There are bodies everywhere in Araki\u2019s lively fiction debut: bodies in the trunks of cars, on the side of the road and, most significantly for university student Haru, hanging from the ceiling at home. As an asteroid hurtles steadily toward Earth\u2014the planet\u2019s destruction is inevitable\u2014it triggers a gamut of reactions. Haru\u2019s mother has left the family, and her distraught father has died by suicide. She dutifully arranges his body before heading off to her driving lesson with charismatic instructor Isagawa. Though they\u2019re not unmindful of the coming disaster, these two women are determined to continue their normal lives while contemplating their options. During the driving lesson, they discover a young murder victim riddled with stab wounds. Isagawa\u2019s righteous indignation is triggered, and since the overworked police will likely ignore the crime, she decides to investigate. It turns out she\u2019s a former police detective. Haru is inspired to assist her. Part mystery and part road trip, Araki\u2019s brisk novel rests on a cushion of banter between the two women. Despite its dark premise, it\u2019s surprisingly entertaining. Araki stylishly depicts the duo\u2019s blossoming friendship, their shared fervor to untangle a complex mystery, and the growing confidence reflected in Haru\u2019s engaging first-person narration. Simmering beneath the surface is a slyer exploration of human behavior in the face of imminent disaster.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are bodies everywhere in Araki\u2019s lively fiction debut: bodies in the trunks of cars, on the side of the road and, most significantly for university student Haru, hanging from the ceiling at home. As an asteroid hurtles steadily toward Earth\u2014the planet\u2019s destruction is inevitable\u2014it triggers a gamut of reactions. Haru\u2019s mother has left the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}