Book Cover

Saying it's wrong to kill is an expression of an adult dream. Just a dream. A fantasy. Like Santa Claus. Something that doesn't exist in the real world, a picture of a beautiful blue sky that someone in great distress painted, after which they hid under the covers with their picture, looking at that instead of at the real world. That's how it is with most laws. They're just symbols, designed to make people feel better.

Previous Kōtarō Isaka review:

• Three Assassins

# Review

The story covers a series of events occurring on a bullet train which involves a psychopathic teenager, an unlucky hitman, and two men named after fruits. The characters are members of Japan’s underworld and the various storylines unfold as the train travels towards its destination of Morioka.

The story contains the same dark and realist portrayal of the world as the previous book, but the pacing of this book is much faster than its predecessor. There are more storylines and more action in those storylines. The characters were in a weird way endearing and somewhat relatable. The buildup of the story also has a good payoff.

The book still lacked any central themes or meaning (which is probably intentional) and there were many references to the previous book, so it’s advisable to read Three Assassins first. The book also had a visual at the beginning of each chapter which indicated which cars the story in the chapter is taking place in, which I appreciate.

# Conclusion

An action thriller taking place on a bullet train.

# Overall rating: 7.6

What does the rating mean?