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yoz0ra

Yoz0ra Reads

I'm a college student. Manga, Light Novels, etc.

SPOILER ALERT!
Masquerade and the Nameless Women - Eiji Mikage

 

I don't often read mystery stories, but I decided to do something different and chose to read this book for a change of pace. And also the cover looks beautiful.

 

The story follows Yuri, the narrator of the book, solving the murder of her former classmate from high school, Reina, and the mystery of the serial killer's identity. Unlike most mystery stories, the readers already know who the serial killer is since his name is on the blurb on the book's back and is at the beginning (It's Higano). The real question the story is asking readers is if the serial killer is responsible for Reina's murder, and what is the truth?

 

The story was fast-paced and unpredictable. Every few chapters in the story, there are twists and more twists. However, most of these twists cause the story to become convoluted and hard to keep track of what is going on in the story. Fortunately, the very end (which actually takes place before the prologue of the story) clears most of the stuff up and explains why certain characters perform certain actions. But, the way it was handled is not great. It was just two characters, the killer and his victim, info-dumping to each other. There was so much information being dropped in the last section, I had a difficult time digesting the entire thing in my mind.

 

The characters were alright at best and forgettable at worst. The main character, Yuri, is the audience surrogate, but she is too bland, in my opinion. The character that stands out the most is Higano. Whenever he always steals the spotlight whenever he appears in the book. Especially when he talks about coffee and waxes philosophically about the meaning of truth.  

 

The book is not "put everything down and read it immediately" type of book. It's an entertaining book, but it's a quick book to read if you want to finish up a reading challenge.       

(show spoiler)