science in the book is, makes it really scary since it can be anywhere, in the food or drink you consume. And that was the point, imo, and what makes the book scary. There are parts that are gory and many graphic deaths but that's not even as scary as the imagination this book leaves you with. I honestly picked the book randomly, not knowing that it was by Kishi Yusuke though I'm glad I read it.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

人生也只有在读完一本书没人可以讨论的时候感觉到些许寂寞【别的时候都一个人玩得很快乐
印象最深的反而不是大浴池一幕而是这个抖M的死法【虽然人类的性癖是自由的但是我还是建议你去看一下医生.jpg
就 你不得不承认 还是蛮涩的（喂

文本来说就一般吧 最有“文学性”的应该是开头的电子邮件 因为是写邮件的人是作家 所以语言有雕琢 故事来说 最喜欢逻辑上的死局 事情的开端纯属意外 没有任何阴谋诡计 也不是有人有意想毁灭世界 做了最大的恶的人也只是被寄生虫的天然存在目的影响了罢了 不是任何人的错 只是觉得死去的人很可怜 节奏上来说 因为看之前就被剧透了最大的谜底 前期温吞水的文风蛮适合体会情景的 中后半略显仓促但感觉更引人入胜 好奇故事会发展到什么地步

一开始是在微博上看到澳洲一女子脑内有8厘米长的寄生虫 评论里有人提到《天使的呢喃》随手搜一搜居然还和血源互文 图书馆里还刚好就有 这不看还是人吗？
刚看完其实也就那样 但之后去吃饭属实觉得有点恶心了 妈妈我再也不敢吃生肉了😭
很喜欢o(*////▽////*)q 可能会看一看漫画 但一定会看其他的贵志佑介的书

很久没看小说书了 读中文书真是飞快 我甚至都没有拿整段的时间出来看书 就地铁上看看一周也看完了 这一周还上了班爬了墙 除了一直在生病影响了很多正事 玩的事倒是没耽误
啊做人还是要多读书

读这本书的时候一直在听ice paper的“庄周梦蝶” 去年单曲循环这首歌时天也不亮就去搭大巴潜水的日子又复现在了脑海里

我把这首歌送给你
连同我暗夜行路时的疲惫和不安 照着雨天里从残影中走过的霓虹灯
晚安💈

[Elaine L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It is interesting. But this kind of motif and writing style is not my cup of tea. 寄生蟲寄生於大腦造成類似毒品使用的迷幻效果, 題材挺有趣，但我不喜歡如此重口味的人心變化, 細節刻畫與其驚悚效果。

[Yu Jie · Rating 3 out of 5]

因為一連串的連續自殺事件，在北島早苗鍥而不捨地追查下，發現這是從亞馬遜河流域的禿猴身上的寄生蟲—巴西腦線蟲所引發的。

為了找出病源，中間有非常多專業且生硬的名詞解釋，而寄生線蟲使寄主自殺或身體變化的結果都相當噁心，過於重口味不是我喜歡的類型，快轉翻閱過。

[Asuka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Knowing that it was horror, it went in the direction I didn’t expect at all. But it’s creative, intriguing, and engaging. What a satisfying page turner.

[Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

原因不難猜，推理的成分不多，但劇情緊湊引人一頁一頁翻下去!!

[Johnny Yoshida · Rating 3 out of 5]

最初の半分の方がよかったと思いました。
それからストーリーがホラーよりもSFみたいな感じになって難しい専門用語も多かったので
少し読みづらかった。
スッキリした結論ではないけど、まぁなんでそんな風に終わってしまったのが何となく納得がいきました。
「死」と「恐怖」について色々考えさせれる小説です。

[Yeny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chinese edition