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奇譚ルーム
「都会のトム＆ソーヤ」シリーズや「名探偵夢水清志郎」シリーズ（いずれも講談社）のベストセラー作家、はやみねかおるがヤングアダルト向けに書き下ろしたミステリー。SNSの仮想空間「ルーム」で繰り広げられる殺人ゲームの行方は？
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 21, 2022
Ah I love closed-room mysteries with unexpected endings.
September 21, 2022
My first proper book in Japanese!
Quite enjoyed it, good intrigue throughout even if the structure can be challenging with lots of sub-stories through the main plot. Decent twist at the end and overall pretty accessible for what actually had a lot of varied vocab.
Worth a read :)
Quite enjoyed it, good intrigue throughout even if the structure can be challenging with lots of sub-stories through the main plot. Decent twist at the end and overall pretty accessible for what actually had a lot of varied vocab.
Worth a read :)
December 31, 2022
the first novel I’ve ever read entirely in Korean! Bc even though I was born there I’m very embarrassed to admit that my knowledge of the language is not optimal haha.
I knowingly picked a book that I hoped would hook me right away and I was definitely not disappointed: even though the book did drag for me at a couple of places (especially when the characters were telling their kidams, like no wonder they got killed lol), this novel still kept me interested enough to get through it!
Idk how to rate this because honestly, I’m pretty sure I didn’t understand the ending and other stuff solely bc of my mediocre Korean and that’s not the book’s fault ig???
Overall, pretty fun and extra points bc I didn’t just abandon it at some point like I did with all the other Korean books I’ve read over the years haha.
I knowingly picked a book that I hoped would hook me right away and I was definitely not disappointed: even though the book did drag for me at a couple of places (especially when the characters were telling their kidams, like no wonder they got killed lol), this novel still kept me interested enough to get through it!
Idk how to rate this because honestly, I’m pretty sure I didn’t understand the ending and other stuff solely bc of my mediocre Korean and that’s not the book’s fault ig???
Overall, pretty fun and extra points bc I didn’t just abandon it at some point like I did with all the other Korean books I’ve read over the years haha.
October 21, 2024
Even though it was inadvertent, this was a great pick for a somewhat spooky October read. The premise is simple, 10 characters are invited to a VR Chat style room to tell weird stories. The book explains a 奇譚 as being a strange or fantastical story (Twilight Zone episodes are probably the closest frame of reference), not necessarily a mystery though many of them are, and the broader framing story is a classic style whodunnit, but there's a murderer in the room and if the murderer doesn't like a story, you're dead!
I was pretty engaged with the broader framing story from the get-go and all of the stories the characters tell were pretty absorbing too. Even the first two which are deliberately sort of hacky and tropey on purpose to facilitate a Stephen King's Misery-eque discussion on writing between the characters were still pretty intruiging and fun, but they really start to pop off even more after those first two. Some of the tales are just something weird that turns into a strange scenario, other stories have a more "real-world" explanation that allows the detective character to do a really classic, Sherlock Holmes style explainer of what went down, and they're all fun with great variety.
The reading level was perfect in terms of something I could immerse myself in and enjoy, but still be challenged by. I actually knew most of the words most of the time, though each story has some jargony words pertaining to the theme of the story (and even the profession of the storyteller). It was probably my smoothest experience reading a Japanese author I hadn't read before so clearly something's sticking. Some of the more medical or scientific words were things I'd never heard of in English, but the book does a good job defining the really out-there terms. The grammar is all pretty simple, standard stuff but since so much of the book is about the logic of picking apart the stories and clues, the sentences do have a rather rigid structure you need to be able to follow to understand the line of reasoning. I think that's the best aspect of this book for learners. The individual grammar points aren't hard, but there were a lot of times where I almost went to run a sentence through Google Translate or DeepL but went "hang on, let's try that again slowly" only to realize that I could indeed figure out what was being said. A few bits involving set phrases did stump me, but everything important was pretty easy to get so long as I took it slowly. Each story at the font size I used was about 30 pages and this was a perfect "one chapter a night book" with each tale being long enough to be interesting, but not so long I started to feel fatigue.
As far as the actual mysteries, the book is fantastic. I had about two pages of notes and while I didn't guess exactly what was going on or the exact motives (I never just sat and locked in a "this is my final answer and I'm not changing it), I did, at various points, correctly guess who was involved and what was important (though my suspicion shifted all over the place). I think if I had nailed everything perfectly it wouldn't have been satisfying since there'd be no surprise. There are one or two things that I may have overlooked but by and large I felt rewarded that the things I made note of were worth making note of and played a part in the true solution which is part of what made this book so much fun.
It's a tricky book, but in a good approachable way, and I enjoyed reading about some of the influences in the author's afterword (I gotta read some Ranpo sometime but I'm scared there'll be difficult archaic Japanese). There's a sequel out to this that's weirdly not available as an eBook at the moment, so perhaps that'll be my first stab at reading a print book because I really do want to read more of these. I think I just want more thinky whodunnits in general regardless of language. Maybe I'll finally get around to Poirot which I've meant to do since seeing A Haunting in Venice.
I was pretty engaged with the broader framing story from the get-go and all of the stories the characters tell were pretty absorbing too. Even the first two which are deliberately sort of hacky and tropey on purpose to facilitate a Stephen King's Misery-eque discussion on writing between the characters were still pretty intruiging and fun, but they really start to pop off even more after those first two. Some of the tales are just something weird that turns into a strange scenario, other stories have a more "real-world" explanation that allows the detective character to do a really classic, Sherlock Holmes style explainer of what went down, and they're all fun with great variety.
The reading level was perfect in terms of something I could immerse myself in and enjoy, but still be challenged by. I actually knew most of the words most of the time, though each story has some jargony words pertaining to the theme of the story (and even the profession of the storyteller). It was probably my smoothest experience reading a Japanese author I hadn't read before so clearly something's sticking. Some of the more medical or scientific words were things I'd never heard of in English, but the book does a good job defining the really out-there terms. The grammar is all pretty simple, standard stuff but since so much of the book is about the logic of picking apart the stories and clues, the sentences do have a rather rigid structure you need to be able to follow to understand the line of reasoning. I think that's the best aspect of this book for learners. The individual grammar points aren't hard, but there were a lot of times where I almost went to run a sentence through Google Translate or DeepL but went "hang on, let's try that again slowly" only to realize that I could indeed figure out what was being said. A few bits involving set phrases did stump me, but everything important was pretty easy to get so long as I took it slowly. Each story at the font size I used was about 30 pages and this was a perfect "one chapter a night book" with each tale being long enough to be interesting, but not so long I started to feel fatigue.
As far as the actual mysteries, the book is fantastic. I had about two pages of notes and while I didn't guess exactly what was going on or the exact motives (I never just sat and locked in a "this is my final answer and I'm not changing it), I did, at various points, correctly guess who was involved and what was important (though my suspicion shifted all over the place). I think if I had nailed everything perfectly it wouldn't have been satisfying since there'd be no surprise. There are one or two things that I may have overlooked but by and large I felt rewarded that the things I made note of were worth making note of and played a part in the true solution which is part of what made this book so much fun.
It's a tricky book, but in a good approachable way, and I enjoyed reading about some of the influences in the author's afterword (I gotta read some Ranpo sometime but I'm scared there'll be difficult archaic Japanese). There's a sequel out to this that's weirdly not available as an eBook at the moment, so perhaps that'll be my first stab at reading a print book because I really do want to read more of these. I think I just want more thinky whodunnits in general regardless of language. Maybe I'll finally get around to Poirot which I've meant to do since seeing A Haunting in Venice.
October 2, 2026
I finally finished reading a book fully in Japanese! Took me almost a year but I finally did it! As my first book, this is pretty beginner-friendly I would say. The grammar isn't too complicated, but I still learned a lot of vocabularies. The plot is easy enough to follow and I do love mysteries! I didn't expect the twist and the OTHER twist that came after. The hints are laid out from the start but I never once suspected!?? I'm so happy I persevered through every kanji in this book, even if I was super slow.
July 25, 2026
A very interesting concept and a pretty good execution as well tbh. The concept of telling mystery stories to a group of people in order to interest an omnipresent host in order to not be killed off is definitely a first. The concept didn't get boring over the time I read this book but it was a bit of a shame with a cop out of an ending. It wasn't bad by any means but just a bit unbelievable. That being said I don't know what else I expected from this book lol.
December 10, 2024
Fun premise but pretty unremarkable for me as a reading experience. I think the final twist is kind of cheap, but also the book wouldn't really work without it. I think I would have preferred if they played the premise straight.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews