"Strange Pictures" by Uketsu (tr. Jim Rion)
Ah, the viral green mystery novel that was all over booktwt last year.
What it is: a series of mysteries where the answers are in the pictures.
I really liked the whole schtick with the drawings, but after the first chapter (the one with the blog), it just fell off for me. It was neither a mystery nor a thriller, just an underbaked story that did not live up to its gimmicks. The "interlocking" cases felt forced into place, without sufficient plot logic or emotional build-up to make the "reveal" satisfying. The storytelling style felt like a cross between a Youtube true crime video and a videogame, like it was never meant to be a novel at all. As someone with information processing issues, I found the diagrams and recaps pretty helpful, but it gets to a point, you now? Must we bold every "important detail" like we're in an Ace Attorney dialogue box?
Around half past two, Miura and Toyokawa reached the fourth station rest area and had lunch. Miura ate the Hanayagi Bento from the supermarket. Remember that. It's important.
2/5 because it ended up being a slog for me, especially towards the end where everything was being explained in the dullest way possible. But it could have been a decent page-turner if the author was actually interested in the story as something more than a gamified series of events.