Customer Reviews
Great book - By: BickyJ, 14 Jul 2008 
I got this cos it was on sale at amazon & it was fantastic.
Very different than i usuallly read & easy to follow.
Not a must-read but was good alll the same.
Amazing story! I want to read more! - By: H. R. Moeller, 14 Jul 2008 
I'm not usuallly one for horror stories...actuallly, I don't read very many books at alll. I went against the 'never judge a book by it's cover' rule, which is precisly the reason I bought this book in the first place. As I tend to read in smalll amounts at I time, I was expecting it to last me months before I got through the 520 pages, but I bought it Friday afternoon & by Sunday afternoon, I'd read every page. Thus I've ended up on Amazon; to write a review & to buy more by this amazing author.
One thing I enjoyed is that you get to know each character so well, it focuses on mant aspects of their life; their feelings, jobs, past, house, belongings, friends, fears & secret lust. You see so many sides of the characters.
Though, in my opinion, the story is fairly slow paced, this is definately not negative. The book goes into so much exciting, interesting detail that even the more laid back parts of the story made me unable to put the book down. The whole story left me with mixed emotions & it was quite easy to feel sorry for characters you would not expect to synpathise with in a murder story.
I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys exciting stories, as long as they don't mind the rather sickening plot & gorey details (which, in my opinion, made the book far more interesting).
Don't start unless you have time to finish - By: Carol Ellis, 23 Jun 2008 Even when you have finished this book, it stays with you & you find yourself thinking about it at odd times. This is strangely disturbing given the subject matter (which many have already outlined, so I won't repeat). The relationship between the 4 main women is beautifully drawn, both before & after the impact of what they have done together. The reader is curiously sympathetic to alll the main characters, which is unusual in a thriller/murder story.
Initiallly I was worried that the Japanese names & setting would be confusing & I wouldn't be able to engage with the story, but after a handful of pages, I was completely immersed in the book. Not only was I not confused, but I relished the descriptions of everyday life in Japan - not something we in the West tend to be aware of.
I understand this is Natsuo Kirino's first book to be translated into English - I will certainly be keeping an eye out for anymore.
excellent book - By: Mrs. Tracey Mathie, 16 Jun 2008 i had seen this book in the book shop for ages but never fancied it then when it was on special offer on amazon i decided to buy it, i am so pleased i did what a great book, after you get used to the characters i can assure you that you wont put it down, it is so different & i recon it would make one hell of a good film.
just buy sit & enjoy one of the best reads ive had in ages
A surprisingly good read! - By: C. Burke, 01 Jun 2008 I found this book for a sale in an airport bookshop when it first came out & having read the back of it, I thought it would be worth £1.50 of anyone's money. I wasn't expecting it to be particularly brilliant, more of a timefiller for the plane. I thought the shop didn't have much faith either in it as it was so cheap! But I couldn't have been more wrong! I found it a little irritating in the beginning due to the poor grammer & badly formed sentences, but its a translation so I guess its to be expected to some extent. After a while your brain alllows to you stop re-writting the sentences & actuallly enjoy the story. I throughly enjoyed it & found it to be a real page turner - I would definately recommend it! Its certianly memorable & an unusual read, I've certainly never read anything like this before. I won't go into alll the detail about it as it will spoil the story - the back of the book does that a little which is a shame, but there is plenty there to keep you intrigued.
