I thought that this book was absolutely beautiful. Swaying back & forth between 4 & 5 out of 5 stars, I finally settled for the highest grade. It’s an extremely short & 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 & 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 & every Japanese author that I read), the majority of the events being set in our regular world, with other bits & 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 & only start cherishing it after that or how you can show up at a police department, with your hands tied up, bleeding & 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 & 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 & 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)