Thoughts after reading Keigo Higashino’s “Journey Under the Midnight Sun”

Journey Under the Midnight Sun
by Keigo Higashino

I started reading physical books back in 2022, and Keigo Higashino's "Devotion of Suspect X" was one of the first books that I read. Ever since then, I've been quite a big fan of Keigo Higashino. After reading this book, I'm having trouble choosing which one is my favorite: is it "Journey Under the Midnight Sun" or is it "The Miracles of the Namiya General Store"? Both are so good for different reasons.

For the last six months or so, I'd been in a reader's block, unable to finish even the shortest book within a week or so. I started this on December the 9th, and till the 22nd, I only read till page 300, then it hit me how good the book was. I flew through the rest of the book; had I had no work, I would've finished it within a day. My reader's block is finally gone, and I'm glad it's because of this book.

From the cover:
"When a man is found murdered in an abandoned building in Osaka in 1973, unflappable detective Sasagaki is assigned to the case. He begins to piece together the connection of two young people who are inextricably linked to the crime: the dark, taciturn son of the victim and the unexpectedly captivating daughter of the main suspect. Over the next twenty years, we follow their lives as Sasagaki pursues the case—which remains unsolved—to the point of obsession."

What I want to praise first is how detailed the book is. From the very beginning, there are lots and lots of hits. Hats off to Keigo Higashino for writing such a long yet very well-connected story.

The story of this book is told in the span of 20 years, with lots of characters and sub-stories. As I said before, everything in this book is well connected, and this goes for almost every single sentence of this book. If you remember what was in the room of Ryo when the detectives first met him, you will be able to guess some aspects of this book. You will be reading one chapter that will feel normal until you start reading the next and suddenly notice a line that connects the incident with the previous one, and you get hit with a realization of what was happening. Which was such an awesome experience; you feel a part of the journey, like you are with the characters, and you want to unravel the mystery while still trying to understand how things happened.

There are lots of characters in this book; the ones that stand out are definitely Yukiho, as she's the main character; Ryo, Kazunary, and detective Sasagi. The side characters are also developed well. You feel satisfied with how things work; the interconnected lives make this book much more complex and a great experience. You find yourself rooting for some characters while despising some; you feel really bad for some while hating others. It's such a well-blended combination between the two that makes this book much more praiseworthy.

This book isn't a detective mystery, but rather it's more of a psychological thriller, a good blend of detective and personal stories with mysterious events that follow Yukiho, how misery falls upon people who even try to come close to her life, how her character seems so innocent, so beautiful, and yet it is only misery and harshness that follows to the ones who are close to her. From the very beginning, you could guess that there's something with this character; it isn't hard to notice and connect the dots, but at the same time, you cannot pinpoint how she turned out like this or why she acts like an angel but is a devil in disguise. Unraveling this while reading the book felt good; it was not only entertaining but also nerve-racking to some extent.

This book is dark and gritty. The topics are for more mature audiences; this book delves heavily into sex and trauma. This is one of the, if not the main, themes of the book, so if you are thinking of starting this book, keep that in mind. I believe the book handled this theme well. It all makes sense how characters react and how they engage in sexual activities, which I will talk more about in the spoiler section.

There was one thing that I honestly kind of struggled with, and that was characters. The thing is, this book is pretty long, around 560 pages, and since I read it over a span of multiple weeks, I kept mixing names; sometimes I would just mix one name with another, only to find out that that name belongs to a new character. This problem was due to my laziness, so I won't blame the book on this one.

The latter part of this review contains spoilers:

After finishing the book, I noticed the ending was left open-ended, and frankly that suits this book perfectly. Now you may ask how. Once I finished the book, I went online to check others' opinions about the book and the ending, and there was one theory that I agreed with. which is that when Yukiho goes up the stairs after the death of Ryo, instead of taking her life or realizing she lost someone, she feels nothing, and her slowly getting upstairs resembles her slipping away from the hands of Sasagi. Which, in my opinion, fits the book so well.

The theme of sex and trauma plays a huge part in this book. Yukiho and Ryo are both unable to engage in sexual activities; both are unable to get it done due to their past trauma. The incident that happened with Yukiho made her unable to get wet, and the reason why Ryo couldn't come was that he had to do it with a deceased person to save his friend while they were still in middle school. Which honestly makes so much more sense.

About the characters, mainly Ryo and Yukiho, while they tried to leave their bad past behind and tried to climb up the ladder of social mobility, they lost their humanity. By the end of the book, they were a way bigger threat than what had happened to them while they were children. By the end of the book, despite getting actual information about Yukiho's past, I felt bad for her, but the crimes she committed were way worse. Sure, what happened to her was horrible, but using that to justify her deeds doesn't work, especially after what she did with Eriko, Mika, and Reiko, which was enough to make her irredeemable. In the end, all she became was a master manipulator and a cold-hearted person who had no place for emotions, just a facade of innocence with unparalleled beauty.

If anything, I felt bad for Ryo to some extent; his character felt like he was used by Yukiho more than anything. It felt like he deeply felt bad for Yukiho, and he had to help her no matter what; while he was doing that, Yukiho simply used him to remove her rivals and enemies.

There's so much more I want to talk about, but I'm unable to do so; this book was simply fabulous. Definitely my most or second-most favorite Keigo Higashino book out there. Would highly recommend reading this book.