Flicking through the stories of this book, my eyes dried and mind reeling, I was left speechless once I closed it shut for the final time.
I read quite a bit. A recent read being ‘Goth’ by author Otsuichi. The novel itself is actually a collection of short novelettes translated into English from the original Japanese by Jocelyn Allen that all follow the same protagonists: Two high school students that become enthralled with a number of different murders and crimes that populate their prefecture of Japan over a period of time.
Morino is one of these students, a young girl described as having incredibly long black hair who consistently wears black. In the Afterwords towards the end of my edition, Otsuichi says that Morino’s character randomly inspired the title of the book because of the way she dresses.
The next student goes unnamed. All that Otsuichi reveals to a reader about him is that he is a classmate of Morino’s who lives a life of duality. To his classmates and family, he is extroverted and bright. To himself and Morino, he is lifeless and fascinated with murder.
Most of these short stories are narrated to us by a student who remains nameless to us until one of the final stories.
To begin telling you why this novel was so enthralling, I had to introduce you to these characters. Because, despite following different crimes throughout each story, we still see a continuing development of both characters and how they are simultaneously similar while also wildly different. They both live lives of utter duality, though for different reasons. This underlying backstory changes the perception of both characters and how they act.
The story ‘Voice’ is amazing at demonstrating Otsuichi’s talent for characterisation. In this story, we not only follow our protagonists, but also the sibling of a murdered girl. Their relationship is pivotal to the story and Otsuichi develops it in such an enthralling way through twists and clues that push you in the wrong direction only to pull you back on track.
In fact, Otsuichi seems to love adding plot twists to his stories. He’s good at it too, the most notable stories being those that convince a reader of one thing whilst in actuality, it is something else that we slowly begin to notice for ourselves. This level of mystery and investigation on a reader’s part felt intrinsic to the stories themselves. Like crime fiction, the detectives investigate. Only here, the detectives are two bored high school students and the reader following their journey.
I did feel that at parts, certain topics were romanticised, particularly suicide. There is an element of the fascination tied with Morino’s own harmful thoughts and actions that feels like it trivialises such topics. But, I think it’s a strange double-edged sword; suicide is romanticised not for shock value, but because this is from the narrator’s point of view. A narrator fascinated with death that brinks on the edge of being homicidal. While it made me uncomfortable, I understand why it was there as a question of moral and whether what these two students do is morally good or bad.
Because, sure, they solve crime but without telling the police. They do it only because of their love for death and violence that they themselves fantasise about. This is for them, to satisfy themselves.
Photo by Shannon Daniel
Overall, ‘Goth’ is an intricately disturbing and explicit dive into morals and crime that lets us question and deduce through a narrator’s point of view without outright giving us the answers. It is shockingly beautiful in its writing that melds both the crime fiction and horror genre together. It focuses on the real through a hyperbolic lens that reminds us how scary people can be.
Rating: 4/5
Favourite Stories: Dog, Grave, Voice