しばらく前のことですが，ミステリー好きの友達が貸してくれた本の題名に衝撃を受けました。秋吉理香子著「暗黒女子」です。「暗黒」という言葉と「女子」という言葉の組み合わせにこんなにワクワクするのはなぜでしょう。それぞれが想起させるイメージのギャップとともに，その二つが組み合わさった結果の熟語としての不穏さ，得体の知れなさに底知れぬ闇の深さを感じるからでしょうか。この本をきっかけに「イヤミス」という言葉を知りました。イヤミスとは「いやな気持ちにさせるミステリー」という意味の言葉だそうです。
I was amazed by the title of a book which one of my best friends who love mysteries lent me a while ago. The book was “Ankoku Joshi” written by Akiyoshi Rikako. I wonder why the combination of these words “Ankoku”and “Joshi” makes me so excited. That may be due to the gap between the images of the two words, or the unrest air and unforeseeable, profound darkness as a result of the combination of the two words. I happened to know a word “iyamisu” through the experience of reading this book. I heard Iyamisu means mysteries that you would finish reading being disgusted.
「暗黒女子」の舞台はとある名門女子高です。ある日，校内の文学サークルの会長，白石いつみが謎の死を遂げます。彼女の死後に開かれた文学サークルの定例会のテーマは「前会長・白石いつみの死」でした。定例会恒例の闇鍋をつつきながら，部員一人一人が自作小説の形式で前会長の死のてんまつを語っていくのですが・・・。期待を裏切ることなく，思い切りいやな読後感の本でした。
The setting of the story is on a prestigious girls’ high school. One day, the head of the literature circle in the school, Shiraishi Itsumi, dies a mysterious death. After that, a regular meeting of the circle takes place and the theme of it is “the cause of the death of the late head, Shiraishi Itsumi ”. Having “Yaminabe” which is a kind of hodge podge stew prepared with ingredients contributed by each member of a party, which for fun is eaten with the lights off, every member tells her own story about the death of the late head……. The book didn’t betray my expectation so I could finish reading it with a deep feeling of displeasure.
イヤミスの代表的な作家としてよく挙げられるのは湊かなえさんのようです。湊かなえさんの本は「告白」をはじめ数冊読んでいますが，たしかにイヤミスと呼ぶにふさわしい作品ばかりと納得しました。先日，友達はまた別の本を貸してくれました。真梨幸子著「イヤミス短編集」です。タイトルですでに身構えてしまうからか，読後感はさほどでないものの，一つ一つの物語の設定，背景，人物の性格付けが秀逸でした。
It is often said that Minato Kanae is a leading writer of iyamisu. I’ve read her some works, for example “Kokuhaku”, and I’m now convinced that her works definitely deserves to be called iyamisu. The friend lent me another book the other day and it was “a short story collection of Iyamisu” written by Mari Yukiko. Maybe because of the title, I expected so much of the result that I wasn’t impressed with the endings very much, but I thought the author had succeeded in setting the situations and the backgrounds, and also in giving life to the characters.
