Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino

Grotesque is Natsuo Kirino's second book to be translated and published in English after Out. This is a very dark book made more so by the narrator's dispassionate delivery. The narrator is unnamed, the daughter of a Japanese mother and a Swiss father who is always aware of her differentness. And, differentness is often not good in this society (or any society). The narrator has a sister who is described having beauty that is nearly perfect and this marks her as different also.

The narrator is accepted into one of the best schools for women and Tokyo and hopes that her placement at this school will enable her to be accepted in a good college. She sees her acceptance to this school as a fresh start, but once she begins school she observes a rigid hierarchy--marked by time in the school (the school has a grammar school-like version) and students who have been in the school from the beginning are the leadership group. Beauty and great accomplishment can also help you attain status in the school and the narrator has neither, so she remains different and outside and becomes increasingly bitter.

Kirino sets the book around the murders of two prostitutes: one is a former classmate of the narrator and the other is in fact, her very beautiful sister. The story is told from the perspectives of each of the characters and even the murderer, a Chinese immigrant gets his turn to describe his background, how he came to Japan and why he killed one of the women.

This is a somewhat bleak book but the narrator draws you in with her increasingly erratic commentary and the story is fleshed out as you read the narrator's version and later read about the same event from the perspectives of her friend and sister.