College has started up for Mr. No Name, and things are dandy as peach cobbler. He’s living on his own, he’s turning in his homework, and he’s hanging out with friends, and then one of them gets murdered. And I’d heard how much of a nightmare hazing is.
Jun Aikawa:
The genius jack-of-all-trades didn’t appreciate that she only got twenty pages to be badass in Decapitation, so she makes a return to spread her bad ass around. Admittedly, she doesn’t have a whipass moment like she did before where she solves the mystery behind the mystery, but she’s amazing enough of a character that her just munching on cheese puffs can win this book accolades.
The Doppelgänger:
One of the more agog inclusions into this novel is the character of Hitoshiki Zerozaki, a serial killer who just so happens to be the doppelgänger of Mr. No Name himself. There’s nothing supernatural about them being doppelgängers, yet there is a faint thread of the supernatural at work, with their first meeting being a Matrix knife fight.
The Mindblow:
Zerozaki is an interesting character, as is his relationship with Mr. No Name, but his addition leaves one curious, since he’s more interested in committing murders than solving them. However, at the very end, the novel pulls off the cloak on his character and reveals something so revealing about Mr. No Name and his role in the mystery that I still haven’t found all the pieces of my blown mind.
The Verdict:
This book is admittedly frustrating to talk about, because everything I love about it is a massive spoiler. I could go on and on about this book needs to be admitted into the Library of Congress, but talking about what makes its strongest points so husky is like discussing what makes the dung beetle so mighty. I refrained from calling Decapitation a work of genius, and I’m hesitant to stick that label on its sequel, but despite that, it comes pretty damn close.
