Honobu Yonezawa (米澤穂信), Yonezawa Honobu, born 1978) loved making up stories even as a child and began writing fiction at the age of 14. By the time he got to university he was posting stories on his own website. After graduation he continued writing while working in a bookstore, and first got into print in 2001 when Hyoka (Ice Cream), a YA mystery novel he submitted for the Kadokawa School Novel Prize competition, earned an honorable mention. Sayonara yosei (Farewell, Sprite), a critically acclaimed story of the relationship between Japanese high-school boys and a girl from war-torn Yugoslavia, helped cement his reputation when it was published in 2004. Since then he has been a regular presence on lists of the year's best mysteries. Oreta ryukotsu (Broken Keel) won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Novels in 2011. Though known especially for his distinctive and fresh blending of the tale of youth with the whodunit, Yonezawa has also made forays into science fiction, as with 2006’s Botorunekku (Bottleneck) and 2007’s Inshitemiru (Try Indulging), a sinister "murder game" story. In 2013 he published the novel Rikashiburu (Recursible). He is a leading figure among Japan's younger generation of mystery writers.
I'm not a fan of Honobu Yonezawa, I avoid his popular 'teenage detective manga/novel series' like plague (in my mind, nothing is more ridiculous than a 'detective novel' with no one getting killed), but this short story collection of Mr. Yonezawa: "The Feast of the Illusory Lambs" completely blows me away.
The short stories all revolve around a book club formed by highly educated young women from privileged families...but of course the book club is more than just a group of privileged girls sitting around to read books peacefully, the more you read the more you can tell there's something deeper going on with the club and its members.
Each short story tells a different tale about a club member, and there're a lot of description about those young mistresses and their relationships with their maid servants (mostly of the same age), there're different mysteries in each of the story, and almost all of them are imaginative, frightening, twisted and Gothic to the bone. I equally enjoy how legendary authors such as Poe, Edogawa Rampo, Yumeno Kyūsaku, Stanley Ellin etc are referred in different tales.
Strongly recommend to anyone who enjoys their reading material elegant, dark and Gothic and with highly surprising twists.
A rather strange and truly macabre anthology that sort of draws you in - compact yet effective writing. The stories are united through the Babylon Book Club - good to read in order so that the themes permeate across and conclude at the end.
So this book is all about Psychopath Killer. Yes, Honobu Yonezawa is the author of Hyouka, which is peaceful, but after reading more and more his novel I found him quite like writing about Psychopath. So please be aware this book is not for peace seeker
This is my first time to read works by Honobu Yonezawa. I am usually not a big fan of a short story, but surprise, surprise! These are not bad at all. He successfully created a gothic atmosphere with the story setting and using old-fashioned talking style. Each ending is quite beautiful. I really enjoyed them.