Link to book – The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
Rating – 5 out of 5 stars
There is one particular line that stood out for me throughout this entire story, and it was this one: “However there was one person on the island who knew that the words on the plate meant exactly what they said“. Something about it just sent fear down my spine, it worked its way under my skin in the best possible way.
This entire story was just absolutely amazing, in fact I would go so far as to say it was impeccable and one of the best books I’ve read all year.
Character wise it’s quite hard to put into words how I felt about them all throughout the story, especially since the whole point is that one of them may be the murderer… That being said, I did like the references to classic detectives, it was a nice touch!
Moving on to the rest of the book though, oh my god, it was amazing. The entire thing was so full of atmosphere, it was hard to put it down at points because I was just so caught up by it and I needed to know what would happen next. It was eerie, creepy, nerve-wracking and paranoia inducing all in one lil book.
The same with the intrigue that this book built up, I couldn’t stop reading it. I needed to know what happened, who would die next, who was the murderer. Every single page added more questions than answers and kept you on the edge, constantly wanting to know more.
The author had written such an incredibly obsessive book that you couldn’t tear yourself away from… The quality of the writing was like nothing I had read before it was absolutely top notch.
And the plot, oh wow. Now I’ve not read And Then There Were None, which I know this book is somewhat based upon, so I can’t comment on the likeness of the stories. However, I can comment on how bloody amazing the plot was, it had so many twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. Once we had the big reveal though everything clicked into place, as if the clues had been there all along. It was SO GOOD.
A few random comments too – I loved the little figures and diagrams within the book, it just added a good visualisation to the story. And, I love the idea of it being a decagon shaped house?!?!?! It just scratched some random itch in my brain that I didn’t even know existed, it was just very pleasant to think about haha.
On the whole, The Decagon House Murders was a truly impressive read, that I thoroughly enjoyed. It had everything you could ask for from a murder mystery novel. The only disappointment I have is that I probably won’t be able to reread this book as part of the enjoyment was the reveal at the end, but now I know who it is it’s taken that away…
Until next time, Em xxx
What Em's Reading 