The reveals are delightfully slow and fraught, and the tension is fantastic. This is suspense at its highest praise. I'm fully invested and all of their decisions and conflicts are so natural. It's always one close call after another, but our nameless monster always steals the show. ( )

This volume is pretty solid. Also, Naoki Urasawa's Germany is incredibly small. Literally everyone is connected. You can't go anywhere without bumping into someone who's connected to Johan in some way.

I'm glad that Tenma wasn't able to kill Johan, but I suspect he could have, if Nina hadn't stopped him. He seemed pretty focused. I'm sure it would have damaged him, though. I do wonder why Nina didn't kill Johan herself.

And yay, Lunge now knows that Johan is not a figment of Tenma's deranged imagination.

Oh, and that picture book is the freakiest thing ever. No wonder hardly anyone knows about it – I wouldn't think many people would want to read something like that to their kids. I suppose it does remind me a little of Der Struwwelpeter or Max und Moritz, but those books dealt with morality and proper behavior, and I don't see that here.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )