Spoilers

Pretty good but not quite as engrossing as volume 1. It was more slower paced and there didn't seem to be a whole lot of development - Light was still killing people, L was still trying to catch him out, people were still wondering WTF was going on.

I didn't find Light as interesting either. I liked that he had an agenda and purpose in the first one — he wanted to only kill criminals (for the supposed sake of justice and creating a better world) but in this one he was too high on power and he just killed anyone who got in his way even if they were innocent. I would have liked a bit more conflict or depth in his decision to kill off twelve FBI agents. His blase 'they need to be dead because I can't let them catch me' attitude was a bit cartoonish and dull. He just didn't seem all that layered or complex in this one.

L wasn't what I expected — he was cool and calm in the first volume but he turned out to be so awkward and weird. I still liked him though.

Watori was a surprise. Really? He's an old white guy? I thought he was meant to be L's young badarse sidekick but he was more like a fuddy-duddy butler. Unimpressed.

I hope Naomi (the missing FBI agent) turns out to be alive, she was smart, and it seemed like she could hold her own. Every other female character apart from her have been silly.

All in all, a decent read… Just not as interesting as the first one.

This just got a whole lot interesting.

I love the concept and I love the story. It's intelligent! I can already tell that this is my new favourite.

team kira, idc what anyone says, some people just deserve it

This just got a whole lot interesting. Also, it is getting so questionable on the part of Light now. And L. I have so many questions. This is so well written and smart.

The chess-like battle of wits between Light Yagami and L is one of the aspects of Death Note that makes it so captivating (who goes by a few names). This psychological conflict can be compared to that between Sherlock Holmes and his adversary Moriarty. Both characters are planning how to outsmart each other 10 steps ahead of time, and even when one of them appears to be in a position of power, the other manages to pull the wool over the reader's eyes.

If you haven’t read the series, you’re probably thinking “why doesn’t Light just use the Death Note to kill L then.” But that’s the beauty of the story, as the Death Note’s rules create restrictions on how Light can act.

n  You might like to check out more similar books here.n

Death Note isn't a series that will keep you on your toes. It tells you a tale, then provides you with the facts so you may draw your own conclusions.

Great!

BooktubeAThon: 3/7.

STILL TEAM L.

One of the best and darkest mangas ever written gets more complex

Ryuks is death goding really hard
So why not just create some chaos by dropping the death note into the human world, not really caring about anything, and having a great, entertaining sidekick appeal with a „Whatever“ attitude. Except for apples, vitamins are important for one's health.

The detectives
They seem to be better people than the protagonists, putting the question of how absolute absolute powers corrupts into the limelight again. That´s the most important red line of the work besides the ethical questions and investigative fun.

Lights transformation
As soon as one begins to kill for egoistic and not altruistic reasons anymore, the morality compass switches to evil. In this case, Light should have kept doing normal business by just killing criminals. On the other hand, he wouldn´t be able to crush monsters anymore if he wouldn´t protect himself from the investigators. So what´s the best ethical solution? There isn´t any, because, with an arrested Light, criminals could kill again much more people than he has to exterminate to not get caught. So what´s worth more, the life of one cop or the many lives of civilians?

Funny, deep, and entertaining, what else can one wish for
The sheer complexity of this thing is amazing. It lets the reader stop so often to think about the implications for real justice and life that it´s hard to just read without the feeling of missing some sophisticated auto mind penetration. This is one of the milestones all great future works of the subgenre will be compared with.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

4.25 stars

Again, I continue to be surprised by how quickly this is all progressing. L is figuring things out extremely quickly. Still, it’s such a great concept and the plot is really being well developed and driven forward. However, I will say this volume ended a bit abruptly.

Also, such a non-important issue, but it bugs me to no end when the text randomly is shoved close to the edge of the speech bubbles instead of centered.

4/5 Stars

In this second installment, Light Yagami has continued his plight to rid the world of crime and criminals. However, now that the American FBI is working with his homeland government, what lengths will he go to in order to hide his identity? Is Light becoming even more out of control. Tag along as this story gets even darker and more twisted as Light and his Shinigami friend travel even further down the rabbit hole.

I’m really glad that I started this series. Although it’s not quite a 5-star read for me, I’m really enjoying it so far. I can’t wait to dive into book 3.

The storyline in this second installment gets even darker than the first one (if that was possible). This is not a tale for the faint of heart. However, I love that about this series. The story is so delectably dangerous. I found myself flipping the pages to find out what was going to happen next. There are plenty of twists and turns to satisfy hungry readers. Some of them were a bit predictable, but they were executed so well, that the predictability didn’t bother me much. I also think the ability for me to predict some of the plot twists was because this series was meant for a younger adult audience. But, that didn’t stopper any of my enjoyment.

One thing that enhances the plot, like always, are the characters. I really love all the characters in this book. They’re interesting and unique, responding to the chain of events each in their own way. Light has really started to develop even more. I’m discovering just what a psychopath he really is, even if he thinks he has good intentions. I think the Shinigami is my favorite character, though. He’s so nonchalant about everything and just along for the ride. Plus, he’s uber mysterious, and that is definitely an aspect that keeps me reading. I want to know more about this mythical race.

The art remains the same, which is a good thing, since I really like the style and the way it brings the story to life. I don’t have too much to say about it other than it’s still great and enhances the reader experience.

One final thing that I’m really enjoying about this series is that so much is open for your own interpretations. There are a lot of political ideas being thrown around, but no clear cut line of who’s right and what’s wrong. I love that there are so many opinions flying around. Although I do enjoy the critique the author is trying to get across, I love that it’s subtle and told in a not-shoving-it-down-your-throat and exciting kind of way.

Overall, I recommend this book to those who liked the first book in the series. Although you might be able to jump into this series without having read the first book, I highly recommend you start and the beginning and allow yourself to become completely immersed in the storyline.

Review originally published on my Wordpress blog Dreaming Through Literature.

Review of n  Death Note, Vol. 3: Hard Runn
Review of n  Death Note, Vol. 4: Loven
Review of n  Death Note, Vol. 5: Whiteoutn
Review of n  Death Note, Vol. 6: Give-and-Taken

light is an evil genius…

(i’ll be rating this series as a whole and writing a full review once i’m done with it!!)


pre-read