In my opinion, the author’s premise and marketing strategy are brilliant, the execution, not so much. That said, I had to rate it 4 stars because I, the slow reader extraordinaire, devoured the book, making quick work of it in 11 days. In places where it became graphically descriptive, I choked a little on the details. Over all it went down smoothly, but undoubtedly will leave me with a bit of heartburn.
The story’s strong start devolved into a jumbled mess of “tell” not “show”, and the pictures lost their relevance by the end. Truthfully, the pictures alone would never have led me to solve the mystery. Luckily, I didn’t need to since it was so intricately spelled out by Uketsu. Maybe this is attributable to a loss in translation. In any event, while I find Japanese philosophy fascinating, their literature sure is awkward.
Final score: A+ for creative originality. C- for implementation. Lost in translation.
