If you haven’t read the book yet, go do so. It’s a great read, and even having watched the movie first I still had a great time. Just don’t click the spoiler tag below, as it quite literally is a giant spoiler.
Now for my question:
>!Near the very end of the story, Kokoro is the final one of the group left after Aki stayed past 5pm and everyone who visited the castle that day got eaten. She then has only an hour to find the magic key and get to the wishing room so she can make the wish that will save everyone, an hour to do something they failed at for a year. As she is faced with the dilemma, she thinks back on some of the things that’ve happened and were said over the past year and she realises that when the Wolf Queen said she left plenty of clues, the Wolf Queen wasn’t kidding. Pages 273-274 of that pink Penguin edition, in English.!<
>!The problem is that not even while reading the book with its slower pacing, with the potential space it has for authors to better explain things, with the ability to easily flip back and forth to check some things, not even when knowing the plot already from having watched the movie do I get what all of these clues were. Even the book brushes by this part veeeeery quickly. By myself I could come up with like 2 things, but that’s just 2. And the things Kokoro remembers… My efforts to get it is really more like grasping at straws rather than a “Oooooh, now I understand!”!<
>!”I call you all Little Red Riding Hoods, but sometimes you all seem to me more like the wolf. Is it really that hard to find it?” I guess that means something like “You act like a wolf, but you’re prey.” But that really just doesn’t sound right somehow… It implies that Little Red Riding Hoods is a red herring, not to be taken at face value but more as a symbol of victimhood. But that’s not satisfying, and while not everything in mysteries is satisfying I just can’t believe that’s gotta be it here. So it’s not a red herring, there’s meaning to it, but it’s not the right fairy tale. So what’s the quoted line meant to mean then?!<
>!”Don’t be tempted to do anything you’ve read in a story, such as calling your mum to come and rip open the wolf’s stomach and stuff it with rocks.” So the relevant fairy tale is not Little Red Riding Hood. Fair. But then what’s the point of the Wolf Queen’s nickname for the kids?!<
>!”I was thinking, too, the whole thing feels a bit fake.” IIRC, this line was by one of the kids, and how the castle setting felt unreal. I guess this was meant to hint to the group that indeed, it isn’t real: it’s a fairy tale setting. Think about fairy tales if you want to find the key.!<
>!”The way the Wolf Queen calls us all Little Red Riding Hoods.” Again, that nickname, from the wrong fairy tale. As I said, there’s gotta be a point, and this line of Rion’s that Kokoro remembers confirms there’s something very important to it. But what is it?!<
>!I choose to believe it’s not badly written, but either my own stupidity or partial incompatibility with the author’s style. But whatever it is, this does feel frustrating. I really thought I’d fully understand the mystery part of the story when reading the book, but I don’t. So, whether you have your own lines of reasoning and interpretation of how the Wolf Queen has “been giving you clues all along to help you find the key” (quote from the Wolf Queen herself), or whether you actually did get how Kokoro flashed back with those quoted lines, I need your help. It’s a great book, I really like it, it hasn’t happened before that I go buy the source material of a movie the morning after the night I watched it; and I don’t want my memory of it soured by something like this. Thank you so much in advance! <3!<
Edit: fixed the spoiler tag, just in case.
by SaragraphRedux