Another novel who is the dead one

Readers who truly love books are hungry for a range of perspectives. We are seeing more brilliant fiction in translation. One of the best novelists working in the world today, Elena Ferrante, being a prime example. Last month I took part in a Zoom discussion panel organised by her publisher to celebrate her new novel, The Lying Life of Adults. In the righthand box on my screen, readers from all over the world greeted one another, brought together by their admiration for this author.

But men read and admire her too, and were keen to stress that fact. So on the one hand, you have these wonderful, inclusive experiences, where readers feel genuine joy at the increasing range of fiction that is on offer, and continue to agitate for more, and you have columns lamenting the rise of identity politics, when really what they are lamenting is the rise of a writer who is not like them. Is the novel dead, or is the kind of novel that you like simply not getting the attention it once did?

This article is more than 1 year old. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. However, after seeing Mei she becomes frightened and runs in the other direction.

She trips down the stairs and her neck is skewered by the aforementioned spear-like umbrella. Kouichi meets her again in the doll store, where she warns him to be careful since "it" has started and disappears mysteriously soon after. But in Episode 5 , it is revealed that Mei really exists when Kouichi finds the class roster along with a sheet of paper written "Ask Mei Misaki about it" in it. Kouichi visits the doll store once again and Mei takes him up to her apartment through an elevator hidden behind a curtain.

She asked Kouichi if he suspected her of being a ghost. Mei assures him she is alive and is positive she has not died. Since, "it" has started again, Mei tells him everything about the class curse, unknown reasons of the deaths, and the prevention measures of the class.

Kouichi and Mei's relationship continues to develop to the point that he frequently comes to Mei's apartment and on one such occasion, he meets Kirika , Mei's mom, who she says only treats her like the other dolls in her house. Later on, she tells Kouichi that she will be going on a vacation to her beach house with her parents, so she won't be back for a week.

When the others go to find information on the curse from a worker at a hotel by the beach named Katsumi Matsunaga , Kouichi meets Mei there and they talk about her family. Mei tells him that her father doesn't come to Japan often and that they aren't really close, despite them being a family.

While they talk, their hands touch as they build a sand castle, a seemingly unimportant part of the story, but this detail shows how Mei and Kouichi's relationship is progressing. After, it is decided there should be a contest to see who can catch the most ingredients to make lunch, Mei shows Kouichi a starfish and a pufferfish, but he tells her that they aren't edible until she finds an octopus, which latches onto her.

This scares her and she tells Kouichi to get it off of her. They look at their findings and show them to Reiko , who, after a long deliberation, declares a draw. Matsunaga later finds them, but tells them that he can't remember anything except for someone possibly dying in the mountains on the class trip to the shrine.

Suddenly, a strong breeze comes and blows a beach ball out far into the ocean. Junta Nakao says he will go get it, swimming out to retrieve the lost plastic item. But when the ball appears just to be within reach, he stops moving, just floating out in the ocean. Kouichi and Matsunaga swim out to save him, only to witness his body being sliced by an oncoming motorboat.

Mei stands by Izumi Akazawa on the beach in shock. In Episode 9 , Mei is walking along with Kouichi behind Tatsuji Chibiki who asks them about the behaviour of Nakao the day he died. Kouichi and the others mention that he was suffering from car sickness, and that he was unable to swim straight when retrieving the beach ball. After Chibiki clarifies them that the reason why Nakao died had originated in Yomiyama itself, they leave.

Later on, when Kouichi along with Naoya Teshigawara enter the art club to search for a clue Matsunaga mentioned, they find Mei painting. Yuuya Mochizuki comes hurriedly into the club room which prompts her to ask them why they all were there.

Finally, the trio answers her and she tags along with them. They reach the floor of the abandoned 9th-grade classrooms. They reach the class 3 section of the hall and search for the clue Matsunaga had left during his class of While gossiping with each other, Mei tries to open a window to get fresh air.

As a result, a big fragment of glass almost falls on her, but Kouichi grabs her before she is impaled by a shard of glass. Kouichi finds the tape, and the group goes to the AV room to find a tape recorder.

In Episode 10 , Mei invites Kouichi into her room at the inn they are staying at during the school trip to the shrine in the mountains to see the graduation photo where Yomiyama Misaki appeared. She tells Kouichi about how she can see things that should remain unseen, stating that she can distinguish the color of death by uncovering her left eye and determine whether something is alive or dead.

She also says that the color of death is different from any color that she has ever seen, stating that it does not belong with colors such as red or blue. Kouichi asks who the dead one is. But when Mei is about to tell him who the dead person is, Teshigawara bursts into the room, interrupting, them, saying that he has done something terrible.

In Episode 11 , Teshigawara admits to Kouichi and Mei that he thinks he might have killed Kazami by accidentally pushing him off the balcony while they were fighting. Kouichi tells Mei and Teshigawara to go check and see if he is still alive. When they reach the hall, Kouichi noticed the something odd about the dining room door and walks toward it. He finds Manabu Maejima , who was badly injured and discovers that the dining room is on fire with the manager dead inside. They hear Takako's scream and go up to her room to rescue her.

Takako was gone and later appears with a knife, trying to kill Mei. Kouichi protects her and Takako flees the scene. She plays the tape over the intercom and tells the students that Mei Misaki is the dead one. This prompts everyone into going on a manhunt to find Mei, forcing Kouichi to protect her. They are pursued by the class, and they tried to escape through the window when Yumi Ogura found them. Yumi follows Mei and Kouichi out the window. She slashes at Mei but Kouichi pulls her out of the way; Yumi slips and falls off of the window sill and falls to her death.

In the last episode, Takako appears again with her knife, ready to kill Mei, believing she will free her remaining classmates from the curse. Takako stabs Kouichi and charges towards Mei, attempting to kill her. Mei dodges Takako's attack, causing her to become entangled in loose wiring connected to the ceiling. Takako's violent struggle to free herself causes the wires to pull on a loose support beam, which ripped through the wires and pulled Takako up, and strangling her to death.

Mei is shocked when Takako is hung up in front of her. Izumi arrives, witnessing the scene and assumes that Misaki had killed her, since she was holding her knife in her hand. She then snaps and says she's going to kill Mei, prompting Mei to run up the steps as more of the ceiling collapse, separating her from Kouichi and Izumi. In Episode 12 , Kouichi and a few other survivors run out of the burning building.

However, he runs back into the burning building to search for Mei once he realizes she's missing. He runs up the stairs and discovers that Izumi has cornered Mei on the other side of the floor. As Izumi attempts to kill Mei, Kouichi manages to stop her in time. The entire platform collapses causing them to fall to the bottom floor. When Izumi finally gets a hold of Mei, she attempts to kill her but is stopped by Kouichi, but at that moment, lightning strikes.

The lightning shatters the hall's giant window, and large glass shards are sent flying towards them. Izumi ends up being skewered against the wall by the glass shards. Kouichi is shocked, he runs and removes her from the wall. Mei disappears as Izumi tells Kouichi about her memory of their meeting before she dies. Kouichi then calls Mei's cell phone trying to locate her amongst the rubble of the decimated building. She tells him that she is in the backyard and that he shouldn't come saying that he'll regret it.

Kouichi goes to her anyway, ignoring her warning. He finds her with a pickaxe next to a fallen tree and hears sounds coming from underneath. He tries to help the person underneath only for Mei to stop him.

The person struggles under the fallen pile of lumber and it is revealed to be Mikami-Sensei , Kouichi's aunt Reiko Mikami. Mei then reveals that Ms. Mikami as the deceased person. Kouichi is in disbelief, but Mei explains that she remembers witnessing Ms. Mikami being assaulted and thrown in the river, resulting in her drowning, one and a half years ago. She also points out that their class was the only one to have an Assistant Homeroom teacher and that they actually had the correct amount of seats this year and the missing seat actually being in the faculty room.

Mei's explanation causes him to finally believe her and he decides to send Reiko back to death himself. They are later seen at the Mikami family grave together on a sunny, warm day.

The grave lists both Ritsuko, Kouichi's mother, and Reiko as deceased. Kouichi and Mei then talk about how they are the only ones to remember Mikami-sensei. They are also the only ones able to see her in the photo they took outside of the inn. Kouichi and Mei walk together, Kouichi asking why she doesn't answer her phone when he calls.

Mei tells him that after the incident at the inn she threw her phone into the river because she hates those devices.

She also mentions that her mother will without a doubt get her a new cell phone soon. I did, however, feel like the book dragged considerably and I grew increasingly frustrated with the main character, Koichi Sakakibara's attempt to unravel the mystery of Mei Misaki and the strange curse of Class 3 at North Yomi school. With a mother dead shortly after birth and a father away on business in India, Sakakibara has moved away from Tokyo to the little village of Yomiyama to stay with his mother's family.

He is unable to start his third year at his new school due to a genetic lung illness that forces him to miss the first few weeks. When he starts a few days into the month of May, he meets a mysterious girl name Mei Misaki and he is warned about the "North Yomi Fundamentals" - superstitions that apparently exist to prevent the occurrence of untimely accidents. Students at the school are friendly enough, but when Sakakibara tries to broach the subject of Misaki, everyone does their best to dance around the question and Sakakibara's subsequent questions about the curse of Class 3.

Then people start dying Around the time that the first death occurred, I was as frustrated as Sakakibara with the way everyone was avoiding his questions, but more frustrated with the amount of time it was taking for him to figure out the truth of his existence on his own. I admit, I was wrong in my assumption of the obvious, but I was still long bored by the amount of time it took to get to that point.

There was a lot of repetition as Sakakibara went over his own circular thoughts and the events and at times, I actually thought I was reading the same page again. Given the length of the book, I could find no reason for it to have taken that long to get to the point and move on to solving the mystery, which I assume happens in volume two. Believing this was a book based on a manga, it felt very much like descriptions were glossed over in favour of a lot of text, mostly in the form of Sakakibara's tedious thoughts.

It failed to give me any sense of mystery and, when the curse started to take effect, it wasn't very shocking.

However, upon completion I learned that I was incorrect in my assumption. The bunkobon came first and inspired the manga, followed by the anime and a live-action movie. So while I did not enjoy this book very much, I can see how it could translate into a very interesting story when powerful visuals and music can be used to create the right mood.

The idea behind the curse of Class 3 and the way everyone decided to try to fight it was interesting, once we finally got to know what it was all about. But I think I'd much rather learn more in the manga or anime, than by reading the second volume of the original novel.

Review originally published at The BiblioSanctum. View all 9 comments. Feb 06, Liza rated it really liked it Shelves: favorites , read-because-of-an-adaptation. Another is a book I went into knowing the ending. I saw the anime version a few years back when it came out. I liked it but I was meh about it at the same time. I was curious to how the book was though compared to the anime so that is why I read it in earnest. Knowing the ending though Another relies on the mystery.

What is happening in Class 3? Why do certain people not exist? Why are there deaths? Who is the causality? Going on knowing the answer, means yo 4. Going on knowing the answer, means you can pay more attention to the clues that are given for the solution to everything. Due to that, I won't go into details on that aspect. Character wise? Koichi is the typical protag and Mei is the loner weird girl in class. It is kind of interesting the anime went with a different color for her eyes.

But anyway, they're fine as characters. I felt like the anime gave a little more focus on the other members of the class as the book was heavily focused on Koichi and Mei. The anime also added a scene during the climax part that wasn't in the book, which I guess added to the action. The only thing that made me go, "Meh" for this book was the writing style. I don't know if it was the translation or the author's own style but it reads like a prose book.

I'm not even kidding, it has that prose feel to it. I'm not a huge fan of prose-y works so it was a little bit of a turn off for me but I powered through it! Anyway, that's it for this book. Despite everything it was a quick read. Also, this does have both volume 1 and 2 which I was confused about before.

And final gif for this review! Oh my God! This has been so creepy since the start. Ok, the start is frustrating. You have this kid starting last year of High School at a new school with a mystery, but NO ONE will actually tell him what is it, and when they are about too, he gets distracted and goes away. Frustrating to no end! When they finally explain you what's going on around halfway to the book things start to get far more interesting And also creepier.

I was so sure it was ghost story Well, not exactly. At least, Oh my God! At least, not the way conventional ghost work. As far as a mystery novel, it's not so good. They don't give you enough information as they should in a detective novel so that you may solve the mystery as well.

They reveal stuff at the end that should've been mentioned at the beginning so you could go back, re-read it, and tell yourself 'I'm an idiot, how did I not see that coming'. Since the info is not there, it's not really fair on the reader. But it's still a good mystery, I still didn't manage to get it right, so they get brownie points for that As far as a horror novel, it's amazing! The thing, the mystery, the whole paranormal stuff is so bloody creepy, it gets to you. Anyone can die, there's no one out there to get you, you can get involved just because and that That's scary as shit.

And as the novel goes on it just gets worse, until you reach a point were you think everything is just going down, lost. No more hope. It was good, ending was unexpected, gory, creepy. The only thing that annoys me is the while paranormal phenomenon that 'changed' records and memories.

How, just how? No explanations given. I know Japanese literature is weird, but seriously, that seems too far fetched. Still, really good novel. Good to creep you out for a while. Apr 03, Lizzy Lessard rated it really liked it Shelves: reviewed , horror , paranormal , ya.

Another was originally written in Japanese and it's obvious that this version is a translation. I felt as if I was reading a water-down version of a masterpiece. That said, this must be one of the creepiest novels I have ever read.

It has the aura of an old-school Hitchcock psychological horror blended with a modern Japanese horror such as Runju, wh Another was originally written in Japanese and it's obvious that this version is a translation.

It has the aura of an old-school Hitchcock psychological horror blended with a modern Japanese horror such as Runju, which I had to DNF cause it freaked me out so much.

There's a rawness to the story that makes me believe that a child dictated to the writer rather than the writer inventing it. There are some instances that felt put in for 'shock' value that didn't do anything for me. I think it was because Sakakibara was so emotionally distant from the other characters that it was difficult to get attached to them before they died.

The narrator's purpose isn't clear and first and by the end there are still many unanswered questions. I do think that some of the information presented in the narrative could have been left out, as it is re-explained in Sakakibara's POV. Of course there are other things present in the narrative that without being mentioned would make what happens to Sakakibara seem much less spooky. I do like the blend of the two. I feel that they both were definitely needed to tell this story.

There is a few things that happen in this book that remind me that I'm dealing with a different culture. I wish there was even more emphasis on the culture because I found it nearly as fascinated as the storyline. Even though this is a series, I felt that the ending was completely satisfactory as a standalone.

I'll probably read the next installment when it is translated. View 1 comment. Look, they go to the beach. And they dance. Just kidding, everyone dies. Wholly unsatisfying as well, due to the way it was done.

But I really might have to dock a star just because of that one reveal because oof it was real bad. But still, I enjoyed this story. The writing style is very simple and easy to read. It seems like it was an actual 15 year old writing, no distespect to the author though.

It read exactly like it should. Definitely worth a read if you fancy a horror story with an interesting twist.

Dec 05, Leviathan Libraries rated it liked it. Gracie liked this a bit better than I did. What she said about the formal tone making some people feel detached from the characters is exactly right. The quiet acceptance of things, the emphasis on unity, the formality, etc, all felt so wrong to me.

One of the things I did like was that questions were so clearly answered. I can see how people would like it. Jun 28, Anjali rated it it was amazing. I think its perfect for anyone who is a fan of Supernatural Thrillers. Because it is translated into English, it maybe a little hard to follow at first, but trust me, you'll get the hang of it.

Yukito Ayatsuji's style of writing makes it very easy to follow and imagine what is going on. He sets the eerie, mysterious vibe perfectly.

And the ending! The twist was the best part! Definitely would recommend! Apr 11, Stuti Rai marked it as to-read. So I guess they decided to translate it to English. It's one netgalley. I hope they accept my request. I really want to rad the novel, especially since I haven't finished either the manga or the anime. Dec 16, Katie Arnold rated it it was amazing. Simply astounding! Definitely did not see the ending coming, but it was still very satisfying and so well written. I knew it was going to be good from the very introduction, Another did not disappoint.

I can't wait to read the rest of Ayatsuji's work. Jun 19, N. Fedorak rated it did not like it. Dull and repetitive. To read, if they translate it to English :s. View all 3 comments. Oct 26, Jessica Strider rated it really liked it.