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Villain

by Shūichi Yoshida, 吉田修一, Philip Gabriel (Translator)

3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 · rating details · 436 ratings · 87 reviews

A young insurance saleswoman is found strangled at Mitsuse Pass. Her family and friends are shocked and terrified. The pass—which tunnels through a mountainous region of southern Japan—has an eerie history: a hideout for robbers, murderers, and ghostly creatures lurking at night.

Soon afterward, a young construction worker becomes the primary suspect. As the investigation u...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published August 3rd 2010 by Pantheon (first published April 6th 2007)

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Community Reviews

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Nov 26, 2010 Joel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, 52-in-2010, crime-time, japan, library-books, translated

You may have seen Villain touted as "the next Stieg Larsson." Never mind that Steig Larsson is a person and Villain is a book. Probably the people who said this meant Stieg Larsson's books. So aside from the fact that they are both translated into English and involve murder, I noted the following similarities between the two for however many chapters it took for me to get bored of writing stuff down while trying to read this kind of dull book:

- we're repeatedly told what street everything is on...more You may have seen Villain touted as "the next Stieg Larsson." Never mind that Steig Larsson is a person and Villain is a book. Probably the people who said this meant Stieg Larsson's books. So aside from the fact that they are both translated into English and involve murder, I noted the following similarities between the two for however many chapters it took for me to get bored of writing stuff down while trying to read this kind of dull book:

- we're repeatedly told what street everything is on, and about characters driving on one street and turning onto another; these kinds of details are meaningless to readers who don't live in Sweden or whatever small city in Japan this book is set in.
- Brand names are mentioned constantly (Tiffany earrings, Louis Vitton purse, Audi A6) along with associated prices; this is not nearly as blatant in Villain as we never learn what kind of cell phone everyone uses.
- whenever characters sit down for a meal, we're told what they eat and how much it cost; they eat fewer sandwiches and drink less coffee in Villain, but there is a stunning description of how the bill was split three ways after a group outing.

That's it. The only other thing in my notes was that in Villain, one? of the characters doesn't smoke, which would never happen in a Stieg Larsson novel. Eh. Maybe if I'd taken more careful notes, this review would continue to be amusing. But like I said, the book is pretty boring, so what do you expect?

So anyway, I read this like two months ago but I keep forgetting to review it, probably because it was largely forgettable. It's a really weird book. It's ostensibly a mystery story, but it tells you who the killer was pretty much right away, then it fakes you out for a while, making you think that no, maybe it wasn't him, but really, who else can it be? And what do you know: it is.

As referenced above, I kind of did read this because I saw it referred to several times as "THE NEXT STIEG LARSSON?!" (interrobang?!) Now that I have finished it, of course, I can see that reviewing it as such is ludicrous, and offers a total misreading of why The Girl Who... books are popular. I mean, yes, this one was also translated, and it's also about a grisly murder mystery, and there is some social commentary (amorality among the youth in modern Japan) and whatnot, but, and maybe I'm wrong, I don't think anyone reads Stieg Larsson for the way it delves into Swedish politics (unless readers actually like to be slightly bored and confused).

No, Stieg Larsson's books are clearly popular because of the title character; it certainly isn't their airtight plotting or, good lord, the writing. So when I pick up a book touted as "the next Stieg," I'm not looking for a sexy mystery, I'm looking for a sexy mystery with interesting characters. Villain... doesn't really have those. There's no real protagonist -- the story follows four or five people that are loosely connected to the murderer and his victim -- and though we find out a lot about each of them, they never feel developed beyond the circumstances of the plot. Which is weird because the half-baked plot seems beside the point; my impression is that the author sees this as a character study first, but aside from forcing me to spend a lot of time reading from the POV of a weak-willed sociopath, he doesn't really do anything interesting in that regard.

And from the "don't judge a book by the cover" files: while this is a neat image, there are no guns in this book, nor are there skeletons. So yeah, that doesn't really makes sense at all. Not even thematically, unless you want to get really obtuse about it ("See, it's about the way VIOLENCE is structured into the society, like a foundation or BONES if you will...").(less)

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Oct 19, 2012 Enzo Aguilar rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Me decidí a comprar esta novela porque con los autores japoneses traigo una lucha de "amor-odio".
Reseña publicada en mi blog: http://enlibertycafe.blogspot.com.es/...

No se nunca cuando voy acertar eligiendo, lo que si es cierto es que con todas las que he leido no tengo un término medio. O las destesto o las adoro. Solo hay una excepción y es, precisamente, ésta.

Me ha gustado pero me ha dejado un poco frío. Todos los personajes son similares por no decir iguales a los personajes de otras novela...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Gerald Kinro rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yoshino Ishibashi, a young insurance sales woman is found dead aat a mountain pass in Kyushu, Southern Japan. Yuichi Shimizu, a 27 year old construction worker with a troubled past becomes the prime suspect. In the meantime, Yuichi befriends Mitsuyo who like Yoshino, is lonely and wanting for love and acceptance.

In this uniquely plotted work, Yoshida creates a noir mystery where it is not the police or the authorities who solve the crime first, but the reader. In fact there is very little scene...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Robyn Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel presents a bleak picture of Japanese society today, with all the problems Western countries have experienced for years. However, it is written in a very interesting way, by revealing the murderer's identity during the course of the book,as well as describing the main characters and their alienation and loneliness, in relationships, particularly with families.
I did find myself thinking about halfway through the book, oh no, not more new characters, but it was relevant and added to the...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Sam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Natsuo Kirino and thrillers

Recommended to Sam by: like Japanese fiction

Villain was one of the books I bought with a Christmas gift voucher. I am interested in Japanese fiction translated into English, enjoying Natsuo Kirino and Haruki Murakami to name a few. So when I saw another Japanese translated work on the shelf, I jumped on it immediately.

Villain does not disappoint. It is a tightly woven thriller, linking together many disparate characters who are all somehow involved in the murder of a young lady on the creepy Mitsue Pass. It involves her friends, her (imag...more Villain was one of the books I bought with a Christmas gift voucher. I am interested in Japanese fiction translated into English, enjoying Natsuo Kirino and Haruki Murakami to name a few. So when I saw another Japanese translated work on the shelf, I jumped on it immediately.

Villain does not disappoint. It is a tightly woven thriller, linking together many disparate characters who are all somehow involved in the murder of a young lady on the creepy Mitsue Pass. It involves her friends, her (imagined) boyfriend, a boy she met on a dating website and various family members. One of these people is her murderer – but which one? Why was she killed?

As I’ve found with other Japanese thrillers, this is exquisitely detailed. We have background into the characters and their settings, which are translated very well into English by Philip Gabriel. We know of Yuichi’s past, his grandmother’s problems and the girls he’s been seeing. We also know about his car and what he’s eaten for snacks. This may sound superfluous, but it’s not. We warm to Yuichi and the other characters, simply because we know so much about them. Yoshida paints a very clear picture of each scene – so much so that you can picture the characters and the setting in detail. The blurb on the inside cover of the book states that it’s part police procedural, but in my opinion it’s definitely not! There is little police involvement, and it is all from the characters’ viewpoint.

The identity of the murderer also creeps up slowly on the reader. It’s very subtle, and I wondered how I could have missed the signs of who did it. Even more interesting, is the reasons why the murder was committed. One thing I won’t be doing is using any online dating sites any time soon! (A lot of the young characters use a particular online dating site, to try for romance in between work and family life. Is this a comment on the pressures of the Japanese youth of today, especially with the frequent use of love hotels in the narrative?) As is often the case with Japanese books, not everything is resolved but you can make a fairly educated guess as to what happens to some of the characters whose threads are left hanging.

I really enjoyed this book as it had all the elements of a great thriller – taut and exciting. The insight into the young Japanese was an added bonus. I’ll be looking forward to reading more of Shuichi Yomada’s work.
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Dec 30, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, fiction-in-translation, japanese-fiction

I have a weakness for Japanese crime novels--Matsumoto, Miyabe, Higashino--and this one, by Shuichi Yoshida, is among the best. What's wonderful is how easily, how naturally, Yoshida slips into various points of view, giving us a full picture of the culture of a contemporary small Japanese city and seaside town. The novel might be subtitled Mitsuse Pass as the treacherous mountain road, the scene of the crime, is always in the background and often visited by various characters. But perhaps the m...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Ana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hay demasiada gente como tú. En este mundo hay demasiada gente que no tiene a nadie que le importe de verdad, por eso se sienten capaces de cualquier cosa. Si no tienes nada que perder, te sientes más fuerte. Si no puedes perder nada, tampoco puedes desear nada. No echas nada en falta, y miras por encima del hombro a los demás, que sufren pérdidas, desean cosas y se sienten felices y desdichados alternativamente. Pero así somos hoy en día. Y así nos van las cosas

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Oct 24, 2010 winnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

WOW....what an AMAZING story. i'm a HUGE fan of japanese mysteries translated into english. it's been a long long time since i've read a book like "Villain" and felt the rush of a storyline that absorbs you completely. Shuichi Yoshida weaves a stellar cast of characters that leaves you entranced finding out more about how their relationships are all interwoven.

at the heart of the story is a murder of an office lady who is found at the top of a haunted tunnel pass in japan. the story develops by...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is not the book that the publisher marketed nor is it what the reviewers portrayed it as if the blurbs on the jacket are accurate representations of the write-ups. Yoshida compares poorly to Stieg Larsson. Not "everyone [in the book] has something to hide." It is not a journey into the "dark heart of Japan" unless all of Japan's crimes are committed by socially awkward men who have trouble meeting women and commit murder by accident. Poor marketing aside, this is still a difficult book to l...more This is not the book that the publisher marketed nor is it what the reviewers portrayed it as if the blurbs on the jacket are accurate representations of the write-ups. Yoshida compares poorly to Stieg Larsson. Not "everyone [in the book] has something to hide." It is not a journey into the "dark heart of Japan" unless all of Japan's crimes are committed by socially awkward men who have trouble meeting women and commit murder by accident. Poor marketing aside, this is still a difficult book to like.

The book chronicles the fallout of an accidental murder on all connected parties. Yoshida wrote a better tag line than the publishers (p. 271) with Koki observing: "a person disappearing from this world isn't like the top stone of a pyramid disappearing. It's more like one of the foundation stones at the base." The problem is that none of the stones are all that interesting. The victim, Yoshino, was initially wronged by Keigo (a rich womanizing college kid) and takes her anger out on a hapless Yuichi. Yuichi is shunned in his attempts to help and kills Yoshino in a panic. The reader is presumably supposed to question who is the real villain: Yuishi or Keigo. The police pursue Yuishi (who is guilty) but it is Keigo who shows no remorse and appears to be the more calloused individual. Socially-awkward Yuishi then meets an equally awkward girl named Mitsuyo. The sequence of events that transcends is improbable. Yuishi comes clean about the murder on about the third date, Mitsuyo remains a hopeless romantic and sticks with Yuishi (even after he kidnaps her) and the two go on the run together. Then it gets a little more ridiculous. Mitsuyo is eventually taken into police custody, but since police apparently let apprehended suspects wander around the station, Mitsuyo escapes out the window to make her way back to Yuichi. Yuichi tries to kill Mitsuyo as the police close in (she survives). After being apprehended, he confesses that he duped Mitsuyo and planned to satiate his new thirst for killing by snapping her neck. But wait careful reader, there is a twist. A few pages before "attempting" to kill Mitsuyo, Yuishi contemplated rescuing her from the station before turning himself in and claiming that Mitsuyo remained with him involuntarily. He believed that this would absolve her of any blame. Similarly, then, Yuishi's claim that he was a dark-hearted "villain" was made to direct blame away from Mitsuyo, thereby allowing her to resume a "normal" life. Yuichi, as revealed off-handedly, has a proclivity for making himself the victim. His extreme actions were undertaken in the name of dysfunctional love. My search for compelling contemporary Japanese literature hit a snag with this book.(less)

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Sep 18, 2011 Lxxo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Japanese Literature. The stories are always more gritty and realistic to a point where you can relate to almost everything.

Straight away your drawn into having to know more.

Some points the book did go a little slow but it was only because I was on edge of wanting to know what would happen next to these characters. Some seedy, some normal, a mix of everyone that adds a great difference.

Please dont read this next bit if you haaaaaate spoilers. I reveal a little bit.

(view spoiler)...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Marija S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: solid-read

There is a bit of false advertising regarding this book - Villain is no mystery 'whodunnit' novel. The fact of the crime is not the pivotal moment here, but rather a center of a web that connects perfect strangers and, just like revelation of identity of the perpetrator (which becomes apparent very early on, without any attempt at hiding it), really does not have a classical place in the usual exposition-climax-resolution plot line. Therefore, the narration is not linear, it goes back and forth...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Mark Staniforth rated it 4 of 5 stars

'Villain' is a super-modern Japanese thriller set in a desolate landscape of love hotels and lighthouses. It's about loneliness and passion in an utterly soulless environment. Its prose is stripped back and at times almost perfunctory. The plot - ostensibly, the murder of a young girl and the subsequent hunt for and travails of its perpetrator - slides along and is lent zest by flashbacks and constantly changing narrative perspectives. There's a slight dip in the middle when, briefly, it's hard...more

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Oct 17, 2011 David Haws rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese-fiction

Shelby Foote noted a nearly universal desire on the part of young, white, southern boys from his generation: to be at Seminary Ridge before the flags were unfurled—and somehow exact a different ending than what inevitably followed Pickett’s Charge. In the beginning of a new relationship, we all hold onto a similar, grim belief that somehow with us, this time, things will end differently. Villain explores the gap between what we want in our relationships, and what we get.

As a species, we are bas...more Shelby Foote noted a nearly universal desire on the part of young, white, southern boys from his generation: to be at Seminary Ridge before the flags were unfurled—and somehow exact a different ending than what inevitably followed Pickett’s Charge. In the beginning of a new relationship, we all hold onto a similar, grim belief that somehow with us, this time, things will end differently. Villain explores the gap between what we want in our relationships, and what we get.

As a species, we are basically a loose collection of individual egos. Other species are as well, but our level of self-awareness makes this species-life isolation, at times, unbearable. We form families so we don’t have to be alone. When we’re not in a family, or when the family we’re in fails to abate our loneliness, it’s hard to care about much of anything else. Even though we know that family and friendship connections will all, inevitably, evaporate (if only at death) we look for connections, and our optimism is often boundless.

But the novel is heavy-handed. Yoshida’s use of imagery (like the crow pecking at a sack of garbage) to relate unrelated-but-contiguous sections of the narrative, became annoying. The writing is overly prescriptive in places, and the shifts in narrative POV seem schizophrenic. There’s not much in Villain, other than the story (although I did like way Yoshida introduced different kinds of Japanese foods, and I found myself Googling to see what they were).

When I read in a genre that I don’t particularly enjoy, there has to be something else to keep me going. For example, I don’t particularly care for the “murder-mystery” genre, but I love Raymond Chandler because there is always something extra in the language. The automotive industry calls this a “hidden delight,” like the un-advertised cargo-netting in the Ford Taurus (prospective buyers would open the trunk, see the cargo-netting, think how cool it was, and buy the car). Villain doesn’t have any “hidden delights,” and I’m wondering if the title might have been mistranslated into English; maybe “Villains” would be more appropriate. When you’re clinging to the hope of an impossible rescue (it seems like most of the characters are) failure makes everyone seem a villain.
(less)

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Sep 09, 2010 Nicola Joy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This slow paced crime novel from award winning Japanese author Shuichi Yoshida, is told in a series of flashbacks from a variety of characters. It begins with the arrest of Yuichi Shimizu, a construction worker, for the murder of Yoshino Ishibashi, a woman he had been dating. Initially, we may wonder about Yuichi's guilt, but as we delve deeper we begin to understand that this novel is less about who killed Yoshino Ishibashi and more about why. Yoshida sharply surveys the psychological profile o...more

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Jan 26, 2011 MrsMalone_emmie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I decided to read this book because it was reviewed in the New Yorker and it had enjoyed nice comments. However, I have to say this won't deserve to be introduced such highly, especially when the translation fails to convey fully the voice of the original.
I'm a native speaker of Japanese and I used to live in the very area which the story takes place.
There are many kind of dialects spoken in that area and the original novel skillfully let each character tell stories with their own language. Th...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Gabbo rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's easy to see why this book has won several awards for Japanese fiction and was recently made into a movie.

It touches upon a popular theme in literature and film: how diverse lives converge because of a single event. In this novel it's the murder of Yoshino Ishibashi, a young woman who sets up online dates and then charges the men she meets for her favors. Two suspects soon emerge and author Shuichi Yoshida skillfully keeps us guessing about which is guilty.

One of the suspects is a callous ma...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Yas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese, 2011-favourites, absolute-favourite, authors-i-cherish, contemporary-lit, crime-fiction, i-own, suspense-mystery-or-thriller

WOW!

Not sure where to start with this really apart from to just totally and completely emphasise how bloody brilliant this book was. This just confirmed for me even more my total adoration for Japanese Literature. Why I like the genre so much isn't so easy to explain. Most, aside from Ishiguro because he writes in a much more British style, write fairly simply, not using excessively brilliant or flowery language and therefore would not, I do not think, win prizes for the actual writing becau...more

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May 11, 2012 Olduvai rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-and-mystery, in-translation, library, 2012

So the first couple of pages of Villain don’t exactly make you want to jump into the fray. Because it reads like a rather boring travel guide, written by somebody who is rather into transportation and roads. You can know all you need to know about the tolls for vehicles between Nagasaki and Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Hakata.

I went along with it, and then comes the trigger. The last paragraph (of the first section) tells the reader of an arrest, of a crime, essentially spelling it out for you.

And that...more So the first couple of pages of Villain don’t exactly make you want to jump into the fray. Because it reads like a rather boring travel guide, written by somebody who is rather into transportation and roads. You can know all you need to know about the tolls for vehicles between Nagasaki and Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Hakata.

I went along with it, and then comes the trigger. The last paragraph (of the first section) tells the reader of an arrest, of a crime, essentially spelling it out for you.

And that’s the thing I realise about Japanese crime fiction, at least the three that I have read so far (Out, The Devotion of Suspect X). That it is not about the mystery, it’s not technically a whodunnit, because you already know whodidit. Because it’s right there in your face, in the first few sections, the first few pages even. These books are more about the ‘why’, and the effect the murders have – on the murderers themselves, the victim’s family and friends, the other suspects.

Villain, by Shuichi Yoshida, brings out a different part of Japan, one of love hotels and online dating, and ageing seaside villages full of elderly residents. It is a quite ugly, rather lonely view of Japan.

“The scenery flowing past changed, but they never seemed to get anywhere. When the interstate ended, it connected up with the prefectural highway, and past that were city and local roads. Mitsuyo had a road atlas spread out on the dashboard. She flipped through the maps and saw that the highways and roads were all color-coded. Interstates were orange, prefectural highways were green, local roads were blue, and smaller roads were white. The countless roads were a net, a web that had caught them and the car they were in.”

Told from multiple viewpoints especially towards the end of the book, Villain shines when the focus is on the victim’s father, who struggles to come to terms with his daughter’s death, and his painful realisation that he didn’t really know his child at all.

Villain was an engrossing, thought provoking read, and leaves you wondering, who – or perhaps what – is the real ‘villain’ here.(less)

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Aug 03, 2011 Sharonm rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not completely sure about this. If it were a movie it would be one of those moody, dark, enigmatic films. As a book, I ended up unsure of what it was really about. On the surface, there is a murder and two suspects. At times it seemed a bit distant, but I think that might be because it was a Japanese author and setting. After I got used to the more austere style, I was captured and enjoyed the way the author portrayed the dueling dual nature of people...some good, some bad. The author showed...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: translated-fiction, novels

Crime novels are often the best kind of fiction for illuminating a society, and I've certainly found that to be the case with the Japanese crime fiction I've read. They really highlight some of the aspects of Japan that are so completely different from life in America. In this first of Yoshida's books to be translated into English, a sense of isolation and oppression hangs heavily over many of the characters, both young and old, and the overall effect is a portrait of a stifling society at odds...more Crime novels are often the best kind of fiction for illuminating a society, and I've certainly found that to be the case with the Japanese crime fiction I've read. They really highlight some of the aspects of Japan that are so completely different from life in America. In this first of Yoshida's books to be translated into English, a sense of isolation and oppression hangs heavily over many of the characters, both young and old, and the overall effect is a portrait of a stifling society at odds with itself.

The story concerns the killing of a young inurance saleswoman along an isolated mountain road, and the people affected by her murder. Moving back and forth in time, we meet the victim and her workmates on the night of the killing, two men she had been involved with and their friends, her parents, the grandparents of a another character, and a few others. The cast of construction workers, insurance saleswomen, store assistants, barbers, and poor retirees is almost a neorealist slice of modern Japan, showing the decided unglamorous side of the country. Through their eyes and voices, the book shifts between the past and present, slowly building a complete picture of victim and perpetrator.

The author is not really concerned with the question of whodunnit, so much as whydunnit. There's only the merest nod to genre convention in terms of keeping the reader guessing as to who the killer is. The book is about the psychology behind the murder and conflence of influences that led to the act. One thing that's kind of nice about it is that it avoids both the familiar big city setting, as well as the really rural areas, instead finding a place of desperation among the medium towns, small cities, highways, and shabby love hotels of sourthernmost Japan. Desperation is probably the key to the novel, as so many of the characters are trying to escape the mundane routines they are stuck in, while the larger society sits ready to judge each and every one of them. It doesn't really work as a traditional crime novel, but as a portrait of modern Japan its well worth reading.

Note: The cover has a really arresting design, but it's kind of an odd and misleading one, since there's no sign or mention of a gun in the story, nor are any bones involved in any way. Doesn't really capture the tone of the story at all.(less)

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Jun 18, 2011 Miko Suzahiru rated it 4 of 5 stars

A murder mystery that isn't that simple. It made my exploration for Japanese literature more enjoyable (and a little more appreciation for my job). Shuichi Yoshida makes reader/character relationship a high priority as you form definite opinions about each and every charcter, no matter how big their part is. This book allows you to get in touch with your emotions as the mystery progresses. Who is the real "villian" in all this? Especially in the end when everything is revealed. Once again, I had...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, crime-fiction, international-and-translation, japan

Modern life can be, often is, painfully isolating and disconnected. This is a story about those sorts of isolated lives and the unexpected threads that connect them. As Yoshino's father, crazed with grief, says near the end of the book, disconnection, not caring, is poisonous and inhuman. Human connection is messy and confusing and unimaginably painful, but the lack of it is worse; the lack of it makes us monsters. The Japanese title can mean either a bad or wicked person or bad or wicked people...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Prashant Parekh rated it 4 of 5 stars

i did enjoy reading this story, i felt like whilst i went on, the detail in the mannerism and of yuichi felt life like and i see how well adapted to the screen the book could be.
I really appreciated the literary skill of the author and his ability to keep a very linear story multi faced sequence of events, it was direct to the reader and quite interesting like web unfold. i found myself wanting to be challenged further with enigma but it didn't deliver any unexpected twists. generally well writ...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Donald rated it 3 of 5 stars

If this is the state of modern Japan then it is a depressing place. Through the device of the the murder of an amateur prostitute by a man abandoned as a child by his mother, Yoshida shows us a Japan not of cherry blossom and bowing. The characters reveal to us venality, indifference, obsession with the cost of things, extortion, sadness, loneliness and extreme detachment from society. Stieg Larsson this is not, the novel, despite the subject matter and the depressing condition of many of the ch...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Ranger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Okay I forgot that I finished this book, it just hit me as I opened up my next read. I really enjoyed this book because it spoke to me on personal levels but from the Japanese dimension rather than the Western world in which I reside. The parallels it drew between Japanese '20 somethings' and Westerners of the same elk was quite interesting and also quite frightening at times. The saddest part is that one of the [spoiler]"villains" in the book is quite similar to me down to the type of car he dr...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, asian, review-books

I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to read VILLAIN, although the Japan Book News quote on the back of the book "... lays out a panorama of modern Japanese society, a patchwork composed of people of various classes and occupations..." really appealed. And the book most definitely did not disappoint.

Intricate, telling, tightly woven, tense and yet somehow languid and flowing, VILLAIN was an outstanding read. Not just because of the way that the identity of the murderer slowly creeps up o...more I had no idea what to expect when I sat down to read VILLAIN, although the Japan Book News quote on the back of the book "... lays out a panorama of modern Japanese society, a patchwork composed of people of various classes and occupations..." really appealed. And the book most definitely did not disappoint.

Intricate, telling, tightly woven, tense and yet somehow languid and flowing, VILLAIN was an outstanding read. Not just because of the way that the identity of the murderer slowly creeps up on you, but also because of the way the various voices of the characters grab the reader and hold your attention. I understand from a chat with a friend of mine that the original Japanese version may have used particular dialects or very individual voices for each of the characters that clearly transmits their origins / position in society. That aspect isn't as obvious in the English version, but there are still enough elements in the style to make you realise there are differences.

VILLAIN is not a whodunnit nor is it a book about justice, revenge or resolution. It's more about the life choices that can quickly turn one person into a victim and another into a murderer. It's also a rather telling look at a lot of aspects of Japanese society - pressure on the young to conform, and how so many of those societal "norms" result in a quiet sort of despair - a longing for connection. It also shows how the stratas of society impact that. There are aspects of the life of the elderly which are held up to scrutiny as well - ultimately this is not a book which pulls much in the way of punches as it looks at the lives of most of the characters.

Whilst this book is definitely a thriller, it's a slow burning, dark and quite moving. The action is pushed along in a series of chapters told in the different voices of the characters, frequently in differing timeframes as the reader is taken backwards and forwards before the death of Yoshino and after. Yoshino, a young woman strangely lost somewhere between her daytime job as an insurance saleswoman and her night-time activities which veer closely towards a sort of casual prostitution, but always with this clanging sense of a search for love, acceptance, connection. Her background of loving, albeit marginalised parents, is contrasted strongly by that of the man she meets via an on-line dating service. Yuichi is a young man with much to resent in his life. Dumped by his mother into the care of his grandparents as a very young child, he now works in construction and struggles with the role of support to those now ailing grandparents. Yuichi's expression of individuality is all in his car, his love life as bleak and opportunistic as Yoshino. These two somehow seem to be destined, in other ways you can feel the tension as both of them struggle against the reality of their likely fates versus their ultimate desires.

An overwhelming reading experience that is really going to appeal to readers who like thoughtful, discomforting and quite confrontational reading, VILLAIN is one of those books that will stay with me.
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Feb 01, 2011 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, literate-mysteries

The cover of this book has an embossed representation of a gun constructed cleverly out of human bones. It is a stunning cover but has nothing to do with the story. The murder is by strangulation and the only other weapon mentioned is a wrench.

I worry when I read translations. A native Japanese language speaker commented that the various characters, who told their stories, had recognizable, regional dialects in the original and that would have been another whole level to the intricate story wove...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Lexidare rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars. On one hand, it is a pretty conventional crime sory, but on the other hand, the emotional dimensions of the story are so very unique (which may also be to say that they're very Japanese). the story starts and it's all plot and obviousness, but as the question of WHO did it gets answered, the author shifts his focus to describing the emotional worlds of the characters. the last 1/4 of the book is tremendously moving and the ending is totally, emotionally satisfying.

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Nov 02, 2012 brianna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, crime-cops-and-killers

Shuichi Yoshida is an expert at building both sympathy and suspicion for the characters in Villian, and plays an intricate game with the reader with strategic reveals and evidence. The novel is involving and I wanted to gorge myself on it as soon as I was only a few pages in. Yoshida seamlessly moves between characters, expanding his scope around the central murder victim via a game of six degrees of separation. The entire novel questions what it means to be an evil person, a villain, and ends w...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Parrish Lantern rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: j-lit, blog-post, fiction, translation, authors-tbr, favourites, library, crimethrill

This book explores the generation gap, the dichotomy between traditional and modern Japan, it asks questions about identity, culture & the impact of technology on our lives. This tale is less about villains, than it is about alienation in modern Japan, less about the murder, than it is about than the search for companionship, whether that’s some fumbled tryst in a love hotel or something deeper. Again, yes there’s a murder and it’s a centre, a black hole around which everything turns, yes t...more

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“Out there was a man who had murdered his daughter. And another who had stepped on her heart. His hatred should be aimed at the one who killed her, but all he could picture was Yoshino being literally kicked out of that car.” — 6 people liked it

“Kazuko was worried about him, calling him a hikikomori, a self-imposed shut-in.” — 4 people liked it

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