The Ties of Shooting Stars, it was nice to read a book for the first time in a while

Since reading an Adler book last year, I haven't read much at all, and I don't think I've been able to properly read a novel in over two years.

I borrowed 'The Ties of Shooting Stars' from my mom, who is an Arashi fan, about a year ago, but I never got around to reading it. But, I finally managed to read it. Once I started, it was so interesting that I read it all in one go!

⭐︎Spoilers below⭐︎ My thoughts!

I cried within the first 20 pages or so. It was the part where the eldest brother, Koichi, thinking of his younger sister Shizuna, says, 'Shizuna doesn't know yet, so I want to at least let her sleep until tomorrow.' It's so heartbreaking that little Shizuna is sleeping without knowing anything. Even just thinking about how he has to tell her the truth eventually, and how he has to figure out how to break it to her, makes me feel so hopeless... it's just too painful. I really empathized with Koichi when he thought, it's more painful to imagine how sad Shizuna will be when she finds out the truth than it was for me when I first learned it myself and it made me cry.

In the scenes where they are committing fraud later on, the methods were so clever that I was impressed. Haha. I wonder if Keigo Higashino did a lot of research on fraud techniques.

Also, I was able to understand Koichi's values in committing fraud without hesitation, and I thought there might really be con artists who think that way. I had never deeply imagined the feelings of a con artist before, so I thought, an author who can depict the values of a con artist so realistically is amazing.

Even though Shizuna truly likes Togami, she has to play a fictional character in front of him, and I felt so sad imagining the emptiness she must feel when talking about a completely fake friendship. It's sad to think that Togami doesn't know the real Shizuna at all and is falling for a fake version of her, isn't it?

Shizuna suppresses her true feelings and it just gets more and more painful for her 🥲 I thought she might have a mental breakdown, and when she finally snapped near the end, it made sense. Like when she shouted, 'That's not my name!'

The scene where she visited Togami's house was also painful. Togami's mother really liked Shizuna and gave her an expensive perfume, and the scene where Shizuna looks down to hold back her tears... I almost cried too. I felt the guilt of being treated warmly by someone you are planning to trap. Also, I felt sad thinking, how happy she would have been if this were a real relationship and not a lie....

I couldn't imagine how the plot would unfold, and I was surprised. Togami's actions after learning the truth were especially beyond my expectations. I felt confused about who the culprit was, and I liked being kept on my toes.

Regarding Togami, even if children aren't responsible for their parents, I was a little curious about how he grew up to be such a straightforward person despite his father being someone who committed such a grave crime. So, the final development made sense to me.

The first thing I thought about the culprit's end was that I was worried the police would suspect Koichi did it out of a grudge if it ended that way. Also, I didn't expect them to jump off so easily. I don't know the culprit's psychology, but perhaps after thinking many times about whether they should end it, when everything was finally exposed, they just thought, 'Let's really end it here...' They committed a grave crime and maybe there's no room for sympathy, but I couldn't help but think it was a sad life.

There is a scene where the police say, 'The child didn't survive because it was dirty money, it was divine retribution,' and Koichi looks uncomfortable and tells them not to say that. I felt uncomfortable too. I don't know if it's for the same reason as Koichi, but I thought it was rude to the child because the child is innocent, and the child's life has nothing to do with the parent trying to save them with dirty money. But in the scene after that, when Taisuke said the same thing, I thought, 'Taisuke is still young...' Haha. I understand thinking that you can't be happy without atoning for your sins if you put yourself in their shoes, but to so easily think that a child's death was divine retribution... it felt like his values were still forming.

I was surprised at how perfect the flow was at the end, where Togami buys the ring he was supposed to buy while being deceived, uses it as a reason to lend money to Koichi and the others, and at the same time uses that ring to confess to Shizuna. It's truly amazing. I can't believe the fake luxury ring that appeared at the beginning came back as an important item at the end. I had completely forgotten about the ring. Haha.

Summary

Reading for the first time in a while was really fun! I want to read more interesting books. I like happy endings, so I'd like stories like that. Some of the books I read before didn't have endings I liked, and I felt a bit unsatisfied after reading them, so I'm a little cautious when reading new books. Haha. But I want to try reading again✨