I thought that this book was absolutely beautiful. Swaying back and forth between 4 and 5 out of 5 stars, I finally settled for the highest grade. It’s an extremely short and easy read, but nevertheless executed perfectly by the author. I loved the way it was structured with short chapters that made you want to read on and on. Besides that, you were instantly drawn into the story, wanting to finish it as fast as possible to know which ending was attributed to it.

It reminded me a bit of Murakami’s style (even though I hope I won’t be saying that about each and every Japanese author that I read), the majority of the events being set in our regular world, with other bits and details coming as if from a parallel universe, such as blood-sucking vampires as characters within the story.

The main ideas of the story unfold in a subtle way, illustrating critique on the made-up rules of our society from different angles: How you only understand the value of life when you literally put it on sale and only start cherishing it after that or how you can show up at a police department, with your hands tied up, bleeding and barely having escaped death, but how instead of being helped, you will still be critiqued for not having a fixed home address or a family, wife and children to care for.

To sum it up, I’d say that the author clearly demonstrates his talent by dealing with such dark subjects like death and suicide but still managing to keep a sense of humour within the story-telling, as well as leaving you in a good mood after reading it. It has definitely motivated me to check out other books by Yukio Mishima, which is the ultimate success for a story in my opinion.

★★★★★ (5/5)