氷菓

Not a masterpiece

I only read the first 3 chapters, and decided to drop it for now. The narrator is very self-oriented and a little annoying at times, and the other characters don't seem to have any depth to them. The mysteries were also underwhelming, being both contrived and not very complex.

That said, the style lends itself to speed-reading kind of like drugstore paperbacks I'm familiar with here in America, with fun wordplay and sarcasm mixed in. If I bought this book on a whim in an airport bookstore to read on a flight, I'd probably be satisfied with it. I might even pick it up in the future sometime when I'm in the mood for a slightly pulpy high school mystery.

Unpolished gemstone

Even though the book and the 5 first episodes of the anime narrate the same story (using the same words, absolutely amazing!) the fact that this was the author's first work is really evident. Many difficult words are used throughout the book, but many of them don't contribute to make the story better; on the contrary, they appear just because. Also, many of the information they consult while trying to find the truth about the incident 33 years ago are written as they are, and 99% of what they tell us is irrelevant, difficult to understand or both. I'm sure a native would just skim through them and call it a day.

I would have liked to say that this book is better than the anime, but this is one of the cases where the anime managed to give life to a book that otherwise would be pretty arid, even though the potential in the story is evident. I wonder how a reader that hasn't seen at least one episode of the anime would appreciate the book. Would they find it great? Or would they find it insufferable? I don't know.

PS: Don't let my review fool you, this is not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. It's just kinda arid.